What is a commercial?
There are several ways to define it, but only two are of concern to me right now. We as consumers see them as an advertisement that is sponsored by a business or organization for a service or product in an effort to stimulate revenue. Third parties, such as broadcast television and radio stations, view them as their primary source of revenue generated from the businesses or organizations that are paying to advertise, and use that income to cover the cost of operations so as to keep their transmissions free to the consumer. In the case of most print media (newspapers, magazines, etc.), advertising is used to supplement the cost of operations so as to reduce their cost to the consumer – and indeed there are many free publications as well that, like TV and radio, have completely covered their operating expenses.
There is a disturbing trend I’ve seen lately. It’s been creeping up on us slowly and gaining momentum. Movie theatres are entering the mainstream advertisers market. You’ve seen them – the car ads, the sports drink commercials, the jewelry store spots with the idiotic grinning and nodding employees – showing up when the "previews" start, and in some cases even earlier. Now, I’ll wager that you’re sitting there reading this and wondering why I’m making such a big deal out of a few silly commercials before the movie starts. I’ll take the long road to explain.
Movie theatres don’t own that movie they show you. They rent it, in a sense, from the distributors that are owned by the film studios. They get it for a specific block of time for a certain price, and in some cases, a percentage of the ticket sales. When we buy tickets to see a movie, most of that goes toward covering the cost of the movie and the actual overhead of running the theatre – the lease, electricity, employees, etc. In New Orleans, the going adult rate is $6.50, but elsewhere around the country, a movie ticket can cost anywhere from $9 to $12 and higher. Ticket prices have only gone up, and they continue to climb every year.
Once you get into the theatre, you’re enticed to the concession area – this is where they make their profits. You may not have been paying attention lately, but those snack prices are a little on the high side. The local theatres charge $4 for a "large" popcorn which consists of $.05 of popcorn and $.10 of bag. Not too shabby a profit margin if you ask me, and those lines I wait in to get a drink are no shorter these days than they used to be.
If entertainment and media sources are using commercials and advertising to reduce their out-of-pocket operation expenses in an effort to lower (or eliminate) their price and raise their attraction to the consumers, why the hell aren’t movie theatres doing the same? Surely they’re not just giving that premier advertising space away? I’ll tell you why.
They. Don’t. Have. To.
People want to see movies on the big screen – which is the best way, actually. Prices go up, and folks will grumble – much like I am – but continue to go anyway. They’ve got a captive audience who have just gladly paid $6.50 or more each to race into that theatre and plant their butts into a seat and stuff their faces with overpriced munchies while answering the same tired old trivia questions again and again. In most civilized cities there isn’t much competition amongst theatres anymore. In New Orleans there are two large franchises that own most all the theatres, the meager few others are independently owned. The rest were squeezed out. Currently, competition is light for a product in demand, therefore it’s a seller’s market. They feel they have no need to discount our tickets just because they’re generating other revenue from advertisers and commercials.
Don’t get me wrong… for better or worse I’m in favor of Darwinism in business enterprises. The smaller theatres got shoved out because they wouldn’t, or couldn’t get the first run movies, they were shabbier, lacked a certain charm, or didn’t fill a niche and survive. For example, we have a few small theatres that are choosier about their content and specialize in more cerebral movies, both independent and mainstream, and do well in their own right. The larger theatres have wider movie and snack selections, nicer, cleaner and more comfortable theatres, better quality prints to show, blah, blah, blah. The downside is the massive throngs of bodies you have to fight against while there. It’s like a slow-moving riot… with popcorn.
Theatre prices are affected by many things: the actors demand more money to make a film, the studios pay more to make their films overall, they charge more for the theatres to show them, and the theatre jacks up it’s price for ticket sales. It’s trickle-down economics plain and simple. Ultimately, nobody is putting a gun to your head, and you don’t have to go to the theatre, or if you do, buy those expensive snacks. Stay home and watch TV, read a book, love and spend time with your children.
In the foreseeable future the theatres will skip the crummy trivia and previews altogether and fill to the brim the time between the end of one movie, and the start of another, with commercials. The moviegoers will see no benefit from this revenue generated by the theatres in the way of lower ticket and concession prices. If you wanted to boycott those theatres, there are precious few others to go to if you want to see the latest Hollywood flick on the big screen. The average moviegoer is also a happy member of the big herd, and will not go to any length to raise his voice in concern, or use products that don’t advertise in movie theatres. Moooooo.
So, what recourse do we have? This answer and more, after a word from our sponsors…