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How much would you pay to skip movie trailers?

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Dan Gardner Avatar
Dan Gardner
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There’s not much anyone can say that all Americans agree on these days, but if I had to wager, I’d bet all American movie-goers agree that there are too many trailers before movies. I’ve seen the trailers and theater adverts run up to 30 minutes while visiting NYC. That, my friends, is lunacy. How many people don’t go to the theater to see a movie just because they don’t want to spend 20+ minutes sitting through previews? It’s not zero, that’s for sure.

So what can we do about it? Theaters and production companies need to show trailers because they have a captive audience. Plus, they know the genre of the movie so they know pretty well what movies you’ll see in the future. In some cases the production company demands that certain trailers are shown before their movies. (I’m looking at you Disney.) And of course the theater can sell some of those spots to other production companies. Movie theaters run on thin margins. They can’t pass up the option to make money showing a 2 1/2-minute trailer.

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But what if they didn’t have to? How much does a movie theater actually make for showing trailers and couldn’t they just pass the cost on to the movie-goer? I’m not suggesting this for every movie. But wouldn’t it be nice to have the option to pay $2 extra for a ticket and get zero trailers or theater ads? Or maybe pay $1 extra and get less that 10 minutes of trailers. I think that would be the sweet spot. I often do want to see a few trailers. But not 25 minutes of them.

What do you think? Would you pay a few dollars extra to skip trailers? One of the big theater chains needs to experiment and see if this would work. Or, if they don’t they may be legally obligated to do so.

Let me know in the comments below: would you pay extra to skip the trailers? What would be the sweet spot for you between cost increase and trailers decrease?

Coming Soon: The Movie You Want To See. But First: 30 Minutes Of Trailers

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Comments

10 responses to “How much would you pay to skip movie trailers?”

  1. Paul Schatzkin Avatar
    Paul Schatzkin

    how can I get this commentary outside of runpee so I can post it somewhere where other people can see it?

    Reply
  2. Dan Gardner Avatar
    Dan Gardner

    :facepalm:
    I can’t believe I forgot that. I disabled my social sharing buttons a while back and forgot to re-activate them. You should be able to share now. Thanks for pointing this out.

    Reply
  3. JJ Avatar
    JJ

    I wouldn’t pay a penny more to not have to sit through thetrailers.
    If the movie listing says the feature has a 1:15 PM start time, I add 20 minutes for the trailers and adjust my entrance to the theater so that I have time to get my popcorn and soda just as the trailers are ending.

    Reply
    1. Dan Gardner Avatar
      Dan Gardner

      That’s a good strategy. It’s probably why the “First Three Minute Synopsis” feature in the RunPee app is much more popular than I would have expected. I think a lot of people do that and sometimes they misjudge, or the trailers aren’t as long as expected.

      Do you usually see movies soon after releasing, or do you wait a few weeks? I’ve read that after a few weeks in the theater, the theater will reduce the number of trailers because there aren’t as many buyers interested in getting slots.

      Reply
  4. Rob Williams Avatar
    Rob Williams

    I’m not sure of the similarities or differences between UK and US pre-screening routines but at my local cinema there are always ten minutes of adverts followed by ten minutes of trailers. As JJ said, it’s quite easy to adjust your entry to avoid or watch depending on your fancy; personally I avoid the adverts but enjoy the trailers.

    Reply
  5. Bob Trezise Avatar
    Bob Trezise

    I would NEVER pay more for no trailers. Not because it would be great to time your arrival for showtime. But because you cannot trust capitalism. Eventually they’d either re-add the content and/or up the price on no-ads. I KNOW there is 20-30 minutes of ads and previews, so I pad my arrival time. Sometimes it bites me when there is a crowd, but most times it’s fine.

    Reply
  6. Ted Avatar
    Ted

    I’m in the minority. I enjoy the trailers. But I’m retired and have time. I’m always excited at the first of the month or when a highly anticipated movie comes out, you know there will be new ones. But you can plan to arrive 15-20 minutes after the “start” time and miss most of them.

    Reply
    1. Dan Gardner Avatar
      Dan Gardner

      I hear ya. I enjoy the trailers. Or at least a few of them. It’s after about the sixth trailer that I start to zone out. I actually use this time to hit the men’s room one more time because I know I have at least a trailer plus the AMC theater garbage.

      Reply
  7. Michael Fields Avatar
    Michael Fields

    For me its not the trailers I like seeing trailers on movies I might want to see and some are ones I have not seen yet, what gets me and I have timed it. In Las Vegas where I live, its around 12 minutes of trailers and 12 minutes of Commercials (M&M, insurance and more) now those should not be there. So what I know that movies start at the theater I go to all the time 22-24 minutes after the “start time” start time says 1pm it will start at 1:22pm, so I go in about 1:15pm, this way I still have time to get snacks and such (as the line is gone) and get to my seat before the movie starts

    Reply
    1. Dan Gardner Avatar
      Dan Gardner

      I think a lot of people feel that way. I don’t mind a commercial that’s worked into the “remember to turn off your phone” message. But I can’t stand those Coke ads and especially the ads that promote the theater that I’m already in. How many hours of my life have been wasted with Nicole Kidman talking about “why we go to movies”? When will the madness end? 🙂

      Reply

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