What is Digg?150 Comments
- chatwithaninja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11No Thanks.
I am tired of everyone screaming "make a law!" for everything. We've got enough laws. Let consumer pressure force them to cut it out. All we need is a chain of theaters stating what time their movies actually start, and advertisements slamming their competition for false start times, and then we'll see if people really care or not.
And if that never happens, fine. Go to the theater for yourself and ask the manager what time the movie actually starts if its so horrible to sit there for an extra 15 minutes. - stealthboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+41) We don't need more laws to try to dictate common sense. You don't like the advertisements? DON'T GO TO THE MOVIES. It's that simple. Nobody is forcing you. We simply do not need more laws.
2) I found a local cinema that cares more about the art of film, and actually plays good films without ads or anything. Find a theater that cares and give them your money. - jobeats, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@Critcol
damn, thanks for pointing that out. Even though this still appears to be an issue with movie theaters. Found out that the bill didn't make it and the motion failed 3/3/05
http://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/CGABillStatus/CGAbillstatus.asp?selBillType=Bill&bill_num=HB6270 - jessecrouch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4no more stupid laws.
yes i don't really appreciate having to wait to see a movie, but this is way too much intevention into the free market. even if you *do* want to complain about it you need to realize that this is the way that movie studios do a lot of advertising and the way theaters make a lot of their money. it may be annoying, but it's also helping to keep your prices down. if such things were passed you might easily see a good 10%+ bump in ticket costs.
whatever the case.. market intervention by politicians is unnecessary and harmful to not only the market, but to your freedoms. it may be directed at business, but businesses are made of people too. the more little stupid laws they pass like this the closer they come to taking away your personal rights.
lets encourage market competition and innovation instead of reducing freedom and making more laws we don't need. - Craig1394, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I like watching the movie trailers, it is the ***** TV commercials and that Fandango talking bag crap that I hate. Oh well, I would still show up early so I can get a good seat.
- jobeats, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2link to original story
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ae/movies/2993012.html - mferrell3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't like the ads either, but we are a capitalist society and thus, the government should take its fat hands out of it. If we stop going to the movies, maybe revenue will go down even more than it already has (it's not BitTorrent's fault, Hollywood).
On a side note, wouldn't it have been better to link to the original story and not someone reporting on another report? - Schmitty, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Why is this news? In fact, why is a state rep wasting his constituent's valuable time with this? I mean seriously, this is as stupid as that whole "Freedom Toast" legislation that was passed a while ago. After all, waiting 10 minutes for a movie to start is a FAR more important issue than, say, the economy? Or that silly little Iraq thing.
- Detour, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1WHAT PISSES ME OFF THE MOST IS YOU GO EARLY AND GET A CHOICE SEAT, RIGHT? THEN SOME ***** COMES IN WITH 5 KIDS RIGHT AS THE MOVIE STARTS AND SITS IN FRONT OF YOU, OR... HE ASKS YOU TO SLIDE DOWN A SEAT TO MAKE ROOM FOR HIS INBRED SPAWN.
- tryferos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Stealthboy is on the right track....Until the theaters actually care about their customers, home theaters and bittorrent will continue to take customers. Along with the dirty, worn down, noisy theaters around where I live, there is just no reason to go to anything other then your occassional "its been out for 3 weeks matinee"
If the theater owners/management would just clean up the theaters, strictly enforce the no cell phones, no talking, and stop the 30-45 minutes of ads before a movie, they could actually draw people to theater.
I do think though that a law is a little extreme, what are you gonna do, call the cops if the theater doesnt follow the rule? Call a lawyer? No one would even care if they break that law, and good luck on getting it enforced. - Fieri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1THIS IS ILLEGAL. THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO RIGHT TO TELL THEATERS WHAT THEY MUST DO.
- Virtuoso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I doubt they will really get around to this. Think of it this way; when a TV show starts you may see the intro and then go straight to commercial. I know I for one hate it when that happens, but... whatever I don't complain cause I am at home. If they can do it for TV shows why can't they do it for movie theatres... I'm just thinking pratically. However if they could tell us the actual running time that would be great. But like the article says... I usually just show up 15 mins late anyway.
