Theaters Working To Make Even The Pre-Show Ads More Entertaining
from the good-for-everyone dept
Two different themes we've discussed here quite often are (1) that movie theaters need to stop worrying about piracy, and focus more on improving the moviegoing experience and (2) that advertising is content -- and it better be good content if you want the advertising to be effective. That's why it's somewhat encouraging to see that movie theaters are now experimenting with much more entertaining and interactive "pre-show" advertising. They're doing things like using motion sensors to have the audience "play" a game as a group, or having them use their mobile phones to vote on certain questions on the screen and immediately showing the results. That latter example may be doubly surprising considering how theaters these days are so anti-mobile phone. Still, while this is a move in the right direction, it's the wrong thing to be focusing on at this point. Improving the overall experience is much more important than making the pre-show ads better, so hopefully this is only one small part of what theaters are working on these days.
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Filed Under: advertising, content, movies, theaters
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Ugh!
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Re: Ugh!
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It's a relief
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The last two movies I went to were out of focus and out of frame. When I went to tell someone, they looked at me like I asked for free popcorn. The last movie I had to go out twice during the movie before they would fix anything.
Fix the movie experience and I don't care what content you throw at me before the movie.
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Too little, too late for some
Movie theaters are, for the most part, out-dated, badly managed and don't make for a very good time, as far as experiencing a movie goes. Making the advertising that you see before a movie more entertaining is sort of a step in the wrong direction, or at least blatantly ignoring the real issues that people have with going to see movies in a theater. You might as well tell someone that even though you're going to slam their dick in a car door, you're going to tickle their balls with a feather beforehand.
Clean up the pee/vomit, mercilessly kick out the talkers, tone down the air conditioning and we'll see.
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Re: Too little, too late for some
Oh, my God, I agree! I try to take a blanket to movies now and I get weird looks and my husband is embarrassed. But I'm fucking cold!
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Too much crud
Also, a long one by the National Guard show how they were part of the Revolution and assisting in disasters.
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I'll pay to avoid ads
Right now my strategy is to get to the theater 5 minutes after the advertised show time. Of course, I don't get a great seat, and sometimes I still get advertising, and sometimes I miss a few minutes of the movie. Those things combined probably contribute to the fact that I now see 2-3 movies a year in the theater, whereas 5 years ago I probably say 10-15 a year.
It's true that advertising should be entertaining if it must exist, but many of us will spend a price premium (in the form of higher ticket prices or more concession purchases) to avoid it altogether.
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Cell phone voting
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Re: Cell phone voting
I'd love to see some kind of interactivity at the theater.
EtG
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Re: Cell phone voting
People don't turn their phones off because they've forgotten about them. People don't turn them off because they think the world is all about them and *their* calls are more important than everyone else's. "Turning off phones is something everyone else should do, not me."
I bit the bullet and went and saw "Indiana Jones" in a theater a few weeks ago instead of waiting for the DVD like I do most movies and it was ridiculous. Three different people not only had their phones ring during the movie, but all three *took the call* and started yakking away right there in the seats-- and when the movie got louder, so did they so they could be heard over the soundtrack.
One teenage asshole even went so far as to start playing his mp3s out loud on his iPhone during the parts of the movie he found boring-- basically anything without explosions. He just turned on the music and sat back chatting with his girlfriend. I've never seen anything like it. Of course it's situations like that that make being a cop rather convenient. Tell the kid to turn it off once and after you get the finger, yank him up and start putting the cuffs on him for disturbing the peace. His "fuck everyone" attitude suddenly disappears and the tears and begging and apologies take its place real quick.
Bottom line, that's the last movie I'll go to in a theater for the foreseeable future. My home theater's visual and audio capabilities rival a theater presentation without any of the crap-- babies crying, people talking, cell phones ringing, parking charges, lines, uncomfortable seats, traffic, drive time-- none of it. I can watch the movie only with the people I like and if I have to go to the restroom or take a call myself, I can stop the movie and do it at my convenience without missing anything.
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Games
But the quality was pretty bad. If you're able to identify your personally little blob on the screen and start waving to pop the balloons (or whatever it is in the game), it seems woefully inaccurate. The most fun was the racing game where the crowd steers by leaning. I don't see how that would work on a theater, though, with one crowd. (Waiting in line, there were multiple screens parallel to a long line.) It's a good time waster, but not fantastic.
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Another thing I seem to recall that while waiting for Kung Fu Panda to start (great movie btw), some of the trailers being shown had more adult-oriented ratings than the movie I actually paid to see. I would not want to take my kids to see a clean movie only to have them watching previews with nasty stuff in them. That is completely unacceptable. Trailers shown in a particular theater should never exceed the rating of the feature movie you've come to see, for obvious reasons. Plus, they should be relevant to the type of film you're seeing as well.
There are movies I still want to see on the big screen, but I am going to think twice before going to the theater again and having to sit through all that crap. My home theater is pretty darn nice now with a 40" LCD and surround sound, the couches are much more comfortable than the theater chairs, and the snacks are a heck of a lot cheaper.
If the theaters honestly think they can "improve" the experience by constantly inflating snack prices far beyond what I consider reasonable and increasing the amount of ads one has to sit through while already having paid an arm and a leg for the ticket and above-mentioned snacks, then they are indeed going to die a slow, miserable death.
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Re: by Brad
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I think I'd rather scrape my skin off with a wooden spoon.
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Ads
I know theater owners want to make money by selling commercial space, but can't commercial-makers at least *try* to make something different for theater-goers?
If I wanted to see TV commercials, I'll stay at home. Heck, if I don't want to see ANY commercials, I'll get the movie from "In Demand".
I was about to say "get the movie on DVD", but we all know how loaded DVD's are with commercials and trailers, and other junk you can't skip.
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Re:
Personally, movie previews are part of the movie-going experience, even IF they are still ads. I like to see the big-screen trailers of upcoming movies, most of the time. Even if it's a movie that I'd never consider watching in a million years.
I think of ads at the theater, I think of the stuff that gets played before the scheduled start time. I have only rarely seen true ads after that point.
EtG
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Fantastic
> questions on the screen and immediately showing the results.
That's wonderful. All we need is more people encouraged to pull those little hellish gadgets out in a movie theater.
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Ads suck -- especially army ads
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***Only 50 cents per answer, 25 dollar minimum.***
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I remember...
I remember when they used to play cartoons before the main event.
They didn't remind anybody to turn off their cell phones, but then, cell phones hadn't been invented yet. :)
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Complaining about the wrong part
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