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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: My theatre design idea
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 06-19-2008 08:18 AM
What Geoff said. No one (well, almost) would consciously decide to not patronize a particular cinema solely due to screen advertising. It's more subtle than that. Screen advertisements (and high prices, generally poor customer service, sticky floors and a million other things) cause customers to enjoy the experience less than they would otherwise and, thus, give less perceived value per dollar.
Also, in most cases, cinemas which do not run screen advertisements do not charge higher admission or concession prices.
I'm actually not terribly upset about slides (static images, no synchronized sound), as they are generally non-intrusive, but I really can't stand commercials or anything that involves motion and/or sound.
Agreed, too, about over-long trailer reels. Any more than three trailers plus (maybe) a policy snipe is too much and makes it unlikely that customers will remember any of the films advertised. Subjecting audiences to 20+ minutes of trailers and advertisements is usually counterproductive.
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Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 06-19-2008 10:03 AM
quote: Scott Norwood
sticky floors
How bad are the theaters around you? I was thinking about this the other day when the "sticky floors" issue came up on some forum somewhere supporting day and date home release. I haven't been to a theater in at least 20 years that had sticky floors. During that time, I've been to GCC (moment of silence), AMC, Regal, UA, Muvico, Wometco and several independent theaters. Not once in the last 20 years has the floor been sticky.
As far as the advertising goes, I don't think people mind too much as long as it occurs before the advertised start time. As long as the only thing they see once the start time has arrived is trailers and the feature, they're ok with it. My one hard rule is that I will never put a rolling stock ad on at any of my theaters. I don't care how much revenue I'm "losing" by not running them.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 06-19-2008 11:04 AM
quote: Bill Gabel
those ads are going more the way of the commercials you will see at home. So you will be seeing them on both screens (Home and Movie Theatre).
Bill, no question, it's an advertising age -- ads everywhere. But that doesn't make them any less annoying to the public; my guess would be that the huge volume of ads just creates an even more negative response.
Thing is, the mounting threat to today's theatrical exhibition is that theatres are becoming less and less differentiated from the patron's ability to see movies elsewhere, and particularly at home. In the days when theatres were king, the only place you could see a movie was in a movie theatre. Those days are long gone and movies have become ubiquitous. They slide more and more into being no longer distinguisable from what can be seen in other environments. For theatres themselves to enhance that situation is folly. Putting commercials on a movie screen makes it more like TV, which, IMHO, is exactly what theatres should NOT be doing. People don't come to a movie theatre to pay money for a TV experience -- they can get that at home....and more and more that's what they are doing.
Just because ads are everywhere doesn't mean people like them. And you said it. you will be seeing them on both screens (Home and Movie Theatre). Only now, in the home theatres, where the "operator" can choose what to show, they DON'T have to see the commercials that are so disliked. So in the Home Theatre, the viewer ISN'T subjected to ads, while in a cinema he is. How twisted is that? Just another reason why the home theatre continues to be a growing threat. It is truly bizarre to me how theatre chain execs can be so short-term wise but long-term foolish.
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Galen Murphy-Fahlgren
Master Film Handler
Posts: 405
From: Canton, MI, USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 06-20-2008 03:26 PM
The worst thing about Firstlook is that Sony is probably the biggest movie advertiser, and I don't play Sony movies. I won't program Sony trailers, but I have no control over Firstlook content, obviously. That, and the fact that our alternative content network gets their ads in after my policy trailers, which are the last thing on the preshow, so every time I go to start a movie, I get to hear about Death Note, or Bleach, or now Glenn Beck.
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Galen Murphy-Fahlgren
Master Film Handler
Posts: 405
From: Canton, MI, USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 06-21-2008 02:14 AM
If I ever saw such a sign, it would be in the trash faster than you can say "the V5 is broken again." I am no fan of huge amounts of advertising, but theaters cost money to run. I do what I can to alleviate the issue of overadvertising, by keeping my nonsync volumes as unobtrusive as is reasonable, and running a small number of trailers and no snipes, so maybe the consumer should understand that we are an in business to make money, and that rising energy costs and skyrocketing corn prices cut very heavily into a theater's bottom line. That website quotes a 3.8% increase in average ticket prices from 2002 to 2003, and the Consumer Price Index rates inflation for commodities for that year at roughly 3%, as per inflationdata.com. As is evident, businesses are more affected by the inflation of certain commodities than individuals are. For example, rising energy costs are probably a bigger concern if you heat and cool a 20000+ sq ft complex all day than if I heat my 2700 sq ft house when I am home. As an individual, I decide not to cool my house in the summer, but my theater essentially has no choice. I choose not to light my house very much, and to use mostly fluorescent lights, another luxury the theater does not have. Coming back to corn, I can fairly easily not eat things that have much actual corn in them, although it is impossible to avoid corn derivatives, but the theater has to buy thousands of pounds of cornseed a week, and I am sure theaters haven't increased popcorn prices to fully offset the 70% increase in raw corn prices between 2005 and 2007 (usda.gov), although I don't know how much of that 70% increase has been passed on to businesses such as theaters.
My point being, yes, advertising sucks, but unless people are willing to pay more than twice as much at the box office and substantially more at the concession stand, it is a necessary revenue stream for many theaters.
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