- vstarre, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1p.s.: where did you find popcorn that cost as much as $1.00? is it diamond-encrusted?
- Lsvcake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1best idea ever!
- Chozabu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1man! i live in the uk, and only saw this happen the other day, when i got digital(freeview)
and only on 1 channel - ABC i tihnk
no worries on tv though, i can check other channels and do stuff while the ads are on
i dunno how easy it would be to do in films though, the opening credits often smoothly and slowly blend into the film - neozeed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just what we need, more silly laws!
This will be up there with the no ice cream on tuesdays on the sidewalk type laws. - marksven, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Excellent idea. Even better would be if we had assigned seating like some other countries do in their movie theaters. Then we can show up right before the movie starts without having to go early to get a good seat.
- mntpng, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is the very reason why I have stopped going to the movie theater. I'm not paying to go see thirty minutes of commercials. It's that simple.
- superterran, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Movie theaters have overpriced popcorn, drinks, twisters and they always show half an hour of previews before the movie actually starts. If you don't like it, don't go to the theater. They aren't ran by the government, the government shouldn't be telling them how to run their business. If they were extorting money from me or killing babies the government should step in. If people have _this_ much of a problem with movie show times, then somebody should start a new theater where they don't do that and charge $20 admission. That's called competition, and it's made possible by capitalism... Stupid laws like these don't help people, they hurt business.
- MarkStrube, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sorry but if this passes, and most people start showing up at the "actual" showtime, the theaters are just going to find different and possibly more annoying ways to make money from advertising. New laws are never the answer. If you hate it so much go to a different theater or stop going all together, and let them know why.
- caldroun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Fark that...Who would think that this would make a GOOD law? This guy apparently doesn't have anything better to do. I mean...is there a law that requires you to show up for work on time? no. Is there a law to say that a store MUST open on time? no. This is another dumb-ass trying to win the Movie Geek vote. If you don't like the commercials...complain to your theater, or wherever...but not a law.
- j0keR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm against ***** laws too, but what the theaters are doing seems a lot like false advertisement to me. They're being untrue about a product (I guess) that they're selling. They sell you a ticket to see the movie at a given time, and when you get in there... It doesn't start for 20 minutes. I would say that this justifies a law. When coorperations are abusing their customers we NEED laws. They are controlled by a monopoly that is convinced that they're losing money because of piracy, which is the wrong reason-- entirely.
- VeritasAequitas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11.theaters don't make much from ticket sales, most of that goes to the rental of the print and many movies run and take a loss in the box office, which means other movies have to make up the difference .
2.Concessions are overpriced but that's where theaters actually make their money and if you would stop sneaking in stuff prices might stabilize (they'll never go back down.)
3. the ads suck, we all know this, and the projectionist hates them as much as you do. it took me on average an hour to splice together a movie, a quarter of that at least was spent putting on those damn ads. then they'd go and change them the next week, and I'm not going to even begin to tell you how hard it is to fix that crap.
4. many theaters that don't deal in HIGH traffic of customers simply don't start movies if no one is there for it. saves bulb time and also many projectionists are actually managers too, and you simply have so much going on that its one less thing to do. so if you all start showing up 20 min after start time, your movie may not be running. If you're lucky the projectionist will be nice and start it late for you, but you're still sitting through those damn ads. and if you would have met me in such a situation when I managed I would have told you that you are SOL and gave you a copy of the schedule.
Ads suck, trailers are tolerable, and projectionists hate everyone. those are the facts. Stop crying about it, its capitalism. Either that or go read a book, its about the only source of media that doesn't have commercials of some kind. ps this legislation was created for the masses that aren't geeks like us and don't download movies and such. most people just live in ignorant bliss and deal with it. - kali25, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Most of you are applauding this? This is total BS. Why does the government want to regulate everything. Government needs to get the hell out of business. It should not pass and the person who proposed it should be smacked around some. Boo hoo, you whiners. If you don't like it DON'T GO TO THAT THEATER!! I know there is about 10 minutes of trailers before a movie. But I am not going to get there the minute the movie starts, I am coming 30 minutes before so I can get a decent seat.
