quote: Mike Blakesley

---

"The 3hirty" doesn't have quite the same ring

---

Haha
 

---

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 01-06-2006, 12:39 PM:
 
I assume the increased ad revenue will result in lower ticket prices?
 

---

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-06-2006, 12:44 PM:
 
I saw the "new and improved" AMC version last week and am at a loss as to why anyone would want to advertise on it. The picture quality is and often doesn't synchronize properly with the soundtrack. The show that I saw had a mix of 16x9 video material and 4x3 video material, all presented in 16x9 (i.e. in some shots, people would look stretched out and fat--like showing a flat print with a scope lens).

Do they have no quality control at all? (Wait...don't answer that.)

If they are going to show ads, they should at least have minimal technical standards for them.
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-06-2006, 01:01 PM:
 
What I am still in amazement at is the fact that these boneheads can't figure out how to make their show END at the same time. The 2wenty is sometimes 19 minutes, sometimes 23 minutes, yet it always starts 2wenty minutes before the advertised showtime. MORONS!!!

It's a good thing I'm not working at a theater with this stupid thing. I would set the timers to start precisely on the advertised showtime and that's that!

I can hardly wait for the 4ourty!
 

---

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 01-06-2006, 01:54 PM:
 
I don't care what they call that thing any more -- it's the main reason I dislike going to the local Regal Hollywood 18. I like the slides with music softly playing in the background much better, or nothing at all. There's no real reason to get to a theatre early any more. I find the sound loud and "harsh" and irritating compared to the movie sound. I'm sure it's a matter of time before it'll be in every theatre.

My movie attendances are down to 8 this year from 20 last year (compared to 80 in 1998). Way to go! If this obnoxious advertising trend continues, maybe I'll just wait for DVDs every time. Of the 8 times I went to theatres this year, only one of those was going alone.

I was an avid movie-goer and have been driven away for the most part. If they'd taken all that money they spent on digital projectors for ads and spent it on maintenance of the projector and sound equipment, things night have been different. It's obvious to me that the theatre companies care very little about getting a good image on th screen and having good sound any more.
 

---

Posted by Cory Isemann (Member # 2517) on 01-06-2006, 02:22 PM:
 

quote: Brad Miller

---

The 2wenty is sometimes 19 minutes, sometimes 23 minutes, yet it always starts 2wenty minutes before the advertised showtime.

---

I noticed this early on when the program first rolled out. I was told that, depending on what ran at the end, would be the 'virtual' start time.

Example: since we don't show rolling stock anymore, the coke ads and PSAs or whatnot run at the end of the "firstlook", into when the 35mm would be started. Theoretically the total run times would equal that of if you were showing all rolling stock / policy on 35mm.

Did any of that make sense?

It's still a pain in the ass though.
 

---

Posted by Eric Hooper (Member # 1730) on 01-06-2006, 02:37 PM:
 
Evans,

Good for you!

What everyone else here should realize is that this is also becoming the views of the general public, too.
 

---

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 01-06-2006, 02:43 PM:
 
I saw Syriana last weekend at a Regal and was treated (punished?) to the first three ads three times in a row.

Kernals of the Carribean
Shelby's Grocery Regal Platinum Mastercard ad
The "who wants popcorn" movie points rewards club ad
Kernals of the Carribean
Shelby's Grocery Regal Platinum Mastercard ad
The "who wants popcorn" movie points rewards club ad
* a preview of the firstlook features coming up to break the pace *
Kernals of the Carribean
Shelby's Grocery Regal Platinum Mastercard ad
The "who wants popcorn" movie points rewards club ad

It was awful. I don't remember that happening on the 2wenty.
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-06-2006, 05:02 PM:
 

quote: Adam Wilbert

---

I saw Syriana last weekend at a Regal and was treated (punished?) to the first three ads three times in a row.

---

It worked, you remembered the ads!
 

