NEW YORK – The audience at a weekday showing of “Legally Blonde” at Loews 34th Street Cinema was ready to laugh, but had to wait – first they had to sit through:
• A spot about cell-phone etiquette sponsored by Cingular Wireless;
• A Sprite commercial;
• A promotion for the “Superman Ultimate Flight” ride at Six Flags Great Adventure; and
• A Revlon lip gloss “Cinderella” ad.
Then, the previews started. Fifteen minutes after its listed starting time, the main feature was finally ready to roll.
But after $10 for a ticket ($11.50 if you order by phone), $5 for popcorn and $4 for a soda, many moviegoers say having to sit through a string of ads is just too much.
“The commercials annoy the hell out of me,” says Karen Sternberg, 27, of Manhattan.
People who feel like Sternberg are starting to fight back. Earlier this year, lawyers for a 37-year-old moviegoer filed a class-action lawsuit against Loews Cineplex Odeon in Chicago, claiming that the four minutes of commercials she sat through represent consumer fraud and breach of contract – essentially, that projecting ads prior to a feature film without informing consumers of the film’s actual starting time constitutes a deceptive business practice.
“The reason I come to the movies is to not see commercials,” agrees Nick Ruddy, 24, of Long Island.
Loews has responded to the lawsuit with a statement declaring it “frivolous and completely without merit.” Product hawking in theaters is almost as old as the movies themselves: Exhibitors in the 1930s and “40s would trot out pitchmen to perform product-sponsored acts between the newsreels and feature presentations.
But today, the hard sell is less novel and more nerve-racking as moviegoers sit through more projected ads than ever before.
Theater chains show approximately four minutes of ads, divided into 30-second and 60-second spots.
Advertisers would be happy for theaters to sandwich in more spots, but the theaters don’t want to push their luck: three to four minutes is the unofficial amount they’re willing to concede.
“That’s a fair and tolerable level for the average patron, and it would be an error to run more than that,” says Cliff Marks, president of marketing and sales at the Regal CineMedia theater chain.
Regal packages its prefeature commercials into a 20-minute smorgasbord of behind-the-scenes specials, videos and ads called “The 2wenty.”
“We’ve made the decision to turn down (more ads), because it would be unacceptable” to audiences, Marks says. “But the exhibition business is not getting rich. This is a critical means of revenue. Most of a $10 ticket goes to the movie studios.”
In the first weeks of a first-run feature, the major studios typically are entitled to receive up to 90 percent of the ticket price as a rental fee.
According to Screenvision, an advertising agency specializing in such ads, about 24,000 of the 35,000 theaters around the country now show them. Last year, the ads generated $100 million in revenue for the theaters.
For advertisers, movie commercials offer a big-ticket way to make an impact, since they’re made specifically for theaters and are better produced to take advantage of the big screen.
Once the spots are made, firms such as Screenvision and National Cinema Network sell them to chains like Loews. Advertisers can specify how to show them – for example, before G, PG, PG-13 or R-rated movies, or any combination, depending on the target demographic. The ads rotate every four to five weeks.
“The likelihood of remembering (a movie ad) is greater, because your attention is 100 percent devoted to it, unlike on TV, where you can flip channels or leave the room, ” says Todd Siegel, executive vice president of Screenvision.
Theater chains do report some complaints, but overall the exposure may be paying off: A recent Arbitron study showed that 66 percent of moviegoers “accept” commercials before movies; among teens, that number goes up to 76 percent. Among patrons 55 and older, 59 percent approve of them.
But judging from the occasional moans that greet them, the impact of ads, especially in New York, is limited.
“I never remember what they were,” says Brad Fryman, 32, of Manhattan.
Still, he has an idea that might help commercials go down easier: “If we’re paying to sit there, how about we get a free soda?”
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(c) 2003, New York Daily News.
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AP-NY-07-17-03 0913EDT
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