I think habitual lateness tends to protect me from the prior advertising most of the time—I'm lucky if I catch any previews in the theatre.
Picking nits, but the previews aren't what's being referred to as ads. Actual ads for soft drinks, scents and SUVs, run before the movie. I don't mind 'em at the $3.50 anytime theatre, but they make me complain to management when I've paid $10.00 for a ticket.
Most anything the cinema chooses to do with their screen before the listed movie time is okay with me. I do like to be there, but that's the time I can talk, surf the web on my PDA, read a book, whatever. I'm still waiting for what I paid for.
From ticketed time onwards, though, I get testy.
Mickey, in that sentence I was using "previews" to mean movie trailers themselves. I'm generally in my seat about 2-5 minutes after start time, and am lucky if they're still showing actual previews rather than the movie itself.
I don't mind 'em at the $3.50 anytime theatre, but they make me complain to management when I've paid $10.00 for a ticket.
And without em, it'd probably be $20.00 for a ticket.
Not necessarily. I watch movies in the SF area, and although there are ads in slideshows, there are generally not movie ads before the trailers. (Bother. By "movie ads" I mean "ads that are movies", not "ads for movies".)
I paid $10.00 a head to go to ROTS, no ads.
They show TV ads here. Ads that you see on TV, and ads
for
TV. I admit, everyone pretty looks prettier that way. I kinda like it.
The Metreon in downtown SF has $10 tickets, a slideshow, about 3 minutes of ads, then another 5-7 minutes of previews.
Out in the Avenues, the Balboa Theater has excellent and imaginative second-run double bills for $8 or $9, no slideshow, no ads, and previews. The Balboa isn't making anywhere near the profit that the Metreon is, but it's surviving.
I saw a Jack Johnson video interspersed with the slide show before Ep 3 last night. That was kinda fun, especially since I don't ever get to see music videos.
I do remember going to see Young Adam in a theater that started off with that extra-long campy Fantanas commercial. Which probably would have sent most people here fleeing the cinema in horror/rage, but it cracked me up.
I stand corrected on your definition of ads. I just don't trailers to be ads, more like forward promotions. We get mostly slideshows around here.
And I'll admit I like some of the outright ads: Coca Cola Refreshing Filmmakers, and anything with Scarlett Johansson.