It’s very simple, and it’s this. I would pay, let’s say, two-thirds the price of a movie ticket – maybe seven or eight dollars – to go to the movies and watch a solid hour and fifteen minutes of previews alone. (If you don’t like previews, that’s fine. You don’t have to do it. I like them. This is my idea.)
It makes sense to charge less than for a regular movie, but I’m still willing to fork out a solid ten if that’s what it takes. Put all the preview-lovers in one theater, and just hit us with 20 to 25 trailers in a row. And everyone gets a little tablet, the kind that’s backlit enough such that you can read it but not so much that it’s glow-y and distracting, and you just tick YES or NO at the end of each trailer, and if you hit YES, it pre-buys your tickets and sends you a calendar reminder and then you can plan all your movies for the rest of the year, and watch previews until you burst, which is the only thing I really want out of life, to watch a lot of previews and then lean over to my seatmate and say either “We have to see this” or “Do you want to see this?” or “You cannot see this,” and there is a real market for this, I think, so if someone could kindly arrange this for me, I would gladly participate in it, and I believe I am not alone in this. Thank you for your time.
Yes, yes, yes. (I assume these are the fully-fledged previews, not the stupid TV ad ones?). I think I might cap it at $5, though. I’ll still buy popcorn, in any case.
This may reflect cost differences by geographic area. Around here, I try not to pay $10 for an actual movie ticket (I believe $8.50 is the standard), but Mallory lives in CA, where Everything Costs More.
I’m in NYC, I’m just wicked cheap about movies, apparently.
We have a second-run theater here in the Rust Belt that, until just a couple years ago, offered a double feature for $3. There was a bit of grumbling when they raised it to (gasp) $5 per double feature.
(Also, the popcorn is cheap, and they have a resident cat. He doesn’t like to be petted that much, but he’ll hang out on the seat next to you and watch the movies).
Can I come visit you and go to the movies? I’ll buy both the tickets and the popcorn for a chance to watch movies with a cat (you know, ignoring all the times I’ve watched Netflix at home bracketed by my two cats).
Absolutely!! 🙂
Intriguing – I live in central North Carolina and $10 is definitely the regular for a non-matinee. Sometimes as much as $10.50!
This is the best business idea I’ve ever seen, especially since often the worst movies have the best trailers. Put this on Kickstarter and I will support it.
I would not pay money for this. But I might take advantage of it if it were free, and the theatre would probably get a lot more money out of me in the long run if I did, so this might still work.
For folks like me who only kind of like this, maybe you could set up a preview-screening area in a corner of the lobby? With some sound baffling around it? They don’t need all those arcade machines, probably. And then I could watch previews and sign up for reminders while I was waiting for my friends to arrive. Or I could just duck in for a few previews while I was shopping nearby. And you could still do the big $8 preview showing on one of the big screens on Tuesdays.
They don’t need all those arcade machines, probably…
HERESY.
I agree with everything else you said, but you’ll have to pry my pre-movie competitive Crazy Taxi fix out of my cold dead hands.
I mean, obviously they need *some* arcade machines. Just not as many as they have now, especially if the preview area draws some people who previously would have spent the same time playing arcade machines.
TIME COP or whatever
My most favorite was Area 51. Alas, it’s not at ANY theaters around me.
TIME CRISIS 4 LIFE.
There we go, thank you
I would also play the heck out of a game called “Time Cop.”
Wow, I remember the arcade machine for SDI. That was a while ago.
Also, I don’t think I ever played Area 51, but I was intrigued by its story. That happens to me fairly often, currently with XCOM 2.
A…..a preview-preview area? I don’t know if the world is ready.
I would totally pay money for this.
I like this idea, but I would prefer that it RESERVE my movie ticket, with an option to buy when the movie is about to be released, so that I don’t accidentally deplete my bank account if there’s a bunch of good trailers in a row.
Another good thing would be if it was linked to your Facebook and twitter, so that if you couldn’t bring all your friends to the previews with you, they could still see what movies you were planning to go so and try to get in on that action.
An automated “Share with Friends”? Aaah get it off getitoff GETITOFF
I guess it doesn’t have to be automatic. It can be like Instagram, where you just check off the box if you want to share it on Facebook or Twitter or whatever the Teens are doing these days.
