It may seem like a looney idea, but not to one state senator in Connecticut.
State Senator Martin Looney, a Democrat from New Haven, is fed up with movie theaters saying a film starts at a set time, then being forced to sit through 30 minutes of advertisements, trailers, and promos for popcorn and sodas before the movie actually begins.
He’s so sick of it that he has introduced a bill in the state General Assembly to rectify the situation. “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: That the general statutes be amended to require that each movie advertisement or listing include, and separately list, the scheduled start time for (1) the movie trailers and advertisements that precede the advertised or listed movie, and (2) the advertised or listed movie,” the bill reads.
We’ve all been through the drill: You’re taking your two kids to a matinee show on Saturday, so you spend 30 minutes getting them dressed and shod, packing healthy snacks, piling into the car, and racing to the theater for a 3 p.m. show. Then you sit in the theater for 20 to 30 minutes — trying desperately to keep the kids in line — before the movie actually starts.
To Mr. Looney, that’s just wrong.
“It seems to be an abuse of people’s time,” the senator told The Register Citizen. “If they want to get there early and watch the promos, they can. But if they just want to see the feature, they ought to be able to get there just in time for that.”
It’s not the first time the idea has come up. In February 2005, a similar bill was proposed before the New York City Council to make sure movie theaters listed the actual movie start times, not just when trailers and promos began.
At the time, City Councilwoman Gail Brewer told the press: “We can’t outlaw advertising. But at least we can tell the industry that they have to be honest about when their movies start, not their ads,” Gothamist reported.
By May, the move in New York had some effect. Loews Theaters announced that it would soon begin printing the real start time for the movie, but only by noting that “the feature presentation starts 10 to 15 minutes after the posted show time,” according to The New York Times.
The theater chain started its experiment at theaters in Connecticut, where then-state Representative Andrew M. Fleischmann, a West Hartford Democrat, had sponsored a bill requiring real times in listings.
The move could be expensive, as movie theaters don’t just count on making money with those $18 tickets and $12 buckets of popcorn (or those $8 bottles of water). The theaters, which were hit hard when Covid-19 kept everyone at home for a couple years, say they depend on the dollars that come from the advertisements and previews.
For theater owners, it’s been a halting recovery. In 2019, ticket sales topped $1.2 billion, but plunged to $219 million in 2020, according to box office analyst site TheNumbers.com. Ticket sales rebounded to $831 million in 2023, but then dropped to 2024 to $819 million.
Peter H. Gistelinck, executive director at the Avon Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut, told the Register that he’s not a fan of Mr. Looney’s legislation.
“This is kind of a strange bill,” he said. “We, as an independent movie house, are financially dependent on our previews as well as our overall messaging, including commercials. We always announce the start time of our screenings so that our patrons can enjoy the whole experience.”
Mr. Gistelinck said the new bill could dramatically affect the movie business. “Announcing the start time of the actual movie would definitely disincentivize our business partners’ video messaging, which would have a direct negative impact on our financial stability in an already challenging environment,” he told the Register.
