Movie Theater Chains Are Asking for Shorter Movie Trailers

Since When Would Shorter Movie Trailers Make Theater Experiences More Attractive?

Somehow, the math in my head is not adding up, but right now theater owners are pushing to limit the length of movie trailers that are shown before movies.

As it stands, if a theater house plays up to eight trailers, that could be twenty extra minutes of film fun for the movie-goer.  But then theater owners are worried how much real time this puts on in front of a movie, once you add their own in-house advertising.

Theater owners are saying that by shortening the experience of all the ads, it would make the theater experience a more attractive draw.

Bull cockey!

What would make a theater experience more attractive is:

-Barring cell phone usage, and actively kicking those morons out of the theater that can't stand to be disconnected for a few minutes.

-It would be better if we didn't get pummeled by TV ads in this huge, large format.  I remember the day when all you got was a nice, quiet slide-show, and then trailers, and then a movie.

-It would be better if it didn't cost more than ten dollars to have a small soda and popcorn.

-It would be better if studios like Disney didn't push for larger, upfront shares of opening weekends, but kept it manageable so theaters would not have to put their cost-effective needs on the movie-goer, forcing theaters to charge stupid, airport prices for common commodities.

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As it stands, the studios seem a bit miffed at this suggestion of shortened trailers, but I'm not sure what their problem is.

With all the media that hits the internet these days, that range from

-Teasers for the trailers,
-"Leaked" video or images from movie sets*,
-Repeated airing of trailers on TV,
-And like in Iron Man 3, giving most of the good surprises away,

I don't think that theater-only shortened trailers would be a bad thing.

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Now I enjoy kicking back, and getting tastes of several movies before my main attraction starts.  Albeit, I begrudgingly deal with the TV ads, but since TV ads don't sway me one way or the other, they're moot.  (Yes, I do my own research when I want to buy something.  Crazy, I know.)

And if theater owners are forced to put in-house marketing up prior to movies, that's part their need to extend their own profit margins, and the sign of the times when studios want larger and larger pieces of the pie for opening weekends.

And don't get me started about content thieves and their lame-ass excuses.  Everyone in the industry, from the "lowly" ticket counter staff, to the projectionist, to the administrative teams from the movie theater and movie studio offices, to the creative talent behind and in front of the camera all need to get paid for their work.  Put yourself in their shoes.

I don't like the prices we get forced to pay.  I don't like the fact that TV seasons are now split into two or three parts and we're still charged the same price as we used to for a full season.

But if this entire chain of entertainment economy needs to stay existent, then these stupid prices need to stick around.

I'm not enthusiastic about the prices they charge, so I limit what I do and go see.  Because face it, if I miss something, most of it will be in the movie trailers (these days) and it will be out on DVD/Blu-ray or On Demand a few months later.

So I'm good.  I pick and choose where I drop my bucks.  What about you?

Inspiring source:  hollywoodreporter

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