Fair enough. I just recoiled so hard I felt a breeze.
Indeed. AUTOSHARE NOTHING, DAMN YOU. I COMPARTMENTALIZE MY ONLINE EXISTENCE.
SAME.
Would do it just for the movie year scheduling. I hate missing the good stuff in the theater.*
*Still sad I only got to see Fury Road once. I searched all theaters within 2 hour driving distance…
YES but only if I also receive one of those movie theater brochures that list titles, casts, and synopses of upcoming films, and there are actor profiles and trivia questions on the back.
(And of course in this scenario the brochure is four inches thick, and it runs down all the movies coming out in the next six years.)
No reason why the tablet cannot also provide you the imdb entry as well as “save the date” preorder/booking info.
[small voice]
I have an app on my phone for this.
[/small voice]
YOU MUST TELL US THE NAME OF THIS APP
It’s not EXACTLY the same, but Flixster lets you preview upcoming movies and mark the ones you want to see (or don’t want to see) and give them ratings. They have a website too, here’s an example of the page for the movie “Brooklyn”: http://www.flixster.com/movie/brooklyn/
You might have just changed my life.
I have the Flixster app and somehow did not know it could do this. I have spent more than one evening watching trailers on YouTube. Sometimes for movies that came out years ago and I have not only seen but own on DVD.
AUGH, that sounds like fun. And it could be an expansion of Mallory’s idea — have a night where you watch all the previews for movies made in 1996, for instance! Then write social commentary about them, a la TLo’s Mad Style!
100% agree! Make that 90%. I think that the addition of the tablet and vote creates enormous value for the studio–hello, test audience!– so the event should be free and should also include snacks.
Or maybe the tickets are ~$5 and go to local charities? There could be a list of them on your tablet and you get to choose which one your ticket price goes to.
Would join a Preview Club like a book club. I’m not much of a movie watcher but I would happily snark or squee over previews with a bunch of friendly people.
Could the preview club make up what they think the story will be based on the preview? There could be points given for anyone who gets a twist right (which could be found out online, not through actually watching the movie)
I would prefer an option to get a description of how it all works out, so that I never ever have to watch any full length movies at all but can still make small talk in the 21st century US of A.
For that you want the Moviepooper website. It provides the endings to movies.
YES this is what I was going to say. I want the tablet to offer me a link to the Wikipedia plot summary as per this very smart piece. I love previews but really hate watching movies (EXCEPT FURY ROAD), and this seems like the perfect solution.
It’s more fun to watch trailers in the the theater. So still good idea. But really I often just watch a lot of trailers by clicking “Trailers” on my Apple TV and that is also satisfying. Also it means you can watch good ones several times in a row.
What’s your all time favorite trailer? Mine is the teaser for Marie Antoinette https://youtu.be/vn-D1DVvb04
Magic Mike XXL
YES! That is such a classic one, especially in the sense that the movie itself was not as great. The best trailers are always for less than great films (except maybe Guardians of the Galaxy?)
I really shamefully love the extended Cloud Atlas trailer because it squeezes all the gooey schmaltz of the movie into a tidy 5 min package. Right now I’m too enamored of the Dressmaker preview even though I’m sure the movie will be meh.
I like it kid–you’ve got moxie. That’ll take you far in this business.
I think I’d pay the full $10 if they also offered a small box filled with candy samples–the major companies could test out their new products (or unload some excess inventory) on us trailer-viewers.
Yes, this would make it worth $10 to me, definitely.
Tbh I just want this candy idea
oh whoah, in like Flynn
My hometown movie theater up until very recently had $3 tickets (They raised them a few years ago to…$4). Going to movies elsewhere was a rude awakening.
Last year I went to the cinema in central London for the first time (I had lived in London for a while, but I hardly ever see films, especially not in the centre), and it cost about £25 for two people. I was horrified.
I would pay money for this, but my favorite movie is the Cloud Atlas trailer so.
Seconded so hard, you don’t even know. I still regularly watch it.
But how much is the trailer and how much is the Outro music, and really, does it matter? I’d also pay just to listen to trailer soundtracks probably.
