Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How many trailers are standard now?

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Posted by Michael Riley (Member # 5693) on 12-17-2016, 07:47 PM:

I saw the Liemax showing of Rogue One at an AMC last night, and was astonished by the fact that they had a full 10 trailers totaling a half an hour prior to the movie. I haven't worked at a theater in a few years now, but is this typical? When I worked for Regal, and independents before that, it was never more than 3 or 4 trailers before the feature, maybe the studios would insist on 5 on the biggest movies, but it never stretched out more than 15 minutes.

I wasn't the only one in the audience who seemed to be getting annoyed by this. I know the chains use trailer placement as a way to flex their muscle with the studios and shake them down for some extra revenue, but they're skirting dangerously close to where people starting complaining and threatening lawsuits in the late 90's about the 7:00 movie not starting until 7:45.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-17-2016, 09:18 PM:

10 trailers is ridiculous. Four should be the max. I sometimes put on five if we're expecting a large crowd, to give people time to get through concessions.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 12-17-2016, 09:24 PM:

At my theatre we try to stick to 10 minutes unless the movie's run time forces us to do less. Occasionally with a big movie I will do 11-12 minutes, especially if there are new trailers for upcoming tent poles.

10 minutes has been our standard for so long that this is what customers expect. We even have a few people who will always show up 10 minutes late because they don't want to watch previews.

We also start our previews at the advertised time.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 12-17-2016, 10:07 PM:

Three is the maximum for me unless ordered otherwise by the studio.

I have one guy who comes to the show regularly but never wants to see trailers. Sometimes he will sit in the lobby to wait until the trailers are over, and he told me once that if it's a large crowd and he wants to get in to get his seat immediately, then he will close his eyes until the trailers are over. Seeing the trailer spoils the movie, he says.

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 12-17-2016, 10:49 PM:

We had to leave the auditorium during the trailers to avoid going deaf. The theater we frequent, however, runs trailers at a reasonable level and we get exposed to movies we want to see. I think they run about 10 minutes. Trailers start at the advertised show time.

Harold

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 12-17-2016, 11:09 PM:

The theater I worked at starting in 1991 always claimed there were 5 minutes of previews- the show schedules even read "Preview" at the starting time, the name of the feature 5 minutes after that, and the exit time. When I started running the projectors, I would often write in the exact times the movie started and ended with the previews starting at the listed time. I think the longest previews there actually ran was 10 minutes; my personal thing when building films was to have a minimum of two trailers not including whatever was attached to the feature. With G-rated movies sometimes that was a hard minimum to meet as most available trailers weren't "appropriate".

Starting in 1994 or 1995, we started having the lights up halfway during the trailers- before that the lights would go completely down. I think trailers look MUCH better with the lights down, but it makes more sense to have them up during the trailers if they also come up during the movie's end credits. As yes, it does seem like more people purposely arrive late to avoid seeing trailers as well as pre-show commercials. If more theaters are going to have reserved seating this will probably become more common.

Posted by Matt Russell (Member # 8989) on 12-18-2016, 01:38 AM:

Arclight tries to enforce a 5-10 minute max on trailers, which means usually 3 or 4 trailers end up getting played. Cinemark has also lately been trying to reach exactly 15 minutes and no more. Regal can go anywhere between 10-25 minutes depending on the movie. AMC always seems the longest, as I've seen them countless times go above 20 minutes, but they also seem to have longer policy trailers and after each trailer, they show its release date. With a few exceptions, such as red band or a just released trailer, I have noticed they stopped posting the MPAA green band logo before each trailer following the coming attraction logo. It's kind of all over the place in terms of trailer runtimes, but I've noticed the smaller the chain, the less trailers are shown.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 12-18-2016, 09:07 AM:

I complained to AMC here about 23 minutes of trailers. They actually responded and said their policy is 10 mins and would be enforced. The last time I went there (one year ago next week) (and I do mean the last time) they were again way over 10 mins.
Four is my max, and then, only movies I have booked and in the order we have them (we're a calendar house).
We also have a few people who refuse to sit through trailers. And then there is the guy who is always late and always assumes we have 10 mins of trailers. Sometimes we only have 1 or 2 trailers because we haven't booked that far out yet or we haven't gotten them. Just show up on time, dammit.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 12-18-2016, 10:41 AM:

Over time, we've settled on 10 minutes. We're a drive-in, so the dynamics are a little different, but 10 minutes seems to work out pretty well for us.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-18-2016, 12:05 PM:

Trailer overkill has been standard operating procedure at big theater chains. Carmike has been bad about over-doing it with trailers, TV commercials, etc. for like forever. You could pretty much expect 20 minutes worth of commercials, policy snipes and trailers. The play lists would come down from senior management. Yet it's the staff at the individual theater location who gets its ass chewed by customers over it.

