Last night was movie night for us. We haven’t been in a while and for a change, there were plenty of pick from. Deb chose An Unfinished Life which opened to positive-to-mixed reviews. Starring Robert Redford, J. Lo. and Morgan Freeman, the film is old fashioned in its subject matter, approach and script. And we enjoyed it immensely. Sure, it was predictable but it was so handsomely made and so well acted that we enjoyed the experience.During the “pre show countdown” a.k.a. the ads, we were treated to the usual assortment of stuff plus a trailer for a new Universal movie about skateboarders.From what I can tell, Universal paid for the space as an advertiser, avoiding having it lumped in with the collection of trailers that followed. Should this prove successful, I can only imagine a time when the ads and trailers get so mixed in audiences who like trailers as (I do) will have to endure the mélange. Me? I’m not in favor of it since we can time when to arrive should we currently choose to avoid the ads but sit in time for the trailers.
But isn’t this an extension of what television is doing? Announcing during the opening of a TV show that it’s being sponsored by THE NEXT HOT MOVIE instead of Excedrin and Hyundai? Somehow, I don’t believe that any film Universal pays ad space for is going to be ignored by the trailer-spotters in the audience.What I’m finding less prevalent is the theme-targetted trailers designed for those who are watching a particular type of movie: horror film promos before a horror film, romantic film promos before a romantic film. That use to be a given, but that’s been changed to star-targetted promos with little regard to whether the audience members would like to see the kind of movie that they’re promoting. I wonder if the production companies get any feedback regarding this disturbing trend shift?
Well, Bob, you know, making movies isn’t cheap, and if they can’t charge more than ten bucks for a ticket, they have to get their money back SOMEhow. I’m afraid, as annoying as I find this trend, I can’t get too disturbed, because I can always catch the film later without having to drive to a theater, pay admission, and sit in a room with a bunch of other people who are often rude. Our rule of thumb now is to only go to the movies when the film is something we MUST see, or if it’s a film that should be seen on a big screen. Therefore, any indie-type film… we don’t go. Any character story or romantic comedy… we don’t go. It’ll be on cable or DVD soon enough.I do, however, wish that the theaters would try the occasional “no trailers, no commericals” showing where they charge $20 instead of $10. Nobody would go, of course… but they’d prove their point.