Here all day for truly great trailers! The “In The Loop” trailer is one of MY favorite movies. I regularly send it to friends in case the movie 1. has too much swearing for them or 2. they don’t have time for it, then the trailer is just as much a creative work of art. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VDc7-YH1LA
Yes, please.
pleasepleasepleaseplease
This would be my husband’s death sentence. He only like “good” movies and therefore dies quietly during the previews where I shriek in his ear that we are buying tickets to every single Maze Runner sequel and anything with Vin Diesel in it (especially the Witch Hunter).
yay! another person who terrifies their significant other with their “awful” taste in movies…..besties?
To be fair, he does sit through some of them with me when they come to netflix. But I do wish I had a friend for in-theater poor choices.
I am so there for the Witch Hunter. YES.
Husband just reported to me yesterday (after I shrieked again during the trailer) that it got 22% on rotten tomatoes. I CARE NOT FOR THE FEEBLE COMMENTARY OF SO-CALLED CRITICS. Besides everyone knows 22% means it came all the way back around to good again. It’s the 45%-65% that is dangerous territory.
Seriously, nobody who wants to see this movie wants to see it because it’s Great Cinema. Come on, people. Evaluate a movie on what it’s trying to do. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
there is so much truth to that percentage number. I was EQUALLY as excited for Jupiter Ascending when it FLOPPED as I was when I’d only seen the trailer for it.
The only thing I don’t want to feel after I see a movie in a theater is: “meh. It was okay. It’d be kinda the same on a laptop screen, I guess.”
We have this in San Antonio! (Or we did the last time I was at the Quarry Cinema). The second floor lobby has a big area with tables and huge screens and all it does is show previews up there. You have to buy a ticket for an actual movie to get up there but once you’re there you can hang out before or after your movie and eat ice cream and watch previews which is what we did in my prime outdoor-mall-ratting days (1997-2001)
Mine is Tinder sans photos.
YES THIS IS ALL I WANT OUT OF LIFE. Once I found a channel on my parents’ dish that just played nothing but previews and watched it obsessively.
after reading all the comments all I can think of is
Please refrain from licking the buzzer.
I have this long-standing theory that movies rarely need to be longer than 70 minutes and actively decide to watch movies or not by how closely they adhere to the 70 minute rule (lots of early B movies were about that long, maybe 80 minutes, and were excellent because they didn’t drag out the boring plots just because the director was really into some symbolism thing or whatever. citizen kane would move from being “only interesting because of technical shit” to “dang it’s actually interesting!” if they cut it down to 70 minutes trust me on this)
therefore i think that preview night would be right up my alley, but only if it’s limited to 70 or 80 minutes because i might not be able to handle too much of that fast-paced excitement.
Before E! was an actual channel, back in the misty days of the early ’90s, it was a channel that showed endless trailers, one after the other. I would regularly become transfixed by it and lose whole afternoons. One day my roommate was home sick and watched the trailer channel for, like, 8 hours while I was at work, and she called me to demand that I return home with Hudson Hawk, because she had fully imprinted on that trailer and how terrible it was. The movie was bad, but not terrible enough to be truly entertaining.
After showing trailers, my theater has a little thing where they say “want to watch more trailers? visit our website….” and I have always laughed because who would be thinking about watching more trailers after sitting through 20 minutes of them. But now I know.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot this afternoon. Here are some obstacles:
Doing this would take up a cinema that then could not be used to show other films the studios want screened. Depending on how often you’d want to run this show, this might be a problem. I.e. you could probably get away with doing this once-a-month but not 4 showings/day every day, like a regular film. Since regular movies have trailers preceding them, they might not see this as that much of a benefit to their bottom line, especially because they are (possibly) losing out on revenue that they’d get if you actually saw a single movie (with half a dozen trailers ahead of it).
Further complicating this is that most studios probably wouldn’t be thrilled to have their trailers screened alongside competing studios’ trailers, so you’d probably have to do a Warner Bros. show, a Universal Show, a Paramount show, etc.
