I distinctly remember the first time I saw commercials before a movie in a theater because I thought it was ridiculous. Now it’s standard procedure to make people sit through 20 minutes or more of commercials and trailers that have been available online for days if not weeks. It’s annoying and inconvenient and many of us arrive “late” to movies due to this. Nobody has time for that. A new bill proposed in Connecticut would help people reclaim some of that time wasted to pre-movie ads.
Are there too many ads and trailers before movies? Cinemagoers in Connecticut may see two start times for listed films — one before commercials and one after — if a lawmaker successfully gets a new bill passed.
State Senator Martin Looney of New Haven, Conn., proposed bill no. 797 on Jan. 21, in an effort to “require that each movie advertisement or listing include, and separately list, the scheduled start time for (1) the movie trailers and advertisements that precede the advertised or listed movie, and (2) the advertised or listed movie.”
Looney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
“It seems to be an abuse of people’s time,” the lawmaker said in an interview with The Register Citizen about his proposed bill.
If audience members “want to get there early and watch the promos, they can,” he added. “But if they just want to see the feature, they ought to be able to get there just in time for that.”
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In a Popculturology blog post last March, writer Bill Kuchman recalled a moviegoing experience when trailers did not begin until 10 minutes after the start time listed on tickets. “Before the trailers could begin, we had to sit through several Coke commercials, a promo for IMAX and a new bit where AMC thanks their investors,” Kuchman wrote. “By the time we got to the actual trailers, the crowd had grown restless.”
Kuchman continued, “Maybe it’s time we put our collective foot down and all show up twenty minutes past a movie’s start time.”
AMC, the world’s largest movie exhibitor, does include a note on its website or app next to a movie’s listed run time that urges patrons to “please allow approximately 20 extra minutes for pre-shows and trailers before the show starts,” per IndieWire. Among the clips that play before movies at AMC Theatres are Nicole Kidman’s ad for the company.
In regard to that last quote about arriving 20 minutes late to the theater – I do that for every movie, regularly. I’m one of those people who arrives in the nick of time for everything though because I don’t like wasting more than 10 minutes waiting. I swear I’m rarely late to things, except for movies because it’s hard to judge the time window. I missed seeing Godzilla Minus One in the theater for this reason. I caught it on HBO and loved it though.
Connecticut Senator Martin Looney is the president of the Connecticut state senate and he’s a Democrat of course. Democrats value our time, money and lives and don’t see us as commodities to manipulate and exploit, but I’m preaching to the choir. Getting back to this one minor issue, I’m writing about it because I hope it catches on. New York passed a law requiring restaurants to list calories in 2017. We got calorie counts for chain restaurants menu nationwide because it wasn’t possible for them to create separate menus just for one state. This isn’t as cut and dried an issue though as ads vary by location. Yes there are countless other things we should care about and advocate for, and we do. Most of us can agree that we don’t want to sit through 20 to 30 minutes of pre-movie garbage before spending two plus hours watching a film.
Photos credit: Eugene Lisyuk on Pexels, Felipe Bustillo and Krists Luhaers on Unsplash
That “exhausted moviegoer” pix is a hoot. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
For me, the trailers are part of the enjoyment of going out to the movies (I also loved the trailers in VHS tapes so I am an old). But, I have a visceral, irrational reaction to the Nicole Kidman AMC theater ad!
I used to like watching trailers. It was nice to see what’s coming out. But then it went from 3 or 4 to 7 or 8. Don’t get me started on the commercials. Absolutely ridiculous.
Is this serious? I swear to God this is why people hate the government…. I personally love movie trailers and don’t mind a few commercials before a movie. It gives people a chance to settle in their seats and start to relax. It also gives late attendees (due to lines or whatever) time to get their seats without disrupting the rest of the theater. Not to mention those commercials bring in money to the theaters which help to bring costs down. FYI theaters get most of their money from concessions so don’t come for the theaters on this. It’s the film companies that dictate what trailers (and sometimes what commercials) are before each movie.
I worked in movie theaters for almost 10 years in high school and college. I loved it so much. Support your local movie theater if you can even if you have to (OMG!) sit through some commercials.
…he’s not looking to remove all commercials, just declare how long they will be.
