- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.ml
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.”
The lawsuit also accused multiplex cinemas of prioritising advertising revenue over their customers, and forcing them to sit through adverts against their will.
In a ruling in February, the consumer court proved highly sympathetic to Abhishek MR’s case and ordered for the cinema to grant him 50,000 INR (£450) for wasting his time and 5,000 INR (£45) for mental agony, as well as cover his legal expenses.
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How are they a useful buffer to stand in line for popcorn? If the movie actually started on time instead of showing ads you would just show up 15 minutes early.
As it is right now people show up “on time” and stand in line for 15 minutes because they know it’s just going to be a shit ton of advertisements but then risk missing the start of the movie because it could be 10 minutes or could be 20 minutes.
At my local multiplex, outside of events, it is pretty consistently 25-30 minutes of ads and trailers, very occasionally going down to 20 minutes. So I am to arrive about 15 minutes in, which is usually the end of the ads, the start of the trailers. I’ve only every been caught out once, which was a late, 10-11, screening of Doctor Strange 2 which appears yo have had a shorter than normal “buffer” so it didn’t go on so late.
I’ve timed it - my local multiplex has 25-30 minutes of ads and trailers (the latter usually being about 10 minutes), so I now leave home when at the “start” time and usually arrive in time for the start of the trailers.
Do you ever have to worry about long lines for concessions, or do you not get snacks at all?
I tried leaving at the start time once, and by the time I arrived, there was a long line to get popcorn and I ended up missing the first 5 minutes of Wicked. But I suppose that was an anomaly.
Do you ever have to worry about long lines for concessions, or do you not get snacks at all?
I take a bottle of water and a bag of sugar-free sweets. Booking is done in advance online, so I get to pick the seat (which is a big, old recliner) and it is all ticketless. So I breeze straight in. The staff know, so usually don’t bother directing me to the right screen - when the manager is covering check in, he often says I probably know the system better than him by now, although he hasn’t agreed to my suggestion of just giving me a scanner or my own login details.
If I go with anyone who might want snacks there, they can be ordered in advance too and picked up from a separate bit of the counter.
If you aren’t coinciding with a popular movie that has just been released I’ve never had an issue.
😃👍
Compensate the one guy who sued but do nothing what
That’s modern business practices for you. Cheaper to pay off one individual than it is yo change the system.
This opens up further lawsuits from anyone else who feels the same way though.
Had this same experience and sentiment. Show states it starts at 4:05pm, no the ads started at 4:05pm…30mins later film finally begins.
Would be curious to see what cinemas would do if they were required to include pre-film advertisements/previews into the show runtime.
I used to love trailers, like they were my favorite part of the moviegoing experience, see new stuff, ooh and ahh at what was coming. With the advent of the internet, and the dissemination of movie trailers on tap literally any time, now the movie theater pre roll is all ads and trailers i’ve seen before. Not that I’d know how bad it’s gotten in the last 5 years, which is the last time I went to sit in an actual movie theater
Movie ads also seem to be particularly misery-inducing. Extra loud, often deliberately gross or otherwise unsettling, low-budget, and cringe. I’ve taken pains to avoid them for years.
I’m in the minority here for sure, and totally understand and agree that there’s too many ads at the theater, but with Pihole and Adguard I honestly don’t see ads for new movies. Sometimes I only know about new movies from watching the pre-movie trailers.
