Theater owners are looking to shorten trailers for upcoming Hollywood films by thirty seconds.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, National Association of Theater Owners is pushing for a marketing rule that would require previews for upcoming films to come in at two minutes instead of two and a half.
The group’s executive board are proposing the new guidelines in an attempt to give exhibitors more control over how Hollywood movies are marketed inside the theater. It comes in response to complaints theater owners get that the trailers are too long and often give away too much of the upcoming movie’s plot. .
It’s not uncommon for many circuits to play seven or eight trailers before a film. That translates to 17.5 minutes to 20 minutes, on top of in-house advertising. Exhibitors believe the new rule could boost ticket sales by making the theater going experience more attractive.
Hollywood studios — which rely heavily on trailers to woo moviegoers — refute the notion that 2.5 minutes is too long. Sources say they have reacted none too well when briefed on NATO’s plan in recent days. NATO’s executive board wanted to get the reaction of studios before taking further action.
Together, television advertising and in-theater trailers are considered the most potent weapons in marketing a movie, even as the Internet made trailers ubiquitous. “My trailers are 2.5 minutes because that’s what we need to send the right message. This could be a paradigm shift. Thirty seconds is a long time,” says one studio executive who asked not to be named.
NATO declined to comment.
“It comes in response to complaints theater owners get that the trailers are too long and often give away too much of the upcoming movie’s plot.”
I think all the commercials in front of movies are my major complaint, not the trailers.
My theater complaints:
1) the too-loud music that plays while the boring local photo ads roll before the lights go down and the trailers start, as if playing the music louder will stop people from chatting with their friends before the movie (since they shouldn’t talk during the moving) and pay attention to those ads;
2) the lame “Let’s All Go To The Lobby” ads encouraging people to go buy snacks right before the movie starts, as if they’d ever get through the line and back to their seat in time to not miss the first 10 minutes (even with the 15-20 minutes of trailers),
3) and not running the hot trailers people want to see, and instead play the trailers for crappy movies that NO ONE wants to see in front of the blockbusters, and playing the trailers for the blockbusters that everyone wants to see in front of the movies that NO ONE wants to see just to get people to buy tickets to those movies and show they had some box office.
And they wonder why folks obsess over trailers on Apple and YouTube and Yahoo.
Make my movie-going experience more attractive by not remaking everything I saw 20-25 years ago, and leave the trailers alone, how about that for a start?
To be honest, I find the fact that you’ve just paid to watch a movie and you have to watch more adverts than you do when you’re watching TV to be rediculous. I mean seriously, at least TV has an excuse, because you’re not paying the TV company to watch a movie (well in england you’re paying a TV license, but it’s the BBC that get’s that money.)
But in a cinema, you’re paying directly to see the film. I know most cinema’s are claiming that profits are low, and I suppose I can understand how so many trailers would enable them to earn more money. But come on, when the trailers are longer than the goddamn film!
Why not cut out the trailers from the theaters entirely and just play them instead of posters in the lobby? I hate wading through 20 minutes of trailers before my movie and will sometimes intentionally show up late just to miss them. Thankfully the little theater near us only plays two trailers in front of each movie. But at big theaters why not replace every third poster in the halls with a flat screen running the trailer? People still watch the trailer that way and get less annoyed too. Or play the trailers outside the theater getting passers by to show interest and maybe come in.
I think the “Thirty seconds is a long time,” comment explains the exact point that the Theatres are trying to make. Way to go movie producer for proving your opponent’s point.