Movie theater time listing law

[Ghoulish Delight]

http://www.nbc4.tv/irresistible/4238574/detail.html

A guy in Illinois is propsing a law that would require theaters to list both the starting time of the trailers, and the actual starting time of the movie. He says that, among other things, parents scheduling baby sitters deserve to know more precise schedule information. Meanwhile, theaters argue that it will adversly affect trailer exposure. Showing trailers is a large part of a theater's revenue.

What do you think? Personally, I think it's dumb for 2 reasons.

1) A freaking law? Piss off. This should not be legislated, it's not the place of government to set marketing practices.

2) Even if this weren't a law, but say a theater chain bandying the ida about, I don't like it. You go to a theater, even with the 10 minute preview buffer, people show up late and damn do I hate that. Tell them EXACTLY when the cutoff is, and that's just going to get worse as people will take every second you give 'em. Nope, I say, encourage as much early arrival as possible.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Nope, don't like it either. The last thing we need is to make laws such as these.

The system works fine as it is. Does a babysitter really need a schedule down to the absolute minute? Has there been a lot of instances where someone gets home at 10:47 instead of 10:33, causing much panic and chaos to ensue?

I think not.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Yeah, I'm not liking this either, for all the reasons you've already mentioned.

[MickeyD]

I will agree that it would be a ridiculous thing to legislate, however, I personally kinda like the idea of two listing times, myself. Mostly because I'm sick of watching the damn commercials that they play in theaters.

[Jazzman]

I agree; Piss off. This country has become far too legislation happy. Every time someone runs into something they don't personally like, they start campaigning for new laws. I remember a quote from my youth that seems to handle situations like that pretty well. It goes like this, "Deal With It."

And with all that is going on in the world, someone actually believes that making laws governing movie schedules is a priority? How stupidly trivial.

I hope this dork gets laughed out of the legislature.

[Gemini Cricket]

I hope this dork gets laughed out of the legislature.
Yeah.

I mean, he feels he is being forced to watch previews. Doy. Sometimes the previews are better that the movie you're gonna watch.

Previews are just part of the experience. It's the commercials that tick me off. And as was said, I hate it when people walk in late after the previews and sometimes well into the movie.

Urgh. :mad: :)

[Cadaverous Pallor]

A law??? Grrrr. This guy needs to move to a country where there isn't a free film industry. Maybe then he'll appreciate the freedoms he enjoyed here.

[mousepod]

Obviously, legislating this is pretty silly. But if they get away with passing this law, the corollary should be that nobody will be admitted into the theater once the feature starts. If "the law" wants to make sure that the general public isn't annoyed by the theater, they should also protect the general public from the general public.

If this law does come to pass, I wonder how much ticket prices will rise, because empty theaters before showtime will lower the theater's advertising and concession revenue...

[Motorboat Cruiser]

If this law does come to pass, I wonder how much ticket prices will rise, because empty theaters before showtime will lower the theater's advertising and concession revenue...

A very good point.

[sleepyjeff]

It is not the governments place to make laws against harmless annoyences....especially when the law will actually benifit those who are most annoying(latecomers to a movie).........

[CoasterMatt]

There are a few theaters that already do list the time that the trailers start, and the actual film start time

[Ghoulish Delight]

There are a few theaters that already do list the time that the trailers start, and the actual film start time:eek: Are they legally allowed to do that.

[Scrooge McSam]

You think this guy Franks is sitting at home, all smug in the belief that he's getting the job done for the folks back home? Or surprised at the coverage his idea is getting?

[mousepod]

There are some multiplexes here that even list the size of each theater (screen size and number of seats), so when you spend your allowance on the latest blockbuster, you know you'll be seeing it at a nice big screen, and not jammed in some smelly corner theater.

Which brings up another point for me. Here in San Francisco, unless you're going to a bargain matinee, you have to arrive about an hour before show time to get a decent seat for a first-run hit. Whether I know that the actual feature is going to start at 8:00 or 8:18, if I'm not in my seat by 7:30, I'm gonna be in the first or last row.

This is so very silly (but at least it's keeping me out of the icky political thread).

[Ghoulish Delight]

You think this guy Franks is sitting at home, all smug in the belief that he's getting the job done for the folks back home? Or surprised at the coverage his idea is getting?
Well...
Franks admitted his issue isn't of the earth-shaking variety. He said he won't fall on his sword for it.

