{"id":8001,"date":"2005-07-05T10:32:03","date_gmt":"2005-07-05T17:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/07\/05\/and-now-a-word-from-our-sponsors-2.html"},"modified":"2005-07-05T10:32:03","modified_gmt":"2005-07-05T17:32:03","slug":"and_now_a_word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/07\/05\/and_now_a_word.html","title":{"rendered":"And now, a word from our sponsors"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remember when the theater was either silent or had some sort of generic music pumped into it.<\/p>\n

Then we started having “customized” sound tracks before movies, usually with commercials. About the same time, commercials started showing up after the lights went out but before the previews began. Those latter commercials, at least, were different from TV ads, usually with higher production values. <\/p>\n

Soon we started having slide shows before movies, advertising local businesses interspersed with stupid trivia contests and the like. Coke was heavily into this.<\/p>\n

Then we started getting pre-movie shows, usually music videos and entertainment interviews and the like. The commercials, for the most part (except insofar as the shows were, themselves, commercials for the entertainment properties), waited for the lights to come down.<\/p>\n

Now?<\/a><\/p>\n

Yesterday when I walked into the theatre 20 minutes early to get a good seat for “War of the Worlds,” there was an Entertainment Tonight-style show on the screen, projected from a low-resolution video projector, with the volume set to ‘deafening.’ In between the banal interviews with movie stars (and by interviews, I mean 30-second clips), they played regular television commercials — blaring at me through every one of the theatre’s speakers. I thought, “Okay, they’ll turn this off in a few minutes.” But it played for the entire time I was stuck sitting there waiting for the movie to start — 20 minutes! And then I got to sit through the usual number of ads and trailers.<\/p>\n

I noticed this when we went to SBLG3D on Friday at the AMC Highlands Ranch — before the show was like tuning into any entertainment TV show, complete with the same annoying TV ads<\/em> — nothing special to recommend them except being 60 feet high and deafening. And, thus, highly annoying.<\/p>\n

I know that theaters are desperate for revenue streams — see the $5 hot dogs and the like? But this sort of thing has to be counter-productive in the long run. If the theaters stop offering anything better than just the novelty of seeing a movie when it originally comes out — if that novelty is balanced against noisy patrons, overpriced food, the inconvenience of going to the movie theater, and, oh yeah, commercials before the movie and then again before the movie … and they charge you for the privilege … theater attendance will continue to plummet. And deservedly so.<\/p>\n

(via J-Walk<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember when the theater was either silent or had some sort of generic music pumped into it. 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