Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

It's been many years but I'm just not a fan of this "pre-show entertainment" nonsense with commercials for Iced Tea, or some TNT show nobody's going to watch.

I miss listening to Miles Davis while reading trivia cards, quotations from stars and seeing ads for local businesses.

Granted these days I don't really arrive that early so I only catch like 5-10 minutes of it, but when I went to the theater as a kid, we would usually arrive pretty early, so maybe that's why I remember seeing it more.

So do any theaters still do this? Anyone?!

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

My local theater (Carmike Cinemas) still does this. They have something called Screen Vision that shows little multiple choice trivia questions along with some behind the scenes featurettes on upcoming movies and stuff.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

Every major chain around here does (Regal and Cinemark/Century theatres). They're played before the Pre-Show countdown thing.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

I see trivia questions sometimes still. It would be nice if theaters showed a short, cartoon, anything besides ads.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

AMC does as far as I can tell. To me pre show stuff is better than a blank screen.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

I think the Nuart in L.A. does.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

yes.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

Mine does, but I prefer Cinemark's BTS videos. The theater that shows the slide cards only has about a dozen of them, so if you're in the theater 15 minutes early, you've got to sit through those things about 20 times. They contain such "fascinating" trivia as John Haam's nickame is "Ham and Cheese", and Anne Hathaway's first career choice was to be a nun. They're pretty lame. :(

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

Now I'm imagining a movie of The Flying Nun with Hathaway.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

Otm Shank!

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

AMC still does this. They also show the commercials for TNT shows. The thing about going really early is that they can run through the same trivia cards several times before the movies.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

My local theater has music videos, trivia questions and brief vignettes presented by the Reelz Channel.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

Well there is only a finite amount of trivia so it is understandable that they have to repeat them.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

You'd think a big theater chain would invest in creating new serials. They're always looking for ways to get people to come to theaters...anything but making us look at a blank screen for 20 to 30 minutes.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

Goddamn you... :mad: ;)

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

I remember them from when I was younger. They showed trivia about movies like Pet Sematary {"What was the cat's name? a) Church b) Fluffy c) Jeffrey d) Kiwi"). All the cool movies were used like Chinatown, The Fly, Aliens, etc.

I haven't seen any of those trivia slideshows any more and I usually go to Century and AMC.

Now it's just ads for video games, and television shows.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

AMC and Century still show them, you just have to basically be one of the first people in the theater. I tend to stay until after the credits for movies and for the most part the trivia bits start up after the film ends.

The United Artists theater here that's a cheap show only shows the trivia bits. They don't have that other stuff before the movie.

The Brendan Theater chain has one location about 45 minutes from here and the times I've gone they have more local ads and things, then the trailers start.

I started a thread on it a number of years ago because it was so different from other theaters I had been to.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/other-talk/...s-theater.html

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

I can't believe I didn't notice that thread when you posted it. :lol:

The Brenden Theaters location here in Vegas is one of the best theaters in town. Great IMAX screen, all their auditoriums are converting to Barco DLP systems within the next few weeks, and it'll be one of the first theaters in the country with the Dolby Atmos system installed. You know what? Johnny Brenden is actually a geniuenly swell dude and does a lot for the Vegas community.

... and after a business deal we did with him, he allowed us to watch the Super Bowl a few years ago in his fucking sweet office that is located above the movie theater's box office. :thumbsup:

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

I don't get the trivia any more (mostly Regal and AMC)--just commercials and promos. "Be sure to get here 20 minutes early to watch our crap!"

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

Local theater does this. Movie music, local advertising, and occasional movie "trivia", though it mostly consists of new releases. I wish they would throw in some trivia from older movies.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

Of course they're still used everywhere. It brings in big ad revenue for the theaters.

They used to use slide projectors. Now they use video projectors. Most everyone transitioned in the early 2000's. Everyone got on board because it wasn't very expensive.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

Jumble fun...guess the title:

rforste upmg

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

Sad that the stuff they're currently doing is making the older slides look tasteful in comparison. I just about hit the roof when the theater I was a projectionist at got slide projectors installed. They made the screens look like fucking billboards, some of the trivia slides were even wrong. We had one screen with curtains that opened when the film started and closed at the end, but we had to disable them when the stupid slides were installed.

I mainly resent any kind of advertising in theaters because they already charge too much for tickets, then they expect you to buy overpriced snacks, so THEN force-feeding you ads that they're being paid to show is just going too far. (And when I had to put ads on the screens, I did NOT get a raise.) Besides, going to the theater should be an ESCAPE from crap you'd see on TV. Given that I hardly ever watch broadcast TV nowadays, I bet my TV hasn't shown nearly as many commercials as most theater screens have!

Another thing I hate about pre-show crap (and this is why I left my job at Regal) is that many new theaters have been built with common-width screens so scope movies are shown letterboxed with masking at the top and/or bottom of the screen. This is poor design in itself, but theaters that show ads have the masking go up in between shows so the ads are shown on a bigger screen than the actual movie, then the audience sees the masking come down at the start of the movie making the screen smaller.

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

I thought that most theaters don't make that much money from the actual ticket prices...

Re: Do any theaters still do those slideshows/trivia cards before the previews?
 

I agree. I liked going to the theaters, and if you got there too early you got those cinema trivia slides, then a few preview trailers for other films, then the main event.

Showing ads for TV shows and candy bars makes it seem more mundane and less special.