These days most people run about 20 minutes late to everything. And most of them do it on purpose. So if they know exactly when the movie starts they will disrupt the rest of the audience for the first twenty minutes of every movie. This isn’t really any of the governments business. But when has that ever stopped them from doing dumb stuff.
Trailers are fine—it’s particularly fun to be with an audience when a bad one comes on. 😈 But epic-length commercials at five a clip are ridiculous when theaters are charging insane admission prices as it is.
And can we please drop the “government always sucks!” ignorance? Government is voters’ defense against billionaires/big business squeezing us dry/cheating us. MAGAts always want to pick at some bad obscure law as an excuse to trash all protection.
I love this. You’re saying I can have the whole theater to myself while I geek out over the trailers? I love movie trailers and watch them in my free time when I’m bored.
This seems like a question of fairness to mw. The magat garbage are targeting NPR and PBS over cooperate sponsorship partly because both have refused to bend the knee. Both have been my lifeline through a near decade of tangerine insanity and both have been doing an excellent job lambasting mango and his minions. Movie prices have gotten totally put of hand. How much do the studios/theaters make from ads and do consumers get any benefit from that ad revenue? I watch a sponsorship ad on PBS I get to watch a program not interrupped by commercials and I get balanced news/commentary, Masterpiece, Lucy Worsley, Nature, Frontline, and other wonderful creative and educational ontent. I watch 20 minutes of ads in a theater and a billionaire gets a new vacation home and I get no benefit at all and my time wasted.
We have a theatre chain here who advertises sensory-friendly showings. I have a granddaughter with Level 3 non-verbal autism who loves movies so we decided to take her to one of these showings. They showed over 20 minutes of commercials and trailers at a sensory-friendly showing. Individuals on the autism spectrum often have a hard time sitting still and focused so by the time the actual movie started we only lasted about 10 minutes. If they’d gone straight into the actual movie we were there for she may have had a chance to become engaged and interested for the entire movie. Businesses want to jump on the “sensory-friendly” bandwagon without any knowledge of what that really means.
I mostly like trailers but I hate the block of commercials that comes before the trailers. What I would like to see is a bill mandating at least one short movie before each feature film, preferably two Going to the movies costs so much, adding shorts would make it more of an event. And there are so many great shorts out there and it’s so hard to see them!
Since the advent of booking a specific seat at the theater, I haven’t arrived on time.
thank god we have a politician focusing on what’s really important these days. what makes him think i can even afford to go to a movie anymore?
This seems like a question of fairness to me. The magat garbage are targeting NPR and PBS over cooperate sponsorship partly because both have refused to bend the knee. Both have been my lifeline through a near decade of tangerine insanity and both have been doing an excellent job lambasting mango and his minions. Movie prices have gotten totally put of hand. How much do the studios/theaters make from ads and do consumers get any benefit from that ad revenue? I watch a sponsorship ad on PBS I get to watch a program not interrupped by commercials and I get balanced news/commentary, Masterpiece, Lucy Worsley, Nature, Frontline, and other wonderful creative and educational content. I watch 20 minutes of ads in a theater and a billionaire gets a new vacation home and I get no benefit at all and my time wasted.
YES. I love this. Movies are all SO long now and having to sit through an extra 20-30 minutes of trailers and commercials is ridiculous.
Isn’t there bigger concerns going on ?
Lordy
I worked for Marty Looney and the CT State Senate for five years. He’s an incredibly effective legislator. Every year he puts out a bill like this in addition to successful legislation that has a tremendous impact on the lives of millions of Connecticut residents.
Sometimes caucus leadership puts out a bill knowing it won’t pass on the first try. But the purpose is to start a conversation about an issue or process.
I completely understand why people would be frustrated given the challenges we have with other elected representatives. But Senator Looney is not one of those people. I promise.
I think the moviegoing experience is getting worse and worse. the commercials-not the trailers-wear you down. I don’t need to see 15 minutes of advertising when I have already paid the admission. I don’t mind the static ads for local businesses, usually it’s like a slide deck with no sound.
But watching Coke commercials, promos for social media, stupid loud ads for fast food-count me out.
Now that you can reserve your seat, I don’t arrive till 15 minutes after the “scheduled start time”.
I love this idea, hate sitting through trailers. I figure it’s either a movie u don’t want to see so I am annoyed or I did want to see it bur now it’s been spoiled