How many minutes of ads will you watch before a movie starts?

This poll needs additional choices smaller than 5 minutes.

At the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge MA, I'm willing to watch a 1-minute Turner Classic Movies ad that they put before their features. But I'd object to anything more, and probably also to a less movie-related ad.

I voted "none" assuming this does not include previews.

I voted "none", unless it's strictly previews for upcoming features.
I just about blew my stack in a blind white rage the first time I was subjected to a car ad before a movie!:)

Sorry as bsns people theaters must run ads to make it.

Arclight does not run ads and they seem to make it. I would be willing to pay $1 more not to have to sit through all of that. The ads serve 2 purposes:

1. Ad revenue.

2. They allow people to stay and spend more at the snack bar before the movie starts.

Isn't the moviegoing experience crappy enough these days? What's next? Commercial interruptions like TV?

Re: "commercial interruptions like TV?"
I rebember, with some distaste, watching "Casino Royale" at the Alexandria in SanFrancisco back in the 60's, when suddenly near the middle of the film at the end of a reel, the film stopped, an "intermission, go to the snack bar" slide appeared, pausing the film at an unintended point to advertise the snack bar. This, nearly 40 years ago!

If a theatre or any other business wants to be successful, it needs loyal customers who enjoy patronizing it and who will recommend it to others. Showing commercials before a movie hardly seems like the way to build such loyalty.

Sorry. If it kept my theatre open, I would watch 10 minutes BUT mix crass ads for cars and booze with trivia and information about old theatres and classic movies! If you want to keep old movie theatres open, stop whining and generate the "additional revenue source." Popcorn, soft drinks and even beer and wine sales do NOT keep the doors open. Clever programmming, marketing, advertising and other revenue generators DO keep the doors open! Try having an organ concert to a silent movie even if you don't have a permanent organ! Try renting to outside groups during slow matinee periods.

My theater just started showing these ads in January - and as much as I hate them, we lost money last year, so they were a way of generating revenue. We make a real effort to start them well before the showtime so that they do not push the show length longer (plus we have always tried to use less previews than most places - 3 at most).

I have to say, people hate them, but are so used to them they hardly notice now. We always point out that our ticket prices are about 40% lower than other area theaters and this is one way to keep them low.

in the UK virtually all cinemas show up to 11mins of adverts on their main features, they also play between 2 and 4 film trailers as well as their own intro logos and dolby logos, this means you can wait around 20mins before the film starts.
People get used to this and show up late knowing they have this spare time before the film.
It brings the theatres a huge (and i mean huge) chunk of cash, dropping the adverts would mean a significant hike in ticket prices, of which around 40% would go to the distributors, and candy and drink prices would probably go up too.... you cant win

I agree with woody, here in the UK we have been used to having adverts since the old days of double bills/continuous performances in the 1940's, '50's, '60's and into the the early 1970's. Once there were just boring adverts for local Indian restaurants and dry cleaners etc. Today I actually look forward to many of the adverts shown, as they are usually made specifically for screening in cinemas and not for tv. Some are even mini-movies in themselves and they are sometimes quite graphic and some are intended for adult audiences only (screened with an 18 certified movie of course). Directors such as Ridley Scott began their careers making cinema adverts.

I also love the 3 or 4 trailers (previews to you Americans) that are part of almost every UK cinema's programme. In fact back in the days when single feature programmes were becoming the 'norm' (as opposed to the old double feature programmes), there was such a thing as a 'Full Supporting Programme' which was basically a short subject film, adverts and trailers.

weyoung;
Your experience at the Alexandria, San Francisco back in the 1960's is actually standard practice in cinemas in the Nederlands, even today! No matter what the length of a movie (it could be a Disney cartoon running time 80min), there is ALWAYS a 10-15min break in the film to allow patrons to replenish their popcorn, colas and go for a cigarette break! I have seen the break come even in the middle of a scene, the picture goes off and up come the house-lights. Everyone expects this to happen, it's always been that way!

In the US that would be highly unusual. Only the very longest films (for instance, Lawrence of Arabia) are programmed with an intermission here.

Oh, if we could only get Ridley Scott to do OUR film adverts! How about Martin Scorcese, Clint Eastwood, or even Woody Allen? Now those would be adverts that ALL might appreciate! You are right about the European and Canadian film adverts: Some can be short films! When I show epics such as Gone With the Wind, Dr. Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia, I put in the intermission as well.

Depends on the ads. I can tolerate slides, trailers, and movie-related ads (Coke, popcorn, candy, etc.). Anything more destroys the filmgoing experience for me. I don't like slides, but they're far better than any of the film or video ads that I've seen at Loews and AMC for non-movie-related products.

Ads in theatres serve to cheapen the filmgoing experience and make it more similar to watching TV at home.