[Tref]

I do not agree with that law at all, though, I do believe -- with all my heart -- that there should be at least one new law aimed directly at our so-called, moving picture theaters. And you can misquote me on this.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

I am going to write a book about Movie Theatres some day. I worked projection for 16 years and put up all those trailers. Briefly: In the beginning, we put on what we wanted, then the chains/ studios figured they could make $$ by marrying the prints and the trailers to the point of me loosing my mind. Changes requested at the last second because some Asshole producer was coming to see a film and we had to show a trailer. That's just one thing. I could go on for chapters (So buy the book if it ever comes out)

BUT, although we were "Regulated" by what went on; I always was one to make the programing go as quickly as possiible, like cut the "Green" at the start either completely off or in half. If it was a preview that had a 4 min version and a 60 second version, I'd use the .60 second. Etc, etc.

When I picked what went on, it was LA Times, Coke, 3 previews, the "Logo" and sound logo - that's it. Plus if a trailer sucked, it never went on. In addition, I would always put the "cool" trailer last, right before the feature. Mostly, so I could run down and watch it in house. :)

Buy my book...there will be naughty stuff in it...

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Which brings up another point for me. Here in San Francisco, unless you're going to a bargain matinee, you have to arrive about an hour before show time to get a decent seat for a first-run hit. Whether I know that the actual feature is going to start at 8:00 or 8:18, if I'm not in my seat by 7:30, I'm gonna be in the first or last row. I think it's the same own here. If I'm going to a brand new hit movie, I'm going to get there an hour in advance at least. I don't mind hanging out in line in order to get good seats.

[Prudence]

I generally dislike people (well, at least sticky ones. In groups. With cell phones.) so we wait until the movie's been out a few weeks and then go to the first showing on a weekend. Matinee prices and fewer people. I used to prefer "adult" audiences to "kid" audiences, but lately the "kid" audiences have been better behaved.

And I've become picky about theaters. I'll only go to the ones with stadium seating and I like to sit in the last row of the first section (usually "ground level" is an aisle midway up with seating above and below). Stadium seating means I won't get stuck with world's tallest person plopping down in front of me five minutes into the movie when I can't change seats anymore. And back row of the front section means no one puts their feet in my hair.

[innerSpaceman]

Since no one else has, I'm going to play devil's advocate and chime in with an opinion in favor of the proposed law. I am a strong advocate of consumer protection laws, which include regulations requiring truth in advertising.

This whole issue of movie start time vs. trailer start time came about when theaters started showing over half an hour of trailers and commercials in New York City. It is only the greed of theater owners and studios that have necessitated consumer protection on this front. I will gladly pay a dollar more to ensure that I only get 10 minutes of trailers and, yes, a regulation that will leave empty seats in the theaters for the first 20 minutes of the half-hour trailerfest will soon accomplish just that.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Since no one else has, I'm going to play devil's advocate and chime in with an opinion in favor of the proposed law. I am a strong advocate of consumer protection laws, which include regulations requiring truth in advertising.I'm only for consumer protection laws when it's something that's A) well beyond consumer control and B) risks something more serious than wasting 20 minutes or seeing a commercial.

For example, I'm more than happy that consumer protection laws have cut the rate of E coli infected ground beef in half over the past few years. I would NOT be happy if consumer portection laws increased already bloated theater ticket prices and caused more people to step on my feet as they show up late for a movie. It's common knowledge that the movie doesn't actually start until at least 10 minutes after the listed show time. We don't need legal intervention to deal with that, it's a ridiculous waste of time and resources.

[FEJ]

MAybe they could tell us which version of "the 20" is going to be in which theater and what group of Movie Trivia I am going to get...hate knowing all the answers every time :)

[lizziebith]

Since no one else has, I'm going to play devil's advocate and chime in with an opinion in favor of the proposed law. I am a strong advocate of consumer protection laws, which include regulations requiring truth in advertising.

This whole issue of movie start time vs. trailer start time came about when theaters started showing over half an hour of trailers and commercials in New York City. It is only the greed of theater owners and studios that have necessitated consumer protection on this front. I will gladly pay a dollar more to ensure that I only get 10 minutes of trailers and, yes, a regulation that will leave empty seats in the theaters for the first 20 minutes of the half-hour trailerfest will soon accomplish just that.

Hallelujah!

Might I just second ISM's call for protection; it was a loooooong time ago when the time of a movie's start got pushed back in the interest of the "man" and we've all just sat back and taken it. I, for one, am DISGUSTED that there are now stupid commercials played IN FRONT OF SOMETHING I ALREADY PAID TO SEE!

And, maybe to start another irate thread, remember when you paid for cable because it was COMMERCIAL-FREE??? Now we even get logos super-imposed on every freaking show. Damn them. Damn them all to hell.

[innerSpaceman]

It's common knowledge that the movie doesn't actually start until at least 10 minutes after the listed show time.
Exactly. Which is why half-an-hour is way out of line, and why theaters need to be forced to tell their customers when it's not going to be the customary 10 minutes, but rather will be one quarter of the running time of the film they came to see.