....and now a word from......

[MK]

I went to see Return of the King (which was great) at the local AMC theatre last week. I paid $9.50 admission.

The part that really bugs be was the 8 or 9 commercials I had to watch before the film. I am not talking trailers. There were plenty of those and I don't mind watching those. We are talking commercials that have nothing to do with movies. I don't mind the slide show ads because the lights are still up and you can have a conversation or read or do whatever you want...... but these commercials are different matter.

Television you have to put up with commercials because you are getting the shows for free....sort of. That is the price of television.....but at the movies??????

The prices of tickets are going up and we have to watch commercials too?!?!?!?

That is not right.

[BD Jones]

$9.50!!! Wow, we pay $6.50 here in Waco. How much is a small soda, $7.00?

I know how you feel about commercials. The reason I go to the movies is to escape the humdrum nature of television, only to find the worst part of it, the ads, have found me. I guess they figure they have a very captive audience, so why not bore and annoy them. You're obviously stuck there with no remote to change to another movie until yours begins, so what can you do. That really chaps my hide sometimes. Makes me want to stand up in front of the screen and start chanting "START THE MOVIE!!! START THE MOVIE!!!" a la Homer Simpson.

[Dalexs]

The one thing that was worth woprking night shift all these years:
Seeing any movie I wanted during the AM matinee, $5.50.
And practically NO one there! And the theater chain went to refused to run commercials after the fiasco with the "cute" pepsi girl got outta hand.

[mmarosy]

I find it's hit or miss at the theaters around me that show commercials or not. When we went to see RotK, it started a 1/2 hour late! The crowd was growning restless, and a guy in our row went out to see what happend.

Can you guess?

THEY FORGOT ABOUT US! That's right, they forgot to start the movie! The guy came back to applause from the rest of the theater as the lights dimmed just as he returned. Luckily there were no commercials, or I'm sure there would've been a riot.

There's a great old theater called The Senator in Baltimore. Even though it's an hour away from us, my wife and I like to go there whenever we can... it's a bit harder now that we have to arrange babysitters... but it's just an awesome movie-going experience. Tickets are a flat $8 and that's been the price for as long as I can remember, small children and babies are not allowed, aside from the special occasions where they show children's movies, and the screen is huge and sound is great. They've really kept the theater true to it's look and feel and has a great art deco design.

From time to time they also have the owner come up to the stage to introduce the film, just like the days of yore. And if it's a special engagement, they may include a bonus before the film. For the Star Wars Special Editions, they showed a documentary on "light" and "Duck Dogers in the 24th 1/2 Century. Just as Lucas screened them in their initial run.

So if ever any of you are in the Baltimore area, I highly suggest giving The Senator a visit.

Mike

[PrettyBigGuy]

I believe some stink was raised about commercials being run with the movie trailers. I'm pretty sure the way the theaters got around it was by showing the commercials before the actual scheduled start time of the film. Then they show the trailers immediately after.
It truly is annoying that movie goers have to pay so much for tickets and refreshments and still get subjected to more advertising. Please continue to go to the theater though because the printed posters and other promotional material is my bread and butter!
PBG

[Sergei]

Originally posted by Dalexs
And the theater chain went to refused to run commercials after the fiasco with the "cute" pepsi girl got outta hand. [/B]

What fiasco? What's Pepsi? I feel like a Homer at times!

[Pyroxene]

Originally posted by mmarosy
For the Star Wars Special Editions, they showed ... "Duck Dogers in the 24th 1/2 Century. Just as Lucas screened them in their initial run.

That was mentioned on the Looney Tunes DVD. I would love to see an old cartoon on the big screen.

What ever happened to those really really wide screens they used to show some westerns on. I seen some on TV where the image is streched because it was shot for a huge screen. Now, I think most of them have been digitally corrected for TV.

I was talking to my dad about the old Republic Serials. He said that he and his brother would take a big bag of homemade popcorn to the theater. And, for $.50 admission, he would watch the Saturday Double Feature. He remembers them first showing a news reel, then a Loony Tunes Cartoon, The first motion picture, A Republic Serial and finally, the second motion picture.

That's a lot of entertainment for 50 cents.

Pyro.

[mmarosy]

Originally posted by Pyroxene
He remembers them first showing a news reel, then a Loony Tunes Cartoon, The first motion picture, A Republic Serial and finally, the second motion picture.

This experience is emulated on the Treasure of the Sierra Madre DVD. It's pretty cool...

... but it costs a bit more than 50 cents.

Mike

[Dalexs]

Originally posted by Sergei
[B]What fiasco? What's Pepsi? I feel like a Homer at times!

This pepsi girl! After about the 3rd commercial in theaters, which is when the whole commercial thing really started, people started boycotting the theater chain.
If fact if you do a search for "pepsi girl" you will find some not very nice sites about her. People truly hated her.
Shes definately no Britney!

[Sergei]

Wow, I thought you were talking about Britney. Now, I am really a Homer. Doh!