The
Pre-show Conundrum
Our
studio partners decide what movies to release. Working with
producers and directors, they choose and make content. They
create a marketing image. They pick a distribution strategy
involving a series of release media and windows of time
in between them. Exhibitors can decide to play the films
released by the studios by negotiating licensing terms coordinated
with the release schedule. Simply put, the studios control
the films. The theatre owners exhibit them.
Conversely,
exhibitors control their movie screens. Either through outright
ownership, long-term leaseholds, or management agreements,
theatre operators make the business decisions necessary
to operate movie theatres. They must balance a list of potential
revenues and expenses to produce, over time, a profitable
enterprise.
Part
of this balancing act involves the “pre-show,”
that time in between feature film exhibitions. The length
of the pre-show varies, as do the lengths of feature films
and the number of possible showtimes each day. But let’s
assume a 30-minute block of time between the end of one
feature and the beginning of the next.
Over
the course of the past few years, exhibitors and distributors
have spent too much time
discussing, debating,
negotiating and
sometimes fighting over the pre-show. |
During
that block of time the exhibitor can exit moviegoers, clean
the theatre, enter the next moviegoers, show slides, run
rolling stock advertisements, run policy trailers, run public
service announcements, run optional theatrical trailers,
and then run trailers that come attached to the feature
film. As a legal and business proposition, these decisions
are made by the exhibitors. As a matter of reality, there
isn’t time to do everything.
Over
the course of the past few years, exhibitors and distributors
have spent too much time discussing, debating, negotiating
and sometimes fighting over the pre-show. From many exhibitors’
perspective, there are causes for concern. Lengthy demands
have been made on the number and identity of theatrical
trailers to be played above and beyond the attached trailers.
Pressure
has been applied regarding public service messages that
should be exhibited. Attempts have been made to prohibit
or control screen advertising. And I’m sure our studio
friends have a list of concerns from their perspective,
too.
I sense
a current of growing unrest, but I don’t have any definitive
answers yet. I do know that we must work better together
as partners. We must focus on the overall good of the industry.
Perhaps we need to fully understand the legal concepts involved.
Perhaps we simply need better mutual respect. NATO will
continue to examine these issues. In the meantime, I invite
an open dialogue on the subject with anyone willing to give
me their thoughts. 
