Regal Entertainment plans to create 20 minutes of "pre-show" ads and program shorts prior to the advertised start time for its feature films, the co-topper of the No. 1 U.S. exhib said Wednesday.
A key challenge in making those plans work, Regal co-CEO Kurt Hall said, will be creating a mix of "rolling stock" commercials and other pre-movie programming that's sufficiently entertaining. The Denver-based circuit recently inked a multiyear pact with NBC to supply some of the pre-show programming.
"I hope that the line between entertainment and advertising will begin to blur," said Hall, the lunchtime keynoter at the EPM Entertainment Marketing Conference in Universal City.
Confab, which drew some 275 marketing execs and other attendees, is staged annually by Gotham marketing consultant EPM Communications.
Hall also heads the company's Regal CineMedia unit, a $67 million venture to install digital distribution and projection technology in two-thirds of Regal's 550 theaters, covering three-fourths of its total screens. Regal is the sprawling exhib fashioned by entertainment entrepreneur Philip Anschutz from three separate circuits. Regal aims to boost pre-show capabilities and facilitate the occasional videocast of concerts and sporting events as an alternative to movie programming during some slow patches in the week.
"In effect, we are creating a new national network," Hall said, likening the chain's theater operations to broadcast TV affiliates. "(And) our system will allow targeting both on a geographic and movie-rating basis."
Pre-show ads have been dominated historically by static advertising of low-resolution and pedestrian content, Hall said. But with rolling-stock ads of high quality and creativity, advertisers should see good bang for their buck, he said.
"There is no other medium that delivers a message on a 30-foot-high screen with digital sound," Hall observed.
Still, there's a limit to how much pre-show advertising can succeed, he said. "You cannot just put in 30 minutes of ads," he warned. "People just won't stand for it."
A 20-minute pre-show mix of ads and entertainment won't hamper theater operators' ability to squeeze in just as many showtimes as now, and "it also allows more time for the concession stand," he said.
Hall acknowledged ongoing talks with studio execs over potential concerns regarding pre-show initiatives and alternative programming. But the luncheon crowd, comprised mostly of marketing professionals, displayed polite interest in Hall's presentation except for a single sharp question.
"Can we get M&Ms back in (Regal) theaters?" an audience member pleaded.
Replied Hall: "My wife says the same thing about Raisinets." (As reported by VARIETY)
E-MAIL AUTHOR