---

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 01-06-2006, 05:20 PM:
 
Ours end at exactly the scheduled start time... One way or the other.

We have the "upgraded" stuff now. The projectors are the same. Looks like they just added two small servers to the rack. The picture looks *SLIGHTLY* better than the old system, but it still looks like crap in the front ten rows or so. I don't think anyone noticed that it got better, or cares that it still sucks.

I hear people talk about the new system as "the high-definition upgrade".

 

---

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 01-06-2006, 08:55 PM:
 
The content varies from rating to rating, and therefore so does the start time. Most DCN clients are synced to the same time on a regular basis. Generaly it runs like this:

Ads
Ads
Ads
---START TIME---
Coke- 2 ads
First Look/2wenty Recap
Policy trailer
Digital Trailers
PSAs
Cell Phone Reminder
---35MM START---

For the Last few weeks, we have been running a digital trailer for "Wedding Crashers: uncorked in theatres ONE NIGHT ONLY!". The trailer was about 2 minutes long and only programed on PG13 and R rated films. Because the DCN clients are all on the same watch, this causes the PG13 and R rated preshows to end two minutes later than G and PG rated ones.

The only major difference between First Look and the 2wenty is that first look goes out to Regal, AMC, and Cinemark. The 2wenty was exclusive only to Regal.
 

---

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 01-07-2006, 12:17 AM:
 
When I was with Regal last year I learned they grossed about $8 million annually on the pre-show ads and are not about to drop it regardless of the complaints.
 

---

Posted by Emma Tomiak (Member # 1862) on 01-07-2006, 02:36 AM:
 
I just hate the chick in the black pants and shirt rocking out to imaginary music right before the policy. She pisses me off.
 

---

Posted by Edwin Schwing (Member # 1270) on 01-07-2006, 03:04 AM:
 
Emma,

Try watching it 40 some times a shift!!!! (I have the dance down by now..)

E
 

---

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-07-2006, 03:56 AM:
 
So, assuming that they have 6000 screens, that means that they are making a "whopping" $1333 per year per screen? That can't possibly be right; I've heard figures (about ten years ago) that a typical 8-plex can make about $7500/screen/year with slides and film ads and that was way less than what Regal is presumably doing now.

In any case, they'll have a difficult time selling ads when attendance drops to zero.

(In fairness, I haven't seen the Regal version, but if it's anything like the AMC version, I'm sure it's horrible.)
 

---

Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 01-07-2006, 05:04 AM:
 

quote: Jesse Skeen

---

I assume the increased ad revenue will result in lower ticket prices? [Smile]

---

No, it means you won't see as many price increase as you would without advertising...

The bottom line is the bottom line. You either raise prices or you find another source of income. You may hate screen advertising, but it loses less customers than raising prices. Since you still care about advertising, I assume you are still attending movies? Would you if ticket prices increased as they do on gas?
 

---

Posted by Emma Tomiak (Member # 1862) on 01-08-2006, 02:23 AM:
 
Oh don't worry Edwin, I do get to watch it over and over.
 

---

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 01-08-2006, 08:56 PM:
 
Let's not forget the usher staff in all of this. They get treated to the same songs on the Intermission soundtrack, which for us is MovieTunes. The Intermission starts from the very beginning as the projector shuts down. So, if they are getting the theatres cleaned up on time, they hear the same couple of songs.
 

---

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 01-08-2006, 09:29 PM:
 

quote: Mike Olpin

---

Coke- 2 ads
First Look/2wenty Recap
Policy trailer
Digital Trailers
PSAs
Cell Phone Reminder

---

Absolutely ridiculous.

I can live with policy trailers being placed after coming attractions, before the feature, but this lineup just adds gloss to the annoying control the preshow ads are trying to enstill in you. TWO coke trailers? Anyone still thinking at showtime would be brain dead after some of those awful coke spots. And of course... lets play scratched up trailers for every manifestation of sound present, and how often do those snipes get changed I wonder?

Anyone who has to sit through a program like some of these is being used in a more awful way than it took to get them to the theatre to see the in the first place.
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-08-2006, 09:45 PM:
 
Steve, you didn't quote Mike's entire sequence.

quote:

---

Ads
Ads
Ads
---START TIME---
Coke- 2 ads
First Look/2wenty Recap
Policy trailer
Digital Trailers
PSAs
Cell Phone Reminder
---35MM START---

---

Notice the bold!
 

---

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-08-2006, 11:10 PM:
 
I used to think the people who gripe about commercials were just being petty, but looking at the lineup I'm beginning to see their point. Sheeeeesh.
 

---

Posted by Brian Woods (Member # 3521) on 01-09-2006, 12:00 AM:
 
Ads are in everything and everywhere now. You see them everywhere you turn. So, I am guessing that the next time you go out on the town; you will want a discount on your CAB ride since the Taxi Cab has a box billboard on top of his car? The next time you get on a plane, and there is the magazine in the seat pocket that advertises things to buy. You go to The Cheesecake Factory, your menu has advertisements for jewelry stores. Your cable company shows advertisements for local businesses during commercial breaks. Your favorite magazine has more ADs than stories and articles. The concert you go to has the local radio station with their sponsor that is promoting the show. Let's all ask all these people for a discount since they are advertising to us and trying to sell us something. Tell your local newspaper to stop putting your theater's advertisements in the paper because I don't want to see that, I want more news articles. Also, when you’re watching a movie, there is product placement there. So, let’s all just tell Hollywood to shove it since the producers can't put a Coke can on the screen and not let us see it. Tell James Bond that he is going to have to drive a Geo Metro since they aren't made and marketed. Wait, if we told Hollywood, the media/advertisement whores they are, to go shove it, none of us would have a J-O-B. I sat in Atlanta over the holidays at a theater that had no advertisements. I am telling you, after sitting in the car with the people I came with for 20 minutes on the way to the theater, I wished I had the 2wenty playing while waiting for the movie to start. There weren’t even slides, just music, and I wanted to strangle the idiot who was on his cell phone behind me blabbing away. Maybe the idiot would be there even with the 2wenty playing, but at least my focus would not have been on him. I have been to theaters with the 2wenty, and I rather be entertained while waiting for my movie to start, than sitting there twiddling my thumbs. It starts 20 minutes or so before the stated start time of the showing, so I don't see where the "problem" is? I have seen it run a minute or two over, but still, it's better than the old days where it was 7pm and your movie started with 15 trailers with the PSA's being the first one. By the time the last trailer hit, it was 7:30. This is my opinion, and maybe it doesn’t count? But either way, I don’t see any of it going away.
 

---

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 01-09-2006, 10:28 AM:
 
I see now Brad At least a few trailers will have clean cuts for sure. I wonder how many of those preshows play before 15 minute trailer packs?

What do people who go to a NCN concert or "event" get to sit through?
 

---

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-09-2006, 12:10 PM:
 
Brian, I take it you sell ads?
 

---

Posted by Brian Woods (Member # 3521) on 01-09-2006, 12:41 PM:
 
Nope, not at all. I just see it as another way the theater makes it's revenue. I have seen that revenue be used to upgrade sound/projection systems, and improve presentation for our customers. I am not saying that I am overjoyed by them, and have to have them. But, as said before, I rather something be played than sitting in the dark and listening the elevator music rendition of "I Believe I Can Fly".
 

---

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 01-09-2006, 03:08 PM:
 
As long as its presented at a volume that lets patrons have a modest preshow conversation, I think the preshow (be it slide or digital-based) is a great component to the movie experience. But if the ads are goosed to a level that forces the advertiser on the audience, its as bad as hanging billboards in the auditorium. There's a boundary between making usable revenue and cheapening the experience.
 

