Friday, May 8, 1998
Coming attractions
FILM: Between buying popcorn and being deafened by THX,
movie-goers
are subject to one of Hollywood’s most strategic artistic
and
marketing accomplishments:
By Lonnie Harris
Daily Bruin Contributor
As the lights dim and the curtain opens, the audience begins to
shift in their seats. Though all the signs point toward the
beginning of the movie it recently shelled out $8 for (plus $6 for
parking at the Universal Citywalk), the audience knows better.
Anyone who has seen a movie here within the past five years knows
that a movie can’t start without a gratuitous, elongated ad for the
Los Angeles Times, followed by a high-pitched whine reminding them
that THX did, in fact, amplify the film’s sound for their personal
benefit. They also know that the theater chain will have to notify
them of its presence with a bizarre, 30-second computer graphic
featuring the logo and a cute little character shaped like a
popcorn bag.
But even after these handy reminders have ceased, the movie
can’t yet start. No, this anxious crowd of people who have been
waiting through weeks of previews to see "He Got Game" will now
have to sit through about 10 more minutes of other previews for
other movies, including a romantic comedy called "Hav Plenty" and
the new film from the director of "Swingers," titled "Can’t Hardly
Wait."
This is not an isolated incident. Every audience is bombarded by
advertising before a film can even start. Film previews (known in
Hollywood-ese as "trailers") can often take up as much as 20
minutes of screen time before the movie even begins. This is
because trailers are arguably Hollywood’s most important piece of
advertising, and Hollywood is notorious for exploiting any
marketing concept it can find.
Trailers hold this position for several reasons. Primarily, the
studios can determine a lot about a person depending on what movie
they see, when they see it and what theater they attend. If an
individual chooses to see "He Got Game" on opening night at the
Universal Citywalk, a great deal of information can be inferred
about the audience and the trailers will be selected accordingly.
Thus, the studios can show certain trailers to certain audiences to
guarantee that the people to whom the movie would most appeal will
find out about their newest products earliest.
Trailers are an also asset to a studio because they have a
captive audience. Commercials can run around-the-clock on network
television, but as long as the viewer has the option of flipping
the channel, there is no guarantee they will actually watch
what