Tonight we went to see a 4:50 showing of Wonder Woman. The actual movie began at 5:18. 28 minutes after the advertised showtime seems longer to me. I must admit to not really keeping track in the past, but I don’t think it was much over 15 minutes in years gone by.
But I’m going to fewer and fewer movies these days, so maybe I’m just noticing it more when I’m there.
What’s your experience? Any commentary on this particular phenomenon out there on the web? Anybody with actual facts on the matter?
There are definitely a few theaters that have gotten really bad. The local Regal is about 30 minutes, like you said. Not every chain is this bad, but I think 30 minutes is ridiculous.
In my experience, it’s usually fifteen to twenty minutes before the actual film starts, but the movie I just saw didn’t actually start until 25 minutes after the posted time. You can ask at the box office and they should be able to tell you when the film will start.
Yes, it probably is getting longer, but I don’t have a problem with that.
I actually enjoy the Previews of Coming Attractions, so as long as that is what they are showing (as opposed to stupid commercials for Pepsi or Edible Arrangements) then I am happy to sit through them and consider it part of the program.
Also, since so many morons like to roll in ten to fifteen minutes after the published showtime, this helps minimize the disruption of my enjoyment to the actual feature film due to people fussing around trying to find a seat long after they should be seated and silent.
When I worked at Cinemark in, I think, 2000, it was 18 minutes. I remember there was a slightly longer time for new big movies with a big audience versus a smaller showing, but I don’t remember if the 18 minutes was the longer or shorter one.
Here movie sbegins 2-3 minutes after the listed time maximum, would’ve be false advertising if not. Though they do tell you to take your seat 10 minutes before.
I have noticed assigned seating popping up over the last six months. I first encountered it in Chicagoland over the holidays at a fancy theater with the recliner chairs and such. But it’s certainly not a standard thing.
Over the past 5 years or so, most of the theaters in the Boston burbs have put in recliners & assigned seating, which you can pick when you order online. Extremely useful for getting in 10 minutes “late” and skipping previews. The only exception I can think of is an Imax at a furniture store.
The studios want to run trailers; they have a captive audience that matches the demographics they want to reach. It adds to word of mouth, too?
The second reason is to accommodate latecomers. If you’re aiming for an 8:00 showing, but get caught in traffic and arrive at 8:10, you still don’t miss anything.
Note that advertisements end at the listed showtimes; it’s just trailers after that.
This has been my experience in the Chicago areas although I only hit two or three theaters so maybe it’s not representative. And these aren’t the “Dinner & a Movie” types but just standard popcorn theaters where someone must have thought “Audiences are down by 50% so, to save the other 50% and keep the room full, we can increase the seat and aisle sizes.”
Oh, that’s the other thing – lots of room between you and the row ahead of you. No more of this everyone scrunching up because someone needs the restroom or not being able to cross your leg. I bought our tickets online in advance and we had reserved seats but you can still buy at the door. You just won’t necessarily get the seat you want by arriving early.
Anyway, our time between “Show time” and Wonder Woman actually starting was ~25 minutes. But the previews weren’t bad (not that I’d see half the movies) and we had nowhere to be so no complaints.
I used to be a manager for the AMC chain and specific trailers were mandated for certain shows. These came from the “home office” (usually a division office dictated by geography). There were AMC checkers who would drop in the theater unannounced and watch a scheduled show start with a check list to make sure all the trailers we were told to show were actually appearing onscreen.
So the abuse of trailers (6-7 is common now for the big chains) is a franchise problem. I rarely see more than 4 at smaller chains or independent art houses. But if I go to a chain, I’ll often ask when the show breaks (ends) and having already researched the film’s actual run time, I can tell how many minutes will be devoted to trailers.
When I lived in England, they always advertised two show starts: when the “program” started and when the actual film went onscreen. But they also had actual commercial-commercials as part of the show (not just the “pre-show” like it often is now) so that info came in handy because seeing those adverts repeatedly was an easy way to grow to hate them (they varied far less than the assorted trailers would).
We had six trailers I remember (Hitman’s Bodyguard, Geostorm, Atomic Blonde, Bladerunner 2049, Murder on the Orient Express, Transformers) plus two pre-trailer “behind the scene previews” during the movie trivia and Coke commercial section (Mummy and Valerian).
Yeah it is about 20-25 minutes at my theater. As a person who likes seeing trailers on the big screen, it doesn’t bother me so much (although sometimes even my patience gets tested). I remember many years ago there was some consumer push back on this and some theaters even went as far to list two start times, one for when the the trailers start and one when the movie actually starts (or at least considered doing this) but the anger subsided and all that went away.
One of the things that I appreciate about our local small-town theater is that, unlike larger cinemas, they do not run commercials (Coke, Cars, and cellphones), only 2-3 trailers (for films that will eventually show up in said cinema), and then get on with the movie. Generally 10 minutes from advertised start to film start. The thing I don’t like is the short run lengths (some shows get 2-3 days, most get a week, a few get 2 weeks but that is the economics of the area) and lack of screens (one town, one screen). $10/show, $8 for matinees and seniors.
When I lived in Toronto, 10 years ago, you’d get an advert for Coke (never Pepsi), a Car ad (often Honda) , a cellphone plan ad, an anti-piracy spot, 3-4 trailers, an encouragement to visit the snack counter, and advertisement for the cinema club card/credit card, then 20 - 25 minutes after scheduled start, the movie @ $14-16 a show. I assume it has only gotten worse.
ETA: Oh I forgot - a recruitment spot for the Canadian Armed forces was often run too.
Over the last few years many theater chains have changed their seating structure.
The Movie Tavern and “Dinner in the Theater” chains have all become assigned seating. When they opened it was first come, first serve, but that lead to extreme long lines on Friday & Saturday nights.
Chains like AMC and many Regals are updating seating to recliners and selling alcohol. Those theaters are all assigned seating.
I have two Regal theaters near me though that are not assigned seating. They of course have the old style seating. But one of them have taken the name’s of the movies that play in each screen ,off of the sign on top of the door. The signs out front merely say “Screen 1”, “Screen 2”, etc… In this theater you need to keep your ticket stub in order to know what screen your film’s playing. I assume they did this to cut down on people screen hopping, to see more movies for the price of one.
As for the lead time up towards the movie starting, I think a lot of that has to do with the “size” of the picture. Recently I just saw “Wonder Woman” and earlier “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2”, both are big budget films and had about 30 minutes of ads and previews. BUT, I recently also saw “Wilson” and “The Zookeepers Wife”, two smaller films, and their lead time was 10, 15 minutes.