---

Posted by Jason Miller (Member # 2341) on 01-09-2006, 08:01 PM:
 
Steve:

Do you think the levels at EagAn are too loud?
 

---

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 01-10-2006, 03:00 AM:
 
I truthfully believe that they had to change it because they were too successful with branding, and "The 2wenty" now has wide, general negative associtations with loathsome movie ads.

Tickets, Popcorn, Strategy

quote:

---

Among moviegoers interviewed in Manhattan last weekend, a frequent gripe was the abundance of advertising and other preshow matter. Ro Barrows, a construction worker from Harlem who with his wife was trying to decide what to see at the Loews Cineplex on 34th Street, said the length of new films like "Munich" did not bother him, but "commercials before the movie, they can do away with that."

This has led to the occasional onsumer-complaint brush fire, like the Web site _didntialreadypayforthismovie.com_
http://didntialreadypayforthismovie.com/
which calls for boycotts of in-theater advertisers. In May the Loews chain said that in response to complaints, it would note in listings that "the feature presentation starts 10 to 15 minutes after the posted showtime."

Negotiating one's arrival time to get the best seat or to avoid the commercials can be its own dilemma. "If I get there too early I'm stuck watching the stupid '2wenty,' " Mr. Solish, the planning student, said, referring to the preshow programming at the Regal theater chain. "But if I'm too late I have to sit in front and can't sit with my friends."

---

quote:

---

Negotiating one's arrival time to get the best seat or to avoid the commercials can be its own dilemma. "If I get there too early I'm stuck watching the stupid '2wenty,' " Mr. Solish, the planning student, said, referring to the preshow programming at the Regal theater chain. "But if I'm too late I have to sit in front and can't sit with my friends."

---

Negotiating one's arrival time? Are we on an airplane from LA to DC? Is there a train leaving Cleveland at 2:30PM and it's traveling at 55mph? OK, I know how to solve all this. Let's do what HBO and Showtime does. If your movie "stated" show time is at 7:00PM, your movie starts at 7:00PM....Then you’re paying for only from 7:00PM on till the end of your movie. Get in line Folks, there's a movie starting in 5 minutes. First come, first serve. You all walk in a single line, and you start in the front and fill the seats till you're in the back. It's the lucky lotto who gets the middle seats with the best view, unless your the one's who want "suffer" through the "2wenty". You get to go in first. The people who do these websites are also the one's who probably picket Starbucks because "they think" they support terrorism. Remember, every shot of cappuccino you have, is a shot fired in terrorism in Iraq....Yes, I think we should blame terrorist for the Preshow...With the lost revenue of people afraid of going into public, and getting your phone tapped when your getting your fandango tickets....Who would want to go watch Traveling Pants of the Sisterhood when the government would know what your watching? (I still don't know how that one chick fit into that pair of pants, I am sure they were stretchy pants?) But, back onto subject. People are going to complain about the prices of Soda and Popcorn. Yes, the reason why theaters started to take credit cards at the registers were the credit application was taking too long to get 2 popcorns, 2 drinks, and a "free bag of skittles" for $49.95. I guess I might be biased because I don’t let the preshow bother me. I know how it helps some theaters with extra revenue. Believe me, with the crap movies that were put out this past year, I am happy I still am employed. Let’s all remember the good old days when theater’s were packed and Star Wars was playing on the big screen for almost a year, and there were no DVD’s or Plasma TV’s. Now you can sit in the comfy space of your own home, plop your DVD in, and wait for it to load. Wait, what’s this? My DVD has commercials? I can’t go forward to the next trailer? NOOOOOO! I have to watch trailers for “special deals”? Ahhhh, that’s all over, now my movie is on. Let’s turn it up because I like it loud! “ding dong” Hmmm, who can this be? Ohhh, my neighbor telling me to turn that down. She can hear it through the walls. Oh well, I am sure I can have my own theater experience at home….When I live in the middle of Alaska and there is no one within 500 miles.
 

