John North Editor & Publisher

As an avid film-goer (and apparently a masochist), I am disappointed with the ever-increasing advertising messages that are displayed just before the showing of the feature presentation in today’s cinemas.

It’s bad enough to have to pay $9 or so per ticket for a contemporary movie that likely will be top-heavy on special effects and weak in all of the important aspects, such as plot, acting and ultimate meaningfulness.

You might fork out another $10 for fake-buttered popcorn and a cup of ice mixed with a dribble of soda.

However, the sticker shock is compounded when I take a seat and, as part of a captive audience, am forced to endure an inane series of nonstop commercials that I would never sit through in the comfort of my own home theater.

This alarming phenomenon began tentatively a number of years ago, and I was pleased that they were greeted by derisive boos and comments from the audiences, causing cinema owners to back off from this creeping commercialism.

In the last five years, cinema advertising revenues reportedly have jumped 48 percent, from $212.3 million in 2002 to $315.1 million in 2003 in North America, according to the Cinema Advertising Council.

Much to my chagrin, such double-digit growth in cinema advertising is expected to continue.

The nation’s largest movie chain and a dominant player in the Asheville market, Regal Entertainment Group, has eliminated most slide advertising and invested $75 million to create a digital network.

Neither I nor most of my friends mind watching trailers of upcoming shows, but the pre-movie ads are a different story.

To battle this advertising onslaught, I recommend registering one’s opposition to the practice by e-mailing complaints to the offending movie theater chain, voicing “no commercials” out loud each time a pre-movie ad is shown in a theater and making your complaints in person to the theater manager.

Despite the pain inflicted by this ad incursion, I refuse to give up the hope that the classic American cinematic experience can be what it once was — i.e., better.
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John North, publisher and editor of the Daily Planet, may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .