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  3. Coming soon to a theater near you: a multimillion-dollar battle over coming attractions. Theater owners are squeezing extra coin

Coming soon to a theater near you: a multimillion-dollar battle over coming attractions. Theater owners are squeezing extra coin

admin2014-09-09  54
问题     Coming soon to a theater near you: a multimillion-dollar battle over coming attractions. Theater owners are squeezing extra coin out of film companies by charging them to play the trailers for their upcoming movies. Traditionally, theater owners were happy to run the advertisements for upcoming movies on the understanding that they drove box-office receipts and concession-stand sales. Studios paid to make the trailers, and cinemas screened them. Each movie came with two coming attractions attached, while others often ran at the discretion of the theater.
    But now theater owners, realizing the value of having Hollywood’s target audience already in the theater, have begun charging movie companies to run their trailers. Although some trailers still run for free, movie distributors complain that they’re increasingly being asked to pay to get their trailers played—or get shut out. "We’ve reached the tipping point," said Jeffrey Neuman, chief executive of Verites, a company paid by studios to check theaters to see that trailers are being shown and that marketing materials such as lobby cards and standees are in place. "If you’re not one of the ones paying for trailers, you’re left struggling for placement. "
    In one controversial move, the nation’s largest cinema chain, Regal Entertainment Group, recently cut the number of trailers that studios can run with their own movies for free to one from two. Some studio executives are privately grumbling about the practice, upset that they are being asked to pay still more to a supposed partner that typically keeps half the box-office receipts. "It’s logical a theater operator has an obligation to market studios’ movies, when we’ re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on making each one," said one studio executive who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the topic. "But they have gone all the way around to wanting to be paid. "
    Four of the major studios—20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. —reportedly have made annual marketing deals worth several million dollars with theater chains. In exchange, the studios are exempt from the one-free-trailer-only rule and get the best possible placement. Walt Disney Studios and Paramount Pictures don’ t have such deals, while smaller studios may pay as much as $100, 000 to play a trailer for one film. Some coming attractions still make it on the screen through studio executives lobbying and cajoling contacts at theaters with whom they have long-standing relationships. But such old-fashioned methods that don’ t involve payments are increasingly rare.
    Large theater chains won’t publicly acknowledge that they charge for trailers, nor will the studios that pay them. But within the film and exhibition industries, it’s common knowledge—and a growing source of resentment. "Everybody says, ’No, no, there’s no money ever paid to show trailers,’ but we know that’s not the case for some of the big boys," said Rafe Cohen, president of Galaxy Theatres, a chain that operates 115 screens. "For us little guys, we’d love to charge for trailers, but we don’t have the leverage. "
    The dispute marks the latest flare-up between film companies and exhibitors, whose symbiotic relationship has been strained in recent years. Turning trailers into a business, some fear, could add to the tension. "What makes this business run are trailers," said Chuck Viane, a former president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios. "When the right trailers aren’t seen by the public with the right movie, that can hurt the box office. "
    Although Regal’s one-trailer-only rule is new, the free trailer system began to break down in 2001, when Sony paid to advertise its comedy "The Animal" in front of the hit Universal movie "The Mummy Returns. " That aberration soon became the norm, with pay-for-play accelerating in the last two years. As they rose in value, the total number of trailers shown before a movie started going up. Three or four was the norm a decade ago. Regal and AMC theaters now run six or seven before every feature. "The number of trailers has absolutely exploded," said Federico Ponce, owner of High Res Hype, a graphic and design company that has worked on trailers for such movies as "The Avengers" and "Iron Man. " "When we started out, we’d work on one or two trailers every four months. Now we’re doing three or four trailers at the same time. "
    The competition is fierce, and prices high, to run a trailer in front of popular movies such as "The Hobbit. " Theater chains typically receive $25,000 to $100,000 to run a spot before a popular film at half their theaters—saving an equal amount of time at the other half of their theaters for another paid trailer. Theater owners charge more for the final trailer before a movie starts because, Neuman said, "There’s a big difference between how many people see the first trailer and the last. "
What does Jeffrey Neuman mean by saying "We’ve reached the tipping point"(para. 2)?
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答案the struggle between the two sides/movie studios and theater chains/over the charging of showing trailers/reached the critical moment/theatre chains are often in a domineering position/ not satisfied with keeping half the box-office receipts/if studios do not want to/not willing to pay for their trailers, they’ 11 probably lose the opportunity to propagate their upcoming movies("get shut out", "you’re left struggling for placement")
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