A Balanced Perspective

Shhh! The Ads Are About to Start
Pre-Movie Commercial Creep Is Nothing New, but Some Folks Aren't Taking It Sitting Down
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"Not all venues are going the way of 'The 2wenty.'

Landmark Theatres, an art house chain with locations in the District and Bethesda, runs 10 to 12 minutes of commercials and trailers, but chooses spots -- like a series of independent shorts sponsored by Stella Artois beer -- that mirror the spirit of the indie and foreign films on the marquee. "We've had a lot of positive feedback because of showing the shorts," says Ray Price, Landmark's vice president in charge of marketing. "We actually had one patron who went in and watched the short, then tried to leave because he thought the movie was over."

Most of the coverage on this blog about Movie Theater Advertising (which is quickly becoming one of the hottest issues in this arena) has been one-sidedly negative. This article continues to point out many of those same negative sentiments and lots of interesting numbers about the market that the exhibitors are trying to capture and the magnitude of moviegoers response. But it also visits how to do it right.

Advertising is based on what I consider to be a extremely noble idea. You're connecting people who want to make and do things with people who want what they make and would like to support those people as their patrons. On top of that, I'm a fan of how advertising on TV and the internet support useful communication and entertainment media, more things that people want.

This sort of thing embodies both of those ideas and in doing so, succeeds (measured by people's positive response) where typical pre-show advertising fails.