R ants

Like many millions of the great huddled masses, I rushed out to see "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". If anyone cares, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What I didn't enjoy were the commercials. Six! Six commercials before the coming attractions! We're not talking all new commercials, either, made to take advantage of the theater experience with its wide screen and high-quality sound system. All right, five of them fell into that category. The sixth was a Mountain Dew ad, the one where the guy goes up against the ram, butting heads for the bottle of Dew.

I realize movies are pretty damned expensive these days. That's not my fault. I didn't create new effects and pioneer new technologies to create those new effects in an effort to bring in greater box office receipts. The studios did that, and, when they did, they created their own monster. Now, each new movie must be more amazing than the one before it, which means each new movie costs more to make than the previous. The ticket price, even matinee prices, reflects that reality. Evidently, ticket prices aren't enough, though, or, if they are, the additional revenue all those theatergoers represent is too much to pass up.

Before anyone goes off about advertising in newspapers and magazines, the true income those publications depend on rather than subscriptions and cover prices, let's remember that no one is forced to wade through the myriad ads there in order to get to the stories and articles. They can easily be ignored. Even at home, on the old boob tube, the mute button on the remote is a godsend when commercials which lower your IQ each time they air appear on the screen.

No, commercials in movies are more like pop-up ads on websites. Sometimes, those are impossible to ignore. Many times, they take control of the screen so you can't see the site you originally logged on to, and they won't go away no matter how aggressive you might be in that endeavor. Movie commercials play to a captive audience with no say whether or not they'll be forced to sit through them. If the ticket prices were reduced to reflect the revenue received through these presentations, that would be one thing. That doesn't happen, though. Ticket prices continue to go up. The big, popular special effects-laden fare won't accept passes or special coupons, all because it costs one hundred million, two hundred million, who knows how many hundreds of millions, of dollars to make. While the studios bemoan how much it costs them to make a flick, and how many people have to see that movie multiple times just to break even, they rake in even more money with ads for other products.

I usually go to matinees, because I can't afford evening ticket prices. If I'm forced to sit through commercials, and not just one, we're talking half a dozen at Harry Potter, then I want a reduction on my ticket price. The multiplexes could easily accommodate that request. Harry Potter is showing on three screens at the local theater where I saw it. If I pay full price, then I want the right to view the movie without being forced to put up with commercials. If I want to be tightfisted and see the movie at less than the full ticket price, be it evening or matinee, then I'll have to put up with the commercials. The choice will be mine, though. I won't be paying full price to play captive audience to a bunch of ad execs who simply see me as a cash cow they can milk for all its worth.

I like seeing movies in theaters rather than waiting for them to come out on video. I like the darkened theater with its big screen and serious sound. I like the whole movie experience, almost a ritual, which can't be recreated at home no matter how serious the audio and video equipment might be. I like the communal experience which comes from seeing a movie with a room full of people (so long as they shut up and leave their cell phones and pagers on vibrate). I don't want to give that up. At the same time, I don't want the experience cheapened by a bunch of money-grubbing whores from Madison Avenue who don't respect my wants and needs.

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