the last time i went to a movie (last week), rather than a slide show, they showed a continuous stream of trailers and short "making of" and "stars talking about the film" highlights for upcoming movies with sound played at a low level. It struck me as a good idea.

I like the Arc Light version. No slide shows, no commercials, no stupid "welcome to Arc Light, eat some candy please" stuff. Just trailers and the movie. Why can't a theater in NYC do this?

I've seen what you're talking about Jon, oh, about 4 times already. It's one big long marketeing spiel. I very much disliked it.

remember when we got drunk and watched heathers?

also, movie theaters will never stop showing retarded crap (including commercials!) before movies, until the public takes up the cause i've been trying to jump-start for years: boycotting concessions.

imagine a standing boycott of popcorn, soda, goobers and hot dogs at movie theaters across the country, with the particular demand that theatres end the policy of selling commercial time before the film. if a determined populace effectively enacted this boycott, you'd see action in less than 2 weekends. however, it will never happen. why? because stupid people don't care about commercials before the movie. stupid people don't care about the movie. they answer their fucking cell phones and jerk each other off during the movie. and in case you haven't noticed, stupid fucking people run the world.

in my mind it's no different from showing trailers at the beginning of a movie, and less objectionable than showing non-movie ads. It's easy enough to ignore. What did you find so objectionable? Unlike some (Lorelei) I thought you actually liked movie trailers, so what makes this bad? It's like more trailers! What if they just showed a continuous stream of trailers (initially at low volume and with the lights up) from the time they opened the doors until the movie started? Would that be better?

Anthony, sure, the arc light is better, but you pay $14 for that privilege, and if that were the only advantage of the arc light i would never go.

#1, commercials are nothing like trailers!

#2, i enjoy some trailers, and find others obnoxious (see: every horror or action movie trailer in the last 10 years)

#4, "in my mind it's no different from showing trailers." in my mind, you're wrong. yes, trailers are an advertisement. but they're an advertisement for the same type of product i'm already purchasing by sitting in the damn movie theater. if they want to restrict all forms of car commercials to a 10 minute period just before i buy a car, that would be nifty, since it means i would never have to see a single car commercial in my entire life.

#3, just backtracking.

You pay $11 on weekdays and non-opening weekend movies. And when you think about what most people pay in large cities, even $14 dollars is well well worth the cost, especially on opening nights of big films. Just the fact that you don't have to wait in a line to get a good seat is worth the price. The rest is just gravy.

And while I usually think jbg is one step away from that crazy homeless person yelling shit from the street corner, I agree with him on this one. People no longer go to the movies to watch them. They don't give a crap.

So give me a theater that costs $14 dollars. At least I know that every person around me wants to see that film and will shut the fuck up and watch it.

I think you're ugly.

i think you missed my point, jbg. i was saying that i walked into a theater and saw movie trailers and interviews with actors in those movies and snippets from behind the scenes of movies instead of slideshows with word scrambles or dumb stuff like that. then the lights darkened and there were full-volume trailers. then there was a movie. cm said he didn't like the trailers and extended ads for movies while people were finding their seats. i question why this is any more distasteful than the movie trailers even the arc light will show (and that many of us actually like). it seems like the perfect thing to do with the screen during that time, if you're going to do anything at all. certainly better than coke ads.

I don't give a shit what movie theaters show when the lights are still up. It's what they show when the lights go down that bug me. I love trailers, but am annoyed by commercials, and uber annoyed by collecting for the Jimmy Fund, which seems to be a thing of the past.

Oh man, Jimmy Fund was the worst.

ok, hold up. you're actually complaining about raising money for the jimmy fund? i can't really get behind that, you awful, awful people.

i mean, i never give them any money (let national amusements do that, for chrissakes, they're a multi-million dollar company), but still...