Leave the Movie Previews Alone

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The duration of previews and travel time extended my recent cinema experience of the movie “Nosferatu“, which was a comfortable 123 minutes, significantly beyond a three-hour commitment. Today’s trailers, trivia segments like Noovie, and increasingly common advertisements for products such as Pepsi, Honda, or Chick-fil-A that precede main screenings seem longer, louder, and more irritating than ever. The situation has become so unbearable that a Connecticut state senator recently proposed a bill requiring cinemas to disclose the length of previews, giving moviegoers the option to avoid them entirely. As Senator Martin Looney put it in a local newspaper, the Register Citizen, “If they wish to arrive early and watch the promotions, they are free to do so. However, if they simply want to view the feature, they should be able to get there just in time for that.

While Looney’s proposal might seem well-meaning, it’s a misguided idea for several reasons. Primarily, movie theater ads play a crucial role in helping these businesses survive financially. As the pandemic underscored, the film industry’s business model can be fragile, and advertising is frequently a substantial part of an exhibitor’s income. A 30-second ad running over four weeks could bring a movie theater anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 or more, as estimated by Blue Line Media. Even small theaters like the Avon Theatre in Stamford, highlighted by the Register Citizen‘s reporter, rely on these ads and previews for their financial stability, with Peter H. Gistelinck, the theater’s executive director, stating that announcing movie start times would negatively impact their finances in an already challenging environment. Unfortunately, Looney’s one-page bill fails to consider or address the potential consequences for theatrical businesses. Not every exhibitor is as large as AMC or Cinemark, and this bill, as it stands, doesn’t make any exceptions; imposing such rules on smaller theaters could lead to increased admission prices. The revenue has to come from somewhere.

Besides monetary aspects, there’s a cherished agreement associated with watching trailers, essential for the overall movie-watching experience. I barely recall the trailers from that Nosferatu screening as my friends and I arrived ten minutes late – past the stated start time but not excessively so to disturb the film’s runtime. My friend then proceeded to discuss the trailers, mocking several of them. During this period, the lights are dimmed but still bright enough for conversation. You can engage in chatter, flirt with a date, make fun of poor trailers, get excited about good ones, manage your arrival and departure flexibly, consume noisy snacks, respond to texts, check emails, even place a quick call without disturbing many fellow cinema-goers. Remember, these are the advertisements! During the movie itself, such behaviors should warrant removal; during the previews, they’re more than just clever time management – they’re what links us to cinemas in the first place.

Looney views previews as a waste of time, but I find them transitional and unique – a bridge from our daily lives to the collective experience of cinema. Instead of seeking alternatives where the theater becomes more chaotic due to latecomers disrupting the start of the movie, I consider it an unnecessary abuse of the time I’ve already paid for.

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2025-02-05 01:54