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Shorter trailers coming soon
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
February 3, 2014 at 3:54 pm
Starting October 1, your pre-show experience could be a little shorter. Movie theater owners have spoken and have demanded shorter trailers from studios with the maximum length cut by 30 seconds to 2 minutes. There will still be annual exceptions for distributors and the system is completely voluntary for chains to implement.
Will this change improve your experience? Read more in the Los Angeles Times.
Comments (7)
It’s not only the trailers! That 20-30 minute pre-trailers parade of commercials masquerading as entertainment (“First Look”, etc.) that the major chains run drives me nuts! We like to get to the theatre early for good seats but by the time the actual trailers start I’ve been commercially hyped to death already and impatient for the feature to start. The number of trailers needs to be addressed too. Four is plenty, six or seven is torture, at least for me! Blu-rays rented from Redbox on my HDTV look more appealing every day!
one problem with lengthy trailers is that in many cases they’re very condensed versions of the film. so there are no surprises sometimes when you see the film.
There should not be more than 1 trailer anyway.
Same here JohnRice…i see more trailers online than in theaters and on blurays….
In my early days of projection, 76 thru say 80, we only ran 1, maybe 2 trailers at the most. The entire pre show ran 5 mins at best. I haven’t been to see a movie in almost 2 years, the last time seeing the latest James Bond flick at an AMC theatre in Edison NJ. The pre show ran 33 mins. Yes you read that right, 33 mins. Its something you never forget, and never want to go thru again.
I worked projection at two different theatres from ‘92 to '96 and we had slide projectors and muzak before the show started, then our company logos and 3 trailers and that was it. I spent a few months in '06 helping a friend run the booth in her Carmike 10-plex and the preshow generally ran an ENTIRE reel. I spent more time changing out commercials and building up preview reels using program sheets that were sent to her from her home office than anything else.
I’m married now and my wife an I hardly ever go out to a movie. 60 inch TV and it’s hard to feel ripped off by a $1.50 Blu Ray rental, even if you hated the movie.
Hmmmmm….it’s difficult to know whether or not shorter trailers will alter the movie experience (for me, anyhow) at all. Probably not for me, though. Whether or not shorter movie trailers should be implemented really does depend on the individual film, however.