I'm not a fan of commercials being shown before movies (trailers, yes- even though most tend to give away the majority of a film's plot in only a few minutes' time; commercials themselves, no) but, reading Ian M. Judge's comments, I recognize them as being a necessary evil; again, I'm not fond of them, but I understand why theatres - chains and indies - resort to showing them.

Pacific Theatres, the operator of the ArcLight and Cinerama Dome complex, does a fantastic thing in not showing commercials; the trade-off, of course, being an increase in ticket price. While most of us claim that to be a fair bargain, the fact is, a sizeable percentage would complain about the increase in the cost of admission, despite filmgoing being the best entertainment bargain around.

The fair compromise to me (again, going back to the policy of the theatre where Ian is employed, which I believe to be the Somerville Theatre, my boyhood moviegoing haunt and the place where I had my first job at the age of 10, distributing film program calendars in the Somerville and Cambridge area during the mid-'80s) is to show commercials before the announced showtime; theatre owners still gain their revenue and those of us who prefer to avoid ads win as well.

I would only tolerate ads if the ticket prices were $5 or less.

The only ads that should ever appear before the start of the film are the coming attractions for upcoming films. And even this should be limited to no more than 3 - 5 trailers, depending on length. Slideshows advertising local merchants and restaurants is ok between the performances, but not those TV-style ads that appear before the start of the trailers.

And the intermission music should be reflective of the film being shown. We used to have individual tape players for each screen and would play music appropriate to the feature. Now they pipe in a "canned radio station" to all auditoriums playing the current pop/rock/hip-hop top 40, music that does not always go with the film.
Theater management needs to be more creative in their presentations.

Change with the times or die ads are the way... Dont like them but they are a must.

On-screen ads are supposed to be a revenue generator for theatres. Ideally, with so many ads being shown prior to the start of the feature, the ticket prices should not be so high. With ticket prices close to $10.00 - $11.00 in the New York City market, this has not worked as a revenue generator.

10 minutes max, and only of previews of coming attractions, NOT commercials for some unrelated product (you see enough of those on mainstream TV!)

I prefer the ads, usually more creative than the TV ads, to the Coming Attractions" which now reveal the best gag, the biggest action scene and 99% of the entire plot line.

I hate ads, but I'll watch whatever ads they make me sit through. There really isn't any other choice if I want to see the movie.

I go to Century and their stated policy is no ads. At least that is what it says on their website. They show slide ads for local restaurants, etc., prior to the start of the movie and they show previews. Those are the only ads you should see once the screening room darkens. Once in a while, I'll go to another theater and I am instantly reminded why I just go to the Century. So I now I don't go to any other theater. Crown wanted to take away my bottled water besides making me look at ads. Century doesn't do that either.

Where is this 'Century' theatre you refer to?

I think it is a chain out of California also known as Syufy. There are now about 3-4 of them in the Chicago area. I go to the one in Evanston. http://www.centurytheaters.com/index2.html

Some of the ads they run on the screen today are what some people already avoid watching on television. I chose none at all. They should only run movie trailers, not ads for soda, which are already by the concession.

Are we really complaining about ads for soda, candy and popcorn?? With the paultry amount of money left to theatre owners after the studios take their 92%, I am amazed the theatre onwers don't have soda and popcorn offered intraveneously. It is a crime that the studios take so much and leave so little in communities but that is the cut throat, first run movie business today!

What I don't understand about ads for the concession stand is that by the time you see them, you don't have time to buy anything before the film starts. So I'm not sure what their point is.

There is a market factor called, "prepartory conditioning." You might not buy popcorn or Raisinettes THIS time but the ads hopefully stimulate you to conisder a purchase on your NEXT visit. You SMELL that popcorn, see the candy counter and remember the ad from your last visit! As as uou mentioned, this visit you do NOT sit down in the theatre until you have purchased some goodies!

I love to see advertisements in the theatres since in the early 1960s ,television in Hong Kong was only broadcasting in black and white,so I have to see colour advertisements in the air-conditioned cinemas in Hong Kong.
Raymond Lo/31th May,2005.

The last time I went to a movie we had to sit through 25 minutes of ads. It was terrible. If I had known we wouldn't have rushed to get there "on time"

The only thing nice about the ads is that if you get there late you can still see the movie. Frankly, I would rather get there late.

Lately I've noted I will shut my eyes during the previews as they are mostly for horror films.
The other night I did walk in after they'd started and caught what remained of previews for 'Rent'. Previews displayed at art-houses are intersting and I gladly focus.

Lately I've noted I will shut my eyes during the previews as they are mostly for horror films.
The other night I did walk in after they'd started and caught what remained of previews for 'Rent'. Previews displayed at art-houses are interesting and I gladly focus.

No ads, just trailers. They will always be appetizers for the movie that's coming next.