This article in the Washington Post announces that the AMC movie theatre chain is going to start showing ads.

That’s unfortunate enough, but this quote really irritates me ….

Moviegoers are now informed in the AMC app that their film begins 25 to 30 minutes after the listed start time.

This has been a major pet peeve of mine for years. Years! Why are you tricking people into coming too early?

I have been bothered by this widespread con game dating back to the time when you’d actually look in a newspaper to see when the movies were starting. (Kids, ask your grandparents. They used to print off the web site and leave a copy on your front porch.)

(Also, ask your grandparents. There used to be no commercials at all! And when theatres started showing commercials, there was a brief period where Coca-Cola or whoever would film a special commercial with genuine cinematic effects, and those were almost kind of OK since they were a little special - but that didn’t last long. Eventually it was just regular TV commercials, but larger. When this all started, we would BOOOO all the commercials at first, because for $7 (or $2 Tuesdays), you shouldn’t have to see a commercial. I am sorry to report that we did not boo lustily enough in the 1980s, and commercials became a fact of life.)

Oh, and another thing. Remember how you would line up outside on the street, and you’d ask people “Is this the line for people who have tickets, or for people who are guying tickets?”

where was I? Oh yeah, start times.

the movie starts at 7:30, you say?

It’s always bothered me. What does the 7:30 start time mean, anyway? You’re there at 7:30 and it seems to be in the middle of a block of commercials. The trailers for upcoming movies haven’t even started. What gives? What does 7:30 mean anyway?

i asked the manager

Once upon a time I asked the manager of my favourite theatre, the Cineplex Queensway, what it meant. What happens at 7:30 anyway?

“Well”, he told me, “we have two reels of commercials. One set of commercials belongs to us, and the other set comes with the movie. At 7:30 we switch from our set to the movie set.”

so … at 7:30, what happens is, it’s in between one block of commercials and another block? That’s it? Really?

Isn’t this kind of showing contempt for your customers, tricking them to get there earlier than necessary?

It eventually dawned on me that 7:30 was really the time you should leave your house to drive to the theatre.

Despite this, I genuinely did love this theatre, even though I had to boycott it for a while after I saw the snack bar manager reach into the popcorn machine, bare-handed, and pull out a handful for himself to munch on.

Sadly, the Cineplex Queensway is set to be demolished in favour of condos.

But anyway.

what if this happened elsewhere?

You go to a football game with a 3:00 kickoff, they kick off at 3:00. You go to the theatre to see a play or musical at 8:00, it starts at 8:00. They don’t perform some ads first, or have different actors come out to do a scene from a different show…. although now that I think of it, that might be nice.

I always wanted to do that at the Apple Developer Conference. Before my talk, we’d do some Coming Attractions. Other presenters would come out and show 3 slides and half of an exciting demo from their presentation. That would have been fun.

meanwhile in Bathurst, New Brunswick

I was stunned to visit the Apollo Cinema in Bathurst. For two reasons.

1. Look at how well labelled these seats are! Even in a dark theatre I bet you can find Row G, Seat 14.

2. At 7:30, three previews started, and then we were right in to Superman.

No ads.

That was great!

I urge you to only visit the Apollo Cinema in Bathurst, New Brunswick, from now on.