For some, the adverts that precede the start of a film are the bane of a trip to the cinema; for others, they are a useful buffer as you stand in the popcorn queue.
But for one man in India, the lengthy marathon of cinema advertising was so infuriating that he took the matter to the courts – and won.
Abhishek MR, a 30-year-old man from the southern city of Bangalore, had booked a trip to the cinema with friends in December last year to watch wartime drama Sam Bahadur.
But while the scheduled time he had booked the ticket for was 4.05pm, he had to sit through 25 minutes of adverts for upcoming features and commercial items such as homewares, mobile phones and cars before the film actually began.
Having planned to return to work straight after the film, Abhishek MR was angered by what he felt was a costly disruption to his life. He filed a lawsuit against PVR Inox, India’s largest cinema multiplex chain, stating that: “The complainant could not attend other arrangements and appointments which were scheduled for the day and has faced losses that cannot be calculated in terms of money as compensation.”
Cinemas should be forced to tell you not just the movie runtime, but the start to finish runtime.
But then you might time it to show up later and miss the ads in front of the movie you paid for!
I’m ok with ads on free stuff, I’m not that entitled to whine too bad, but if I pay for something and there are ads that’s a different ballgame. And movies just keep doing it and it’s fucked.
it’s also to some degree a matter of what is advertised, the general rule is that some ads for in-house stuff is fine: a cinema showing some other movies that you might want to watch is acceptable, tv channels advertising what they broadcast is okay, but if they advertise a fucking gardening service then they can eat a dick.
a theater near me runs this scam where they sell “advertising” to local businesses, but the spots for sale are actually pre-previews. the only people who ever see them are the scant few who show up more than 15 minutes or so early.
they also demanded payment for several months during which they were closed for covid, and then threatened legal action with the folks who didn’t want to pay! after that most everyone except the fast food joints pulled their advertising.
When you buy tickets online on bookmyshow, most of the theatres in India make You agree to watching 20 minutes of ad before the movie.
Movie run time is available online. Subtract that time from the show time of the next movie in the theater should give you an idea of how long the ads are going to be.
Unlike western cinemas, in India, adverts are shown both before the film and during a 15-minute ad break in the middle of the feature.
That 15 min ad break is what I’d be sueing about. Right in the middle of the movie? Asinine.
When streaming started producing their own shows I noticed a huge change: the shows stopped building themselves around the ads that were no longer shown. No more mid-episode cliff hangers and reintroductions upon return every ~11 mins.
How cheap would cinema feel if movies had to do that?
Its a 15 min bathroom and snack break that they play ads during.
Yeah it’s not an ad break it’s an interval (like for stage plays).
US cinemas used to do that a long time ago. I believe it was so they could change out the reel on movies and give people a chance to go buy food without missing the movie.
The amount of money the company paid isn’t even slap on wrist level. ~$500 + cover legal expenses.
And that is the reason I stopped going to cinemas. The ads ruin the entire experience.
That’s why I love the Alamo Drafthouse. The only thing they play before the movie is random kitschy featurettes that relate to the movie being shown. Like Japanese Spider-Man when it was a new Spider-Man movie. As such the movies start almost right on time