---

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 01-10-2006, 02:06 PM:
 
Wow, has Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants affected lots of theatre workers this way?

"...like 'Nam or the night their band opened for Nirvana"
 

---

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 01-15-2006, 08:54 PM:
 
Is Cinemark's digital preshow a variation of FirstLook? Or is it completely "different"?
 

---

Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 01-16-2006, 09:45 AM:
 
I had only seen the 2wenty once and I saw Firstlook for the first time this weekend.
I really don't have any complaints.
Maybe I just got lucky this time around, but some of the stuff had me cracking up.
Didn't stop me from talking to my girlfriend.
Picture was pretty good (for video).
Sound was at a comfortable level.

I guess I'm a sellout
 

---

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 01-16-2006, 04:29 PM:
 
Yes, CineMark is using NCM for their pre-show just like Regal and AMC. From what I've been told,all the chains should now be using the First Look branding as well.
 

---

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 01-16-2006, 09:04 PM:
 
I saw the last few minutes of the "First Look" thing when I went to see Chronicles of Narnia this past Saturday night. I didn't see enough of it to notice any difference in program content, but I don't remember anything but commercials. The sound seemed "harsher" than the sound from the trailers and movie from film. It's hard to quantify this "harshness" I've always noticed with the "Twenty" and the "Firstlook".

[ 01-20-2006, 08:32 PM: Message edited by: Evans A Criswell ]
 

---

Posted by Sarina Gold (Member # 3065) on 03-02-2006, 12:00 AM:
 
I think it's kind of sad that everything is going to be/is so uniform with first look. I had some small (SMALL)level of affection for the 2wenty. but this one seems messy, choppy. it doesn't look good, and when the program is over the transition is always akward.
 

---

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 03-02-2006, 10:07 AM:
 
Come early, get good seats and then play a kazoo during all that video crap. Start a sing-along. Then again, if EVERYONE came AFTER the adverts, then the advertisers who send the checkers in to make sure their pile-o-shit adds are really playing would note, yea they are, but there's no one in the theatre watching them. It wouldn't take long for advertisers to understand that they are wasting their money buying screen time. Even if people are watching, and they HATE the ads, that is very negative PR that advertisers might want to rethink paying for.

As for DVDs that don't let me fast forward....I just burn a new one -- and remove that crap. Only THEN do I sit my family down and play the MOVIE from the beginning of the MOVIE. Elimiates that FBI gestapo crap as well.

Oh, PS -- years ago when they first started advertisements in NYC, word got around and it became quite common place for someone in the audience to blow one of those personal security horns during the commercials. It always got a laugh and round of applause.

You can also write to the companies who advertize. Let them know that you don't appreciate them intruding their crass ads in your movie-going experience. Only a few people need to write this kind of complaint and that could easily make advertisers pull their ads. Even if only a few of them do that and the ad and marketing companies get it in their brains that people hate cinema ads, it could easily cascade as they all run from those placements. Ads on movie screens might become a parhana that they will avoid at all costs.
 

---

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 03-02-2006, 11:54 AM:
 
I never would have believed I'd ever say this in relation to anything, but conformity doesn't have to be bad. If all these chains had entertaining and movie-mind stimulating content, they'd fit right in. It's still the idea of being bombarded with "loud" ads (loud=audio & video). Put up some challenging trivia/quotes & allow anyone who wishes to ignore the program to do so. That's all I ask!
 

---

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 03-22-2006, 11:49 PM:
 
I was a verfier for the Twenty. We had to note the lighting conditions and opening graphics picture quality. Then we had to monitor the promotional materials in the lobby. Paid 20 bucks and free tickets for the showing. Pretty lame. Then they discontinued the program late last year.

I hated the 20 as a verifier and a viewer. Very annoying sound and terrible pic quality. I would prefer the slides. The 20 didnt always start on time.
 

