On My Soapbox

Had a bit of a nightmare at the cinema the other night. Got halfway through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, thinking Mike Newell was doing a pretty sound job and marvelling at the fact that Steve Kloves seems to be have been given a bit of freedom to actually do a proper bit of adaptation, rather than simply regurgitate the book wholesale, when the projector broke down.

Bugger.

We sat there for forty-five minute waiting to see if they could fix the projector, and then a further fifteen in the queue waiting for a refund when they couldn’t. And then a further half an hour on the motorway in a traffic jam.

Double bugger.

While we were waiting for the initial diagnosis of the projector, my wife lamented the fact that had we not had to sit through half an hours worth of trailers and adverts, we’d be much further into the film. It struck me that the cinema must be the only place where we go, pay good money and are still subjected to fifteen minutes of advertising.

Surely that can’t be right? If you want banner ads removed from web sites, you pay a subscription (though that model seems to be fading) and we don’t expect to find any adverts on the BBC as we pay our license fee, so why should we pay £13 (for the two of us) plus petrol money, plus popcorn/drinks etc. and still have to sit through adverts?

I’m sure other people have whinged about this, but I thought that as I rarely get on my soapbox about things, this week I’d make an exception.

I suppose the cinemas will claim that it’s just a case that they have to show ads to keep the business viable. I don’t know, I don’t run a cinema. But surely there’s a principle being violated here. Perhaps it’s simply as Mr Rankin points out; it’s a tradition or an old charter or something. But it sucks.

Grabbing my trusty Screen International, it says here that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire took almost £15 million pounds (£14,933,901* to be precise) across 535 sites in the UK between 18-20 November, which is £27,913** per site on average. Plus the money they make from food and drink and booking fees etc.

And they still make us sit through fifteen minute of adverts? No wonder people are being put off going to the cinema.

If anyone has any wise words on this subject as to why we should be forced through this, I’d love to hear them.

I don’t have a problem with trailers for other films. Trailers make sense and they serve as a support act, accustoming the eyes and ears to the whole experience (and allow you to be a bit late).

Anyway, I’ll shut up and now and get back to the Architurus screenplay (48 pages and counting – I had a bit of a hard time getting back into it again after the break to finish SToA, but the pace is picking up again now…)

* About $26,000,000

** About $48,000