- scottperezfox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Another bad habit the Americans picked up from the British. They have been showing a half-hor of ads for about ten years. Its common place.
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing ads at the cinema if it helped offset the cost of the ticket. But since ticket prices are rising, I have all but boycotted the cinema.
Thanks BitTorrent! - urmothersmother, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't mind the ads so much. Most of them are played before the start time. But when do we get to see a break in prices. For one person to go see a movie in a top rate theater costs about twenty bucks. Anything you buy is five bucks hell a bottle of water is three. If they want to step in and fix something how about being raped.
- rawr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Movies start at conception!
- lenwood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I agree that movies starting later and later is a problem, but I don't agree that we should handle this in the courts. And while I don't live in CT, I wish that Rep. Andrew Fleischmann would give up this petty theater crap, and start actually doing something for his constituents. They're paying him to come up with THIS crap? Lame. I hope he loses office in the next election.
- Xopl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Every time you go to a theater, or buy a DVD, take an equal amount of money and donate to somebody who is anti-MPAA like the EFF.
- eean, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0bah marked as old news.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this is a ***** idea. if you don't like it, don't go to the theater. it is and should be the theater's choice. i hate previews as much as the next guy, but passing legislation just isn't the answer. americans need to stop thinking that they should pass legislation for everything that they don't like.
- icu_, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A good idea, but getting rid of the ads/previews is the only thing that could make me happy. You still have to fight for a decent seat.
Hollywood thinks movie-going is going down due to Bit torrent. MORONS. It is going down because the theater-going experience is for ***** these days. The whole experience is miserable, taxing, overpriced . . . I won't go on a rant.
This combined with the advent of the 'home theater" (and people being motivated to watch movies at home because the movie theaters suck) is the reason nobody wants to deal with it all. - hottyson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Even though it might seem cool to me to know the time of the actual start of the movie I have to say that this type of injustice to the movie theater buisness is unjust BS. I am so sick of the laws enforcing control of people and what to do in this country. What ever happened to the good old freedom of our capitalist America. We are turning into a bunch of socialist demanding that our freedoms be taken over by over-policing! The laws are turning to over control all aspects of our American lives. Demand our freedoms! Let the movie theaters do what they want and let the people respond freely to refuse to go to the theaters or not. People can choose to go or not if they are not happy with the premovie advertisements. There are so many laws getting out of hand. I want my freedoms back!
- isosceles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0...this is how our senators spend their time and money--I'm at a loss for words.
- edmicman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Theaters don't make crap on the advertisements after the movie starts. You think Coke or Verizon paid your specific megaplex 9000 money to show the same commercials they play on TV? Nope. Local businesses can pay the theater to show ads, sure. But most of their money comes from sales of concession stand stuff. It's just that much closer to a global media domiated by a few companies (Time Warner? ClearChannel? etc.?) that dictate national marketing onto the poor consumers. The local theater can't even do anything if you complain to them....they're working from a national mandate. Good luck.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0From what I heard and researched, the price of the movies, the actual film reels, is very expensive to rent. That is why they charge you $5 for a coke that is full of ice, and not allow you to bring your own. I read that is the reason most drive in theaters have gone out of business. People bring their own food and drinks, and generally less people can fit per movie due to the whole car thing. Perhaps some theaters show advertising to be greedy, maybe others need it to end up in the positive. If some law was passed that let people skip the ads, the theaters would probably get even less money from the advertisers. Its like popup ads, you wouldn't pay to have a popup ad if you knew lots of people were going to block them, at least not pay as much. Fixing this problem could cause another problem, or raise other issues like the high cost of film reels in the first place.
- Deputy_Doodah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0How about legislation saying that any theater owner who shows commercials to patrons who PAID to see a movie should be summarily executed with? They could dip them in vats of that boiling fake butter they drench the popcorn with.
- musicbear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It's silly to make it a law and indeed as half a dozen have pointed out...repeatedly... it didn't pass... almost a year ago...
