THB #723: Too Much PreShow, Pt 1 of 2

Okay… so now studios are whining to the trades about the long preshows at movies and an increasing problem with people showing up late to as not to have to sit for an extra half hour or more.

The trigger for the Deadline piece is that AMC has made a more prominent notice on their ticket platforms that there will be a 25-30 minute preshow since they made the deal with NationalCineMedia (NCM) to include an ad or ads in the block of trailers they are running.

Complaining about informing the customer is pretty much as asshole move. Civilians have talked about the long wait for the movie for a few years now and indeed, a lot of people have changed their habits when they go to the movies,

I witness this every time I go see movies as a paying customer, mostly at AMCs, which controls my neighborhood and for which I have an AMC A-List membership.

I posted this picture on Twitter in the IMAX at The Grove before a mostly sold-out Thursday, June 26 screening of F1 at 3pm, which was the scheduled start time, just before the lights came down and the preshow started. By the time the movie started, the room was full.

The long preshows are certainly a big part of this, along with the move to a higher and higher percentage of presold seats and the requirement, even at the box office, to pick your seats when buying tickets. There is no rushing into the theater to get the best seats - ironically, except in press screenings - because your seats are set. So if you know there will be 30 minutes before the movie starts, you can take your time - show up late, go to the restroom, get concessions, validate your parking, etc - before heading in just as the movie starts.

But as Deadline’s article points out, this is a legitimate marketing problem for movies in general. Anyone who has ever read me or listened to me regarding the state of theatrical knows that I believe deeply (I would say factually) that the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd layer of selling tickets to movies in this era is trailers and the eventual cutdowns of trailers that are run as ads on TV, streaming, and social media.

First, awareness… second, the pitch. You don’t have to be a Malcolm Gladwell acolyte to understand that people generally make decisions instinctually.