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An open letter to the MPAA
May. 28th, 2003 01:14 pmTo Whom It May Concern:
You may have noticed recently studies showing that TV watching is on the decline. Despite more choice than ever before, people are abandoning the networks and getting their entertainment elsewhere. Pay services such as HBO are doing better, but mainstream TV may be dying.
You may be wondering why this is. I have noticed lots of speculation in magazines and newspapers and internet groups about it, but I think a lot of people are not watching TV for the same reason I don't: They are fed up with the constant pervasive advertising. When you only get seven minutes of show before a three-minute commercial break, it just becomes too annoying to keep up.
Which brings me to you. Before movies play in the theater, there have for a long time been trailers for other movies. This wasn't too bad, and frankly part of the experience. It actually worked to make a good transition from the time when you're sitting in the theater talking to your friends to the time when your attention is focused on the movie. Then they started showing slides before the movie, advertising for local businesses. This wasn't too annoying either, the ads being silent and non-intrusive. But now you're showing full-fledged commercials as people file in, looking for their seats in the theater which is now darkened early so people can see the commercials. This will annoy people and drive them away from the theaters. Perhaps you're trying to recoup some of the money you feel you've lost due to the sagging economy and lower movie ticket sales because of it. But fewer people will be buying tickets because of this.
You may want to consider the Aesop's fable of the dog, carrying a bone, who looks into a lake and sees another dog there carrying a bone. Thinking he wants both bones, he makes a grab for it, and loses his grip on his own. You may consider that perhaps you might want to be content with, and concentrate on increasing, the revenue you get from ticket sales, the pay-per-view release, the cable and network TV releases, the overseas release, the DVD sales, the merchandising, the fast-food tie-ins, and so on, without making a grab for the extra revenue from these commercials, lest you lose it all.
Though some have already left you, I'll still see the occasional movie in spite of this, though not as many as I might otherwise have. However, be forewarned that the first movie that is interrupted in the middle for more commercials will be the last movie I see in the theaters.
Personally, I've got no vested interest in your financial well-being and, frankly, if the industry collapses under its own weight, perhaps the tighter budgets will start forcing producers to concentrate less on special effects and more on scripts that make sense, and telling interesting stories. So either way is good for me. But nonetheless, I thought you might want to know.
You may have noticed recently studies showing that TV watching is on the decline. Despite more choice than ever before, people are abandoning the networks and getting their entertainment elsewhere. Pay services such as HBO are doing better, but mainstream TV may be dying.
You may be wondering why this is. I have noticed lots of speculation in magazines and newspapers and internet groups about it, but I think a lot of people are not watching TV for the same reason I don't: They are fed up with the constant pervasive advertising. When you only get seven minutes of show before a three-minute commercial break, it just becomes too annoying to keep up.
Which brings me to you. Before movies play in the theater, there have for a long time been trailers for other movies. This wasn't too bad, and frankly part of the experience. It actually worked to make a good transition from the time when you're sitting in the theater talking to your friends to the time when your attention is focused on the movie. Then they started showing slides before the movie, advertising for local businesses. This wasn't too annoying either, the ads being silent and non-intrusive. But now you're showing full-fledged commercials as people file in, looking for their seats in the theater which is now darkened early so people can see the commercials. This will annoy people and drive them away from the theaters. Perhaps you're trying to recoup some of the money you feel you've lost due to the sagging economy and lower movie ticket sales because of it. But fewer people will be buying tickets because of this.
You may want to consider the Aesop's fable of the dog, carrying a bone, who looks into a lake and sees another dog there carrying a bone. Thinking he wants both bones, he makes a grab for it, and loses his grip on his own. You may consider that perhaps you might want to be content with, and concentrate on increasing, the revenue you get from ticket sales, the pay-per-view release, the cable and network TV releases, the overseas release, the DVD sales, the merchandising, the fast-food tie-ins, and so on, without making a grab for the extra revenue from these commercials, lest you lose it all.
Though some have already left you, I'll still see the occasional movie in spite of this, though not as many as I might otherwise have. However, be forewarned that the first movie that is interrupted in the middle for more commercials will be the last movie I see in the theaters.
Personally, I've got no vested interest in your financial well-being and, frankly, if the industry collapses under its own weight, perhaps the tighter budgets will start forcing producers to concentrate less on special effects and more on scripts that make sense, and telling interesting stories. So either way is good for me. But nonetheless, I thought you might want to know.
