AMC Theatres is Planning to Shorten Its Pre-Show Ads Following Blowback From Studios

Everyone who frequents movie theaters these days is well aware that when the lights dim, there’s still a fair amount of time before your movie begins.

You have ads, trailers, and the theatre’s commercial to sit through before you even get to the movie you came for, and sometimes I am left wondering what it is I came to watch after seeing all the content that came before it. But one of the country’s biggest chains is looking to downsize that wait time.

After blowback from some major Hollywood studios over AMC Theatres‘ decision to book more ads before each movie’s showtime, Deadline reports that the No. 1 circuit is working to shorten its preshow. It’s still early and specific details are unknown, but there’s hope that a shave can be done by year’s end.

News leaked back in June that as of July 1, AMC had worked a deal with National CineMedia Inc. to run spots during each movie’s pre-shows, specifically a platinum spot. AMC’s rivals, i.e. the repsective No. 2 and 3 chains Regal and Cinemark, already were participating in this ad revenue stream. AMC didn’t see any business deteriorating for the competition, and it opted into the National CineMedia pact.

Execs at the major studios were upset by the move, angry that moviegoers no longer were sitting through their in-cinema trailers for future movies due to lengthy preshows — a very powerful piece of marketing as moviegoing begets more moviegoing.

Adding more fuel to the fire was AMC running a notice on its ticket-buying portal: “Please allow 25-30 extra minutes for trailers and additional content before the movie starts.” Some studio execs read that notice as, “Hey, moviegoers, why don’t you just skip the pre-show until the movie starts?”

Myriad studios launched their own studies last month noticing that the preshows for the top three chains ran from 24-28 minutes before one particular new wide release that weekend in SoCal. One internal study observed that only 80% of the audience were in their seats to watch trailers a mere four minutes before a movie began.

80% sounds solid to me, and I would assume that those 20% are either running late, buying concessions, or hitting the bathroom before the movie starts. No one is truly paying attention to those ads, as people do their best these days to avoid commercials and ads wherever they come across them.

But AMC shortening their intro sounds like a positive move to me, and executives can go on to pretend that the ads that remain are making a difference.