Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: AMC Ad Within Ad

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Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 08-21-2009, 07:52 AM:

AMC runs ads on Friday, Saturday & Sunday, listing all films and times. Recently they have been placing "FEATURED" films at the top of the ad. Last week, BANDSLAM and this week BANDSLAM & INGLORIOUS BASTERDS are under a FEATURED banner. Looks to me like they are selling better placement in the ad (not a bad idea, really). They normally list films in the order they have opened, with new films at the top. Most theatres in this area follow that plan.

On another AMC business point, they are charging normal IMAX prices ($11.00 matinee price) for the 40 minute short UNDER THE SEA. I doubt they even tell people this is a short film when they buy the tickets. (UNDER THE SEA is only shown early in the day.)

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 08-21-2009, 08:37 AM:

Why would you assume that the FEATURED section was being sold? More likely is they still use that section for the new movies, only when they sent an email to the newspaper contact, the person on the other end simply added INGLORIOUS BASTERDS to that section and forgot to remove Bandslam.

Posted by Galen Murphy-Fahlgren (Member # 4535) on 08-21-2009, 01:08 PM:

Chris, I don't know about you guys, but everyone I know checks their newspaper proofs pretty thoroughly. Nothing like a customer coming in and rubbing an incorrect showtime in the newspaper in your face. For that reason, I doubt that it was a mistake.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 08-21-2009, 01:45 PM:

Except in this case, there's no indication that the showtimes were wrong. This is just a section that says that certain movies are "FEATURED" at the theater. And even if the person at the newspaper didn't make a mistake, I still don't see why this action means that the "FEATURED" slot is being paid for. The manager who sent in the email telling what the ad should look like could've easily just left Bandslam in that slot on accident.

And for the record, I have had to deal with incorrect newspaper showtimes once long ago. The manager sent an email in with the new showtimes. The person at that particular newspaper noticed that all the showtimes stayed the same so they simply added the new movie in and forgot to remove the movie we had lost. She verified that her email was correct and the person at the other end just didn't bother proofing.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 08-21-2009, 02:20 PM:

The FEATURED section first appeared last week with BANDSLAM. This week, it has BANDSLAM & INGLORIOUS BASTARDS. These are put in the very top position even above IMAX and 3-D Digital listings. This must be controlled by someone above the individual theatre manager since all three AMC's have the same "FEATURED" films. Also, the FEATURED films are also listed in slightly larger type. AND, not all of the new releases are in the FEATURED section.

I don't really care what they advertise or how...I was just pointing out something I've never seen before. And, if they are getting additional money for these placements, good for them. It would be a rather creative way to generate some extra income.

Quite frankly, its much more annoying to me that they are charging full feature price for a 40-minute film!

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 08-21-2009, 02:46 PM:

Or it could be a way to generate more people being interested in a movie. For instance, I don't think Bandslam has been doing that great so perhaps they strategically put it out there hoping some people will get their interest piqued.

And yeah, I confirmed that it sure didn't gross much considering the pretty decent reviews.

Posted by Galen Murphy-Fahlgren (Member # 4535) on 08-21-2009, 05:37 PM:

Let me clarify: I'm not saying it is paid for, and I have no reason to think that it is, but I think it is highly unlikely that a mistake like that would slip past the proofing stage, especially at a big outfit like AMC that has more managers than you can shake a stick at. Surely somebody is personally responsible for checking the proofs.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 08-21-2009, 05:44 PM:

And let me clarify: I was mentioning paying for it because it was an idea brought up in the first post and I wasn't saying that the mistake happened at AMCs end. Again, when I worked for Loews-Cineplex we had one of the Seattle area papers print out the incorrect stuff in spite of the fact that they had been sent 100% correct info. The number of managers going through and checking that the email is correct won't matter if the person at the other end ignores some of the stuff sent to them.

But as I alluded, it seems more likely that they simply chose to put Bandslam in that section in hopes of increasing attendance for a movie that wasn't advertised that much.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 08-29-2009, 01:37 AM:

What's the point of "Featured" films? Do they mean "This is the best movie we're showing, all the rest suck" or "Nobody's coming to see this, so we're begging you to now!"