THB #724: Too Much PreShow, Pt 2 of 2

I started writing about the problem with preshow attendance at movie theaters yesterday (Saturday, 7/5) after reading the Deadline article and as I was thinking about possible improvements, I realized that I was shooting from the hip a bit - which I complain about regarding other writers all the time - and decided that I at least needed to go do some real life research at the multiplex.

So it was off to the AMC @ The Grove here in Los Angeles to see what was happening there. It was also the first time I was in a paid AMC theater, aside from the TCL Chinese IMAX, since the new ad-among-trailers policy took effect on Tuesday, July 1.

I paid to see a movie (with my AMC A-List subscription) and went to the pre-show packages of 6 movies, though I left one early because I realized it was an indie film (Sorry, Baby) and I was trying to catch a Mission: Impossible screening, which I never did find. This AMC - and I am guessing many others - have stopped putting the name of the movies in the theaters at the doors of the theaters, presumably to keep people from theater hopping. So I ended up going into theaters that had either started their NCM Noovie ad pre-preshow or were slightly before the start of that pre-preshow package, lights still fully on.

I don’t believe that anyone has anything to complain about with the existence of the Noovie pre-preshow at all. It runs before the showtime and replaces either a single slide or a slide show. This shouldn’t even be discussed. It’s like complaining about a neon Budweiser sign at your local bar… petty. But I see complaints about this being a problem all the time.

That said… the discovery I had as I went from show to show to show is that Noovie is infringing on the published showtime by 5 minutes as a matter of AMC policy. So the first 5 minutes of the “30 minutes after the announced showtime before the movie starts” reality is Noovie. And that isn’t okay… not when there is a real problem with too much time between the showtime and the show.

SOLVABLE PROBLEM ONE: The NCM pre-preshow, Noovie, should never, ever run into the start time of the movie.

I’m sure that they are paying AMC extra for this imposition into the start time… but that is a self-destructive move by AMC, much more so than the new ad running between trailers, pushing all start times by 5 minutes before any in-house marketing or actual trailers. It is not entertaining. It is not engaging. These are just ads.

The rest of the preshow experience was a model of consistency. A 2-minute AMC package after Noovie. 9 trailers to follow (exceptions were one screening with 10 and an animated screening with only 8). Then a 2nd AMC package of 3 minutes. And finally, 1 more trailer, “attached” to the movie.

SOLVABLE PROBLEM TWO: AMC doesn’t need 5 full minutes of self-promotion, into which is mixed a one-minute Coca-Cola ad.

Cut the AMC packages down to 3 minutes and we have already, with the Noovie timing, reduced the 30 minute wait by 7 minutes.

The 2 AMC packages include a welcome to the theater… remember when they did each intro in under 30 seconds?

And here is a later GCC opener that does the soda promo (they were a Pepsi outlet) in a minute.

And an elaborate 2 minute UA opener… which I remember thinking was too long back in the day…

And Marcus, back in the day, actually sold movies too, in just over a minute!

Even AMC has a long history of brief intro bumpers…

Did AMC lose its way when COVID happened and they did the Nicole Kidman promo piece when they had to fill the preshow because very few movies were being released?

Maybe.

Did Adam Aron get addicted to overly-long preshow clips, including thanking AMC investors (!!!)?

Maybe.

Is there any excuse for AMC taking up 5 minutes to sell itself to people who have already paid to be sitting in their theaters?

None.

Marcus Theaters CEO Greg Marcus says that his rule of thumb is that the preshow should be no longer than 20 minutes…. ever… period.

So if AMC were to give up 2 minutes of its 5 and Noovie ends when it is supposed to, we have 3 minutes more to cut… or AMC could go wild and cut a little more. (They already have Nicole Kidman’s bit cut in half for time.)

SOLVABLE PROBLEM THREE: Play a couple fewer trailers

This isn’t brain surgery.