---

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 03-23-2006, 09:05 PM:
 
The theatre I work at just had the DCN installed...like late Feburary. I have lost count on how many calls I've had to make to The NOC, we have already had to have one projector replaced, sometimes the program simply doesn't RUN on a particular house one day and then another house will take the day off. The replaced projector was running green bars up and down the screen with the ads playing behind the bars. (Digital is so wonderful! I never thought of having green bars in front of the picture!) Pictures freeze up...sometimes at the end of the last ad, just before the movie is to start. Customers staring at a bottle of Diet Coke with bubbles coming out of it on screen...one minute...two minutes...then they look up at the port windows, wondering if we know what we are doing.
If anymore mass roll-outs of any new technology occurs, one bit of advice: Troubleshooting guides for the local yahoos like me. The NOC has been professional and helpful, but I suspect their phone support people probably have to hit the bars HARD after their shifts. More testing of equipment before rollout would be nice, too.
 

---

Posted by Brian Woods (Member # 3521) on 03-23-2006, 11:55 PM:
 
HMMMMMMMMMM

quote: James Westbrook

---

Customers staring at a bottle of Diet Coke with bubbles coming out of it on screen...one minute...two minutes...

---

quote: James Westbrook

---

Then they look up at the port windows, wondering if we know what we are doing.

---

Do they? Do they really?

WOW.....

From my experience with National Cinemedia, there are sometimes a few set up issues that get quickly resolved. But, I guess there are those "special" theaters that need to be held more and told that everything is gonna be ok.

quote: James Westbrook

---

If anymore mass roll-outs of any new technology occurs, one bit of advice: Troubleshooting guides for the local yahoos like me.

---

quote: James Westbrook

---

The NOC has been professional and helpful, but I suspect their phone support people probably have to hit the bars HARD after their shifts. More testing of equipment before rollout would be nice, too.

---

quote: Pravin Ratnam

---

I was a verfier for the Twenty. We had to note the lighting conditions and opening graphics picture quality. Then we had to monitor the promotional materials in the lobby. Paid 20 bucks and free tickets for the showing. Pretty lame. Then they discontinued the program late last year.
I hated the 20 as a verifier and a viewer. Very annoying sound and terrible pic quality. I would prefer the slides. The 20 didnt always start on time.

---

LAME?

$20 bucks to watch the 2wenty, and you got to see the movie for free? I wish I could find that deal. I am sure there are worse jobs than being a checker? Crime Scene Clean Up Crew, Taco Bell Drive-Through Cashier, or a movie theater usher/bathroom checker.

I agree, lets bring slides back! That way when the slide gets stuck you can watch the same slide over and over and over and.....or, the slide projector freaks out and goes one slide, two slides, three, four, five, six slide, then upside down slide. Slide Projectors ROCK!
 

---

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 03-24-2006, 02:14 AM:
 
I agree we will probably get the kinks worked out, Brian. New technology takes a while to get used to. Some of the issues were installation related. We are happy that we have no more rolling stock film ads to mess with and the slide projectors are gone.
However...
When that installation was rushed to get x number of theatres on line before a certain time-line, then all kinds of fun occurs.
Happilly, the lobby plasma screens have worked flawlessly.
Okay...I'm not quite RATIONAL when I'm grumpy, I just want anything to do with presentation to be RIGHT...and eventually, it will be.
But the freezing of the "moving ads" still annoys me.
 

---

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-24-2006, 12:24 PM:
 
I was an "ad verifier" for Regal too. No 2wenty here though, just rolling stock. It was an open check, theater employees knew why I was there. The drill was: Note the start time, write down everything they showed prior to the trailers, light levels, any technical problems. Sometimes they wanted to know if certain standees were in place and in prominent locations, or that promo materials were being handed out at the box office or promo concession stuff was being used (popcorn bags usually). They paid $20 and reimbursed for up to 2 tickets.
 

---