If you’ve been watching US confirmation hearings for the Donald Trump cabinet nominations, you may be depressed and exasperated by the way in which what passes for due process in the US government seems to be ineffective window dressing, incapable of preventing the country from rapidly becoming a Will Ferrell movie made real.
Fear not, though, because in Connecticut, “the nutmeg state” or “the land of steady habits”, a hero is emerging: a man who will revive liberal faith in US governance and isn’t afraid to stand up for what’s right, even in the face of insurmountable idiocy. That man is state senator Martin Looney. While Rome is burning, Looney, a 73-year-old legislative stalwart who has held his seat since 1993, is trying to put out the fires.
Looney has supported some worthy legislation in his time: laws intended to strengthen gun ownership laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook mass shooting in 2013; the institution of the state’s earned income tax credit, which supports low-income families; capping the exorbitant price of prescription drugs; offering early support to Connecticut’s bill to legalise marijuana; and spearheading its banning of the death penalty. However, it’s for his latest piece of proposed legislation that Looney should be celebrated and memorialised by film lovers everywhere, with statues outside multiplexes, popcorn boxes emblazoned with his visage and cinemas named in his honour.
That’s because Looney has proposed the very sexily titled State Bill No 797, which would require that cinemas provide “scheduled start time disclosures in movie advertisements and listings”. Looney’s pioneering legislation would, if passed, “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”.
This would mean, at least in Connecticut, that one annoying friend, who “loves watching the trailers”, can arrive at the movies for a 5pm show and sit there for 25 minutes basked in the glow of ads and previews while the rest of us calmly make our way into the film at 5.25pm as the credits begin. No more shall should Connecticut moviegoers have to suffer the indignities and frustrations of rushing into the cinema at the indicated start time only to become increasingly annoyed as the previews and trailers run for 15 or even 30 minutes.
Looney told local news station WSAZ-TV that while people generally accounted for the extra minutes taken up by ads when they went to the cinema, “they shouldn’t have to do the math”. He added that there “are usually bigger issues than movie times, and I’m a sponsor of most of those, as you may know. But this is something that’s a matter of truth in advertising and that people are complaining about.”
The senatorial hero pointed out that he had “gotten a number of calls from constituents that say, ‘Oh, yeah, I feel that that’s outrageous that I’m stuck there for a half an hour watching stuff before a movie actually starts and make me late for dinner after I had to pay a babysitter more.’ Those are real practical issues that come up.”
Cinema chains are pushing back, pointing out that the ad packages are fundamental to their survival when they are struggling to stay afloat in the face of streaming and video-on-demand services, but Looney is confident that his bill will receive bipartisan support. He expects it to pass easily “because people from both parties value their time”. It’s difficult to deduce from publicly available records how much advertising contributes to the revenue of cinema chains in the US, but the AV Club estimates that it could be as much as 10%, a not inconsiderable “chunk of change”.
The truth is that for years the movie trailer business has migrated online. Trailers are released to much fanfare on the internet, where you’re interrupted by a slew of ads, not all of which can be skipped. The old advert-and-trailer package has just found a new, more accessible home and the “actual appeal of seeing a preview [in theatres] has largely been nullified”, according to the AV Club.
While many trailer-adverse moviegoers already make allowances for the time that will be filled with other fluff before a screening starts, the Connecticut law would make it explicit and prevent theatres from running ad packages for as long as they like.
Film critics don’t generally have to suffer the irritation of ads and previews before screenings. However, on a recent trip to the movies to see a film that wasn’t shown to critics ahead of time this critic found that the seemingly endless series of trailers and bad ads resulted in angry frustration that may have contributed to my negative reaction to the film once it finally screened, so I am in favour of Looney’s pioneering crusade. A bill that allows you to watch only a movie at the cinema and to avoid the advertising seems like an enlightened piece of legislation. This is true even if it applies only in Connecticut and may place that state’s movie theatres in an even more precarious financial position.
Martin Looney, those who are about to watch only the movies they paid good money to see, salute you.
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