|
|
COMMERCIALS, ON THE BIG SCREEN?
By Erin Day
Angry moviegoers want to know why local theatres are starting to feel like their own home.
It’s Friday night, the perfect time to check out a brand new film. Anticipation and excitement begins to set in when the lights start dimming and the volume amplifies. However, something doesn’t seem quite right. Instead of watching the usual coming attractions, television commercials are taking over the screen.
The motion picture industry serves as a tool of escapism by its viewers, but lately, advertisers are using movies as a last resort to push soft drinks and SUVs onto the public.
Melissa Wong, senior, Marist College, is not pleased about the running of TV ads during movies.
“I just don’t understand it. That’s the whole reason why people go to the movies, to get away from the commercials. If I wanted to watch commercials I would stay home,” she says.
Advertisers are well aware of viewers like Ms. Wong. They have figured out that when people are watching TV at home, they might get up during an ad, but, in the movie theatre, nobody’s going anywhere.
Last month, a Chicago English teacher filed a lawsuit against Loews Cineplex for showing commercials after the lights go down. The suit, which is pending, asks that the theatres state films’ actual start times in their advertisements. If successful, the suit could cost the theatre industry millions of dollars.
Douglas Litowitz, the lawyer who filed the suit against the Chicago-based Loews chain told USA Today that “commercialism has gotten out of hand.”
“We want them to pull the ads or at least be honest about when a movie will start so people don’t have to be subjected to product placement the moment they step into a theatre,” he says.
Since Litowitz’ firm launched a web site, www.nomovieads.com, more than 700 people have expressed interest in joining the lawsuit.
Regal Entertainment Group, one the dominant theatre chains in the industry, leads the nation with 6,217screens. Regal recently launched a 20-minute block of pre-show programming that reaches 27 metro area theatres.
Cliff Marks, president of marketing and sales at Regal Entertainment, says that the company has received few complaints.
“People have told us they either enjoy the pre-show programming or aren’t bothered by it,” he says. “And we aren’t forcing people to watch it. They can talk, relax, go get popcorn and a drink.”
Theatre chains can charge an average of $25 per 1,000 people for advertisements, as opposed to the $11 per 1,000 views for newspapers or the $19 for TV stations.
That means an estimated $90 million per year for Regal Theatres alone.
With money like that, the public can start calling movie theatres, “home sweet home.”