If AMC is pushing the edge of the 30 minute barrier I guess that only seems fitting they're buying Carmike.

I wouldn't mind the long play list of movie trailers if modern movie trailers were any good. I used to like movie trailers, but lately have grown to hate them. The people who make Hollywood movie trailers are throwing these things together using the same editing gags and boom-whoosh sounds. It's like a graphic designer with no talent who keeps using the same 5 pieces of clip art over and over and over and over again. There's hardly anything remarkable from one trailer to the next. Add to that the fact some trailers show too much of the movies plot points. You don't even have to bother watching the movie.

Posted by Michael Riley (Member # 5693) on 12-18-2016, 05:05 PM:

What I didn't get was that some of the choices were nonsense. Does the audience in the theater for Rogue One really the same audience that wants to sit through trailers for Sing or Boss Baby?

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 12-18-2016, 05:07 PM:

Regal has us slather on about 20 minutes of trailers.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 12-18-2016, 05:22 PM:

10 to 12 minutes max.

With "Rogue One" we were asked to put on 5 trailers. Since one of the trailers was a teaser, it still fell within our minute range.

Part of the problem out there is that some of the ad companies want a few minutes of their ads to play after the advertised start time. They charge extra money for these "prime ads".

I recently attended a show at a theatre in which the film was advertised to start at 7:25 p.m. The actual movie started at 7:50.

Posted by Bradley J Sime (Member # 9423) on 12-18-2016, 07:38 PM:

We're a one screen non-profit. I usually play two coming attractions, and one now playing. Start them about 5 minutes before the scheduled feature start time.

Posted by Matt Smith (Member # 9425) on 12-19-2016, 06:45 AM:

Our multiplex usually plays 4-6 trailers that play for 8-11 minutes. This is on top of 10 minute or so of national adverts that come beforehand.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-19-2016, 11:55 AM:

quote: Michael Riley
Does the audience in the theater for Rogue One really the same audience that wants to sit through trailers for Sing or Boss Baby?

Some of them might. A guy watching Rogue One might have kids and he might think, "hmm, I need to bring the kids to that Boss Baby thing." Or, maybe a guy dragged his wife along and she'll say "hey, Sing looks cute, we need to come to that."

Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 12-20-2016, 01:29 PM:

Michael, Mike, here's a fascinating trailer placement I've experienced.

I have been recently frequenting to a 6-screen arthouse in Kew Gardens, NY to catch movies I would be interested in. The theater is mostly attended by elderly people, and they do play movies they seem to be interested in, like Sully and Jackie. One time when I was exiting after a movie, there was a big line filled with elderly people stretching to the length of the lobby for Manchester by the Sea. It has nothing to do with why I'm writing this other than to help you with context.

My dad and I saw Nocturnal Animals weeks ago at Kew Gardens. It is an R-rated film that, without giving too much away, was not only one of the most gut-wrenching films I have ever seen, but it asked timely questions like "would you like to live your life pragmatically or go live up to your fanciest ideals?" Before the movie, there was a trailer for Sing. Turns out Kew Gardens is in fact booked for Sing, and I don't know, considering the type of theater it is, if playing the Sing trailer before a violent, sexual and cerebral R-rated indie film is appropriate. Not as inappropriate as playing the trailer for Nocturnal Animals before Sing, I guess.

Which brings up the question, what kind of trailers would precede Sing at Kew Gardens Cinemas? I don't think Despicable Me 3 counts if it's attached.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 12-20-2016, 06:24 PM:

Connor, in my opinion the question depends on whether the theatre regularly plays kids movies. If they do, then I would stick with the typical trailers you would play: Despicable Me 3, Cars 3, Beauty and the Beast, Smurfs: The Lost Village, Lego Batman, etc.

On the other hand, if they normally do not play these kinds of movies, I would place things like Hidden Figures, A Monster Calls, Beauty and the Beast, A Dog's Purpose, Born in China, The Eagle Huntress, and so forth. I may even go for something like The Zoo Keeper's Wife or The Space Between Us.

Even if they don't normally play animated movies, the one thing to consider is whether they are playing Sing so the grandparents can take their grandchildren who might be visiting for Christmas. If the expected audience is going to have a lot of children, then I would stick with the more kid friendly movies. Even if they don't expect to play most of those movies they will want to stick with things which are appropriate for kids.