I mean, I am not trying to poo-poo your idea; I would TOTALLY see a feature-length show made up of just trailers. It’s just those damn fat cats crushing our dreams!
did you know some people don’t like commenting on each trailer as it passes? they just…let it go, with no verdict, satisfied in their silence. I don’t get it, I have to pass judgement like I’m the Roman Emperor of Films for every single one.
This is probably a YMMV issue. The only trailer that ever got me to see an American movie I wasn’t already planning to see was George of the Jungle (I apparently have an insatiable appetite for seeing Brendan Fraser smash full-speed into trees. Who knew?) Bollywood trailers, on the other hand … I could sit all day watching Bollywood trailers and probably come out with more movies to watch than there are years left in my life.
Yesss, I love trailers! My husband and I have at home party night once a week, which involves a good amount of marijuana and a rotating slate of activities, one of which is “tiny movie time,” aka trailer watching, that comes with its own song.
#relationshipgoals.
YES. I have been waiting for someone to invent this business model for YEARS. And I will go one further and say that there needs to be an Oscar category for movie trailers. They are works of art when done right and should be recognized.
Hmm; maybe this would encourage me to go to the cinema more than my current habit of about once a year. (I say that. Last time I went to the cinema, to see Fury Road, I saw trailers for various films that I had no interest in (Ant-Man, The Gallows) and others that filled me with seething hate and which I vowed never to watch (Ted 2, Knock Knock). I am apparently a picky viewer.)
PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
The UC Theatre southwest of UC Berkeley used to show hours of _old_ trailers. You could wander in, wander out for dinner, come back… There’d be the hour of monster movies, of classics, etc. I quite miss it, though of course we have YouTube now. My favorite trailer was for _Roosters_, with Edward James Olmos and Maria Conchita Alonso.
I think this every time I go to a movie and I get peeved when people think we can get there late because it’s”just previews.” It would have to be socially acceptable to talk the whole way through though. Part of the fun is saying ”Hell no” in unison with your companion, or “oh look, another movie set in a parallel universe where only 5-10% of the population of the U.S. is female.”
Would actually go to a theeyayter to watch a heaping helping of trailers and happily pay. When I had a TV/DVD I would find myself getting progressively squashier and more content with each new trailer that appeared, then be vaguely disappointed when I had to sit up and Watch A Movie. This definitely appeals to my filmic temperament. Oh, and I have no idea how I screwed up my I.D. here again. Maybe God is trying to tell me to slow my comments down.
I need this. I love the ritual of settling in for a movie and getting excited for my next few visits, and it fills me with so much rage that I sit through half an hour of pre-movie ads and get like one or two trailers if I’m lucky.
But I also need a function that blanks the screen if they start going too far into ‘tell you the entire plot and/or spoil all the best jokes’ territory. Once I’ve made a decision to go to see a film I don’t want to know anything more. Like I haven’t watched any Star Wars previews since the first one. I heard the music, saw the speeder and went ‘yep, I’m in and I’m excited. No further details necessary.’
Of course, if it looks terrible, please give me as many plot details as possible so I can sit with horrified glee knowing that I will never have to watch that abomination.
I regularly fall down a youtube movie trailers hole and loose entire afternoons. I would be very much here for this. Although setting it in a bar would be even more appealing.
Like instead of playing sportsball on the big screens they just have a constant feed (of non-repeating) trailers and a no-talking rule.
I want to go to there!
This would be especially cool if it meant having trailers for more small/independent/foreign movies, instead of seeing the same three or four planned blockbusters over and over again.
Yes so much to this! And maybe mix in a few of the original trailers for older movies too, to encourage folks to throw some love and money at non-current stuff.
This is the best business idea I’ve ever seen, especially since often the worst movies have the best trailers. Put this on Kickstarter and I will support it.
This is the best business idea I've ever seen, especially since often the worst movies have the best trailers. Put this on Kickstarter and I will support it.
I want to go to there!
I would pay money for this, but my favorite movie is the Cloud Atlas trailer so.
I would pay money for this, but my favorite movie is the Cloud Atlas trailer so.
YES YES YES I am part of the target audience for this post, 100%
Would join a Preview Club like a book club. I’m not much of a movie watcher but I would happily snark or squee over previews with a bunch of friendly people.