What it does do however is point out what a concern this is to many folks in the face of a business crying over this past year about how bad it's doing. This same business that has done NOTHING to change it's model for showing films when folks have made it quite clear what they do and do not want at a theater presentation. How many remakes and Deuce Bigalow movies do you have to foist on an unimpressed audience before you stop greenlighting Jessica Simpson movies? This is an industry with it's head in the sand that will be left behind for new technologies and business models without ever taking it's head out of the sand. So you kids going into business careers take notes... this how a business purposely self destructs. - koenkai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Eh, who cares? Does anyone go to the theaters still? LOL Netflix-it, watch it on-demand, or just buy the dvd. Some movie studios are now considering coordinating theater releases w/dvd releases...I don't want to pay $7 for a movie + $10 for popcorn & a drink when for that much I could buy a newly released dvd or almost pay for a month of Netlfix. I can wait the 2-3 months before the movie is released on dvd...
- samalex1701, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Though I hate the fact that movies don't annouce the time they really start due to advertisements and such, the government has zero reason to get involved. If they got involved in every freakin annoyance of everyday life we'd have bills being passed that made it against the law to go into a (10 items or less) lane at the super market with 11 items, to use the Self Checkout when you have zero clue, or to talk loudly on the cellphone. The world is full of annoying things, but the government needs to keep their hose out of such things -- they have enough to worry about.
- JFetch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0About a decade ago a guy sued his doctor because he was made to wait 45 minutes after his appointment time. I don't know what happened because the media doesn't like to tell you what happens in these kind of stories. I think if you are going to give a specific time, you should be held responsible for being ready at that time since we are expected to. If you show up halfway through the movie and demand your money back because they didn't wait until you showed up to play, it what are they going to say? Reverse that and that's what is happening.
- FreyrVanir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If the newspaper or the internet say a movie starts at 4:15 I just make it so i'm sitting down at 4:25. Then again I haven't gone to a movie in over a year, so it might be worse now.
The RIAA keeps saying there profits are down. Well stop giving out hundreds of millions of dollars of free "swag" to actors. My mother and sister were watching a tv show talking about this, I thought I was going to choke on my drink when I heard some of the prices. At one event this one actor left with over 100k in free stuff. - monticello, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Look, someone who knows what he's talking about! He has no place in this comment section. Let's resume ***** about how the theaters are the devil, and how movies should be free.
Also let's get back on that "piracy doesn't hurt anyone" garbage. - deepsub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Even if it's a year old, it's still a GREAT idea.
Dupe/Newness nazi's: not everyone has seen it, so it's new to us. - Pxtl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Warning: mysql_pconnect(): Too many connections in /Library/WebServer/Documents/hs/lib/adodb/drivers/adodb-mysql.inc.php on line 356
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w00t! - ibelite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I attend something called regal cinemas...where they have Twenty Minutes of ads before the show, and here's their lovely marketing spin line........"The Twenty, Entertainment Ignited" ....then again i was curious as to the nature of the sudden pressure to increase ads. After taking a look at their profit...its understandable.... http://investor.regalcinemas.com/edgar.cfm?DocType=Quarterly&Year=
- michaelfoley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0When the theaters started running commercials they didn't reduce the ticket and food prices, I remember it all started with American Express in the 90's. I propose a campaign to get the audience to ignore the commercials, how about a sing-a-long, "row-row-row-your-boat" or "99 bottles of beer on the wall" anyone? Christmas Carols for Christmas Movies? The charity drives and the "sit down, don't' litter, don't smoke, and shut up" are fine. As for previews, put a kiosk outside the entrance, let the patrons pick what previews they want to see with the system reporting the selections back to the theater, the studios and randomly enforcing a minimum number of previews. OR how about this, for every minute between the published start time and the actual start time, the theater knocks 1% off the ticket price, with a penalty for lying.
- TypeMRT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0But isn't it the job of government to reign business in when it takes advantage of consumers, in this case through deception?
- Mongoose, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Very good idea. +digg
- Pxtl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0whoops, wrong article. My bad. Meant for the f5 attack.
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