Giles ,'Chosen'
[NAFDA] "There will be an occasional happy, so that it might be crushed under the boot of the writer." From Zorro to Angel (including Wonderfalls and The Inside), this is where Buffistas come to anoint themselves in the bloodbath.
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.
JZ, the Balboa recently asked permission (via their e-mail letter) to run an ad before some shows. I sort of remember it being for a car. Anyway, it was short and enabled the theater to keep going during a bad financial time.
They also give seniors a nice discount for the double bills.