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A question for our European Film-Tech'ers: Are commercials in movie theatres "commonplace" as this article states?

Paul
Unemployed mercenary film/video projectionist/engineer
"Film is art, television is furniture."

Trailers are usually shown between the adverts and the feature. In most of the cinemas I worked at, the 'bullshit reel' was between 10 and 15 minutes in total. Adverts were a real pain, because you had to edit them to cut out any individual adverts with a higher rating than the feature (basically, cut the alcohol adverts out of films with 15-certification or higher, plus the odd one for things like condoms).

Charles: I'm not entirely sure that a key reason why UK theatres run adverts is because BBC television doesn't. There are now five free terrestrial (analogue) TV channels in the UK, three of which run adverts. In addition virtually all the cable, satellite and digital channels show adverts as well. So it's not as if someone wanting to advertise their product on television is unable to do so because the slots aren't available and so is forced into the cinemas. I suppose this might have been a factor between 1946 and 1953, (i.e. when there was only BBC television, before commercial broadcasting had started) but cinema ads go back a lot earlier. In the film archive I work for, we have cinema adverts going back to 1924, and I've seen examples of 'product placement' in British films going back to 1901!

BTW, 'public service announcements' (i.e. government propaganda) sometimes come in the form of paid advertising in the usual reels. Anti drink-driving adverts are quite common around Christmas, and there was recently some government advertising in the cinema to publicise changes in pension legislation. There was also the famous 'AIDS - don't die of ignorance' publicity campaign in the 1980s.

The last time government films were shown by cinemas without payment came in 1941 when the Cinema Exhibitors' Association signed a deal with the wartime coalition government which allowed for one 5-minute film each month released by the Ministry of Information to be included as part of the normal cinema programme. This agreement survived beyond the war, and quite a few government films about increasing industrial productivity (e.g. the 'We Work or Want' campaign) and the need for austerity were shown this way during the late 40s. But the Conservative government which took power in 1951 did so on a ticket of cutting back on public spending, and the CEA was getting increasingly critical of what it saw as political propaganda rather than public service films, and the agreement was scrapped the following year (the CEA had also refused to allow films to be shown which had been broadcast on TV in 1949). Ever since, if the government has wanted to show its stuff in the cinemas, it has had to pay like everyone else.

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1: Coca-Cola ad
2: occasionally an ad from someone like M&Ms, Christler, XM, Herbal Essences, etc...
3: PSA from "The Foundation for a Better Life"
4: REAL ACTUAL HONEST-TO-GOSH TRAILERS
5: The Feature

Currently in the 2 spot we are showing an ad for Fox Kids. It starts out like a movie trailer for a Power Rangers style kids movie. The kids in the theatre start squirming and shouting "Mommy - look there making a Galydor movie" - At the end of the "trailer" when the announcer says "Catch it Saturday Mornigs on Fox Kids" the audience erupts with laughter.

(modified 4-19-02 by Mike Olpin)

Some cinemas run upto 15/20 mins film ads & trailers before the show,
makes you feel that retirement was worth it (although forced)

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The agency pays the cinema for showing the adverts; I suspect the big chains can negotiate some pretty good deals, but from what I've heard advertising income for independents has dropped a lot in recent years (maybe Bernard might like to comment on this).
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Actually our revenue has increased in the last two years, but I would say that it is fair comment that income for independents has dropped in recent years. When I signed the last 5 year contract my share was increased by 5%.

I am afraid that 'rolling stock', as we've come to call it, is here to stay.

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2 Time ICWF Champion