Having worked at a movie theater for two years, and going to the movies since I was an infant, I clearly have a working knowledge base of all things being discussed and will now, if you allow me, educate and enlighten on the subject. In other words, I'm going to ramble on. Leave now if you have something real and productive to do.
TRAILERS (the stuff that starts playing at listed show time)
Trailers have been around for 100 years. The first debuting in 1913. The basic premise has been the same for that century. Show some key scenes, give the basic plot, and get people interested in coming to see another movie.
According to MPAA trailers are to be no longer than 2:30 minutes long. Studios may break this rule once a year if they deem it necessary for a particular movie. NATO is now requesting that this time be reduced to 2 minutes.
I've seen many comments suggesting that this is the theater owners being greedy. That cutting down the run time of trailers would allow more showings of a movie in a day. Let's break that down. The longer average runtime of trailers pre-feature (not counting the pre-show stuff, but the trailers that start at the time the movie is to begin) is approx 20 minutes. That's 8, 2.5 minute trailers. I don't usually count (because apparently I'm a freak and I love trailers) but I don't think I hit 8 trailers every time. Maybe 3-5.
For the sake of the discussion we'll go with the 20 minutes and 8 trailers. So, we shave those down by 30 seconds each. That's 4 minutes reduced per showing. Say an average length movie at about 95 minutes plays approx 5 times a day, remove 4 minutes x 5 showings = 20 minutes.
Yeah, they aren't squeezing another show time in there champ.
PRE-SHOW (the stuff playing when you walk in before listed show time)
By the way, this is the best time to arrive in a theater. Call me old fashioned. Once the show-time hits and the trailers begin, you should be in your seat, phone OFF or silenced and put away (no flippin blue-tooths in your ears) and whatever loud package of snack should be open and ready.
The pre-show is the time to chat, get settled, and be generally loud. Once the trailers start, shush!
The complaints range from things like, "I already paid for a ticket, why do I have to sit through ads!" to things I will not repost here. Just a little FYI, ticket sales go mainly to Hollywood. Theaters see less than 2% of ticket sales. Closer to 1%. Now, this may have changed a little in the 10 years since I worked at a theater, but I can't imagine too much.
This is why concessions cost what they do. More on concessions later.
The pre-show ads help keep the cost of concessions where they are. In the last 10 years, the usual price I pay for a large drink has maintained approx $4.50. This is partly due to the income from advertisers and the explosion of pre-show ads. I remember when the pre-show was just an irritating slide show tricking you into "guessing" movie titles and pushing Coke products, with the occasional movie trivia or definition slide that was actual trivia. Never did see one for what a "best boy" was though...
I will say this for ads though. If my show starts at 4:50, I'm fine with all ads prior to that point. Once the show-time hits, I only want to see trailers and the feature.
CONCESSIONS
Concessions are where the movie theater you attend makes it's money.
With out concessions there is no money to pay for employees. No employees means no cleaning. No cleaning means filthy bathrooms. You get the idea. There would be no money for maintaining the equipment, theaters, building etc
You get the idea. If you pay $9 to see a movie, the theater gets about $1. Sure that adds up over a crowded show, but when there are only 5 people? Imagine none of those people buy any concessions. They sit in a climate controlled theater for 1.5-2 hours. The ushers would have entered as soon as the previous movie ended to clean all the trash left on the floor by the previous grumps. Half of which was probably outside stuff that was smuggled in.
So the theater has made $5 on that show time. That doesn't cover the pay for one employee for one hour! If you like going to the theater, buy some soda or popcorn. True, they may be the highest mark up, but it also means your supporting your theater. I'm not suggesting you get a full meal or use this as dinner time for your family. Unless your single like me, and a tray of 'nachos' will cut it for you.
Back to TRAILERS
Here's my two cents on the whole NATO guidelines. I don't think the 30 second difference is going to change much. I personally like good long trailer. I also like the teaser trailers. I DO NOT like trailers that show spoilers.
In this age where everyone wants to know everything NOW, I like getting surprised at the movies. I can't tell you how many movies have been 'spoiled' for me because of one or two images in a trailer. The first time I really noticed it was that Mel Gibson movie, Ransom. If you remember the trailer, they really loved the shot of him jumping over the hood of a taxi all Dukes of Hazard style. So when I saw the movie, I knew it was getting close to the end when that intense moment showed up.
Or how about What Lies Beneath? They totally showed to much in that movie. I went in knowing that Harrison Ford was the bad guy. They could have easily played up the whole mystery with the neighbor and let the surprise hit you later. Sure, showing Michelle Pfieffer crawling over him saying "You've been a bad boy," while her face changed was a shocking thing to see in a trailer...but it would have been more shocking had I not known it was coming.
One more for posterity. The Island. Sure, it's a Michael Bay movie, so it was going to be mostly predictable. The whole premise of the movie was that these attractive, naive people in white track suits lived on this technologically advanced island. The only way off was to win a lottery and go to someplace better. Of course this is all a hoax and the heroes find a way out blah, blah, blah. You lose dramatic tension if you show some of the final scenes of the movie in the trailer. Namely, dozens of the naive white-track suited people emerging from a giant hatch and wandering about like idiots.
The only movies that spoilers work for, are true life stories. I'm looking at you Titanic. Sure, you can show the ship sinking on that trailer cause everyone knows what happened. I had no idea what was going to happen to Jack and Rose from the trailer, but I knew the ship would sink. But then you have movies like Argo, which was based on true events, but still kept me on the edge of my seat, because they didn't show them landing safely back in the US in the trailer.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So NATO wants to put some tighter run times on trailers. No big deal. I don't see this really changing anything for my movie viewing outings. I would love it if they restricted trailers to footage from the first half of the movie. Or at least not footage that would make any sense out of context from the 2nd half. I know they want to wow people with some of the cool stuff, or funny moments, but don't put it all or even half the good stuff in the trailer!
Coming Soon: My Guide on How to Go to the Movies! It includes valuable tips and lessons on how to maximize your enjoyment at the theater and ensure that others around you get to enjoy the movie also.
grace, peace + hope
-Jesse
