They have the POSTER, not the MOVIE

[LillFilly]

Soo, I'd been looking forward to seeing Disney's 'African Cats' today. My local theater had the poster up for 2-months. The theater website lists it as 'coming soon to theaters everywhere.' and even links to 'buy tickets now' So I wanted to get tickets today and went to the theater website, as today is opening day. Movie wasn't listed. In fact, it's not listed for any theater in my town. So I called the theater who'd had the poster up the whole time, in case the site hadn't been updated yet.

"----- Theater"
"Hi, I was wondering if you were showing 'African Cats?"
"Nooo, we're not showing that here."
"Oh, well I was confused because you have the poster...."
"Click."

Yep, I was hung up on. Don't think I'll be going back there. I thought the whole point of the poster was to show what movies you have? I could see it being my mistake, that I didn't make sure that it said 'coming soon'; but the guy on the phone was just rude. I had wanted to ask if any of their other theaters were playing it.

[blas]

The movie theater here at the mall (yes, the one with mice!) does that tease routine as well. They had a poster for Country Strong (believe me, I didn't want to see it, just an example) and Burlesque at least a month or more before they started playing.

They also don't put anything like "Coming soon" or anything by the teaser posters, either.

[sms001]

(In my best Samuel L. Jackson voice)

CATS ON A PLAIN!!!

[bhskittykatt]

Our mall theatre had a free stack of posters for "127 Hours", but it never played there (or at any other theatres in town owned by the same chain). It only played at the little indy theatre in town.

I agree that if they aren't showing it, then don't advertise it! Because what's the point then?

[Ironclad Alibi]

"Many, many yeras ago, when I was just a lad..."

Back in 1971, the theater next to my appartment building had a big poster for Cold Turkey. I thought it looked like a funny movie, so I bought a ticket to go in and see it. That is how I got to see Five Easy Pieces by mistake. I did see Cold Turkey later when it finally showed up.

This was a single movie theater, long before multiplexes appearred.

[The cat whisperer]

Posters are considered advertisements, much like the movie trailers. The studios in effect 'rent' out the poster frames to generate buzz for upcoming movies. However, a poster should never be placed outside or near the box office if the theatre doesn't know for sure they are getting the movie. And, a poster should come down when the movie opens if a theatre is not showing it.*

Some studios coughDisneycough actually send people out to make sure posters are up and their trailers are playing.

The employee hanging up on you though....totally not cool. You should let the manager know even if you will never go back before that employee manages to drive even more people away.

*Eight years as a movie theatre manager and I will never do it again.

[LillFilly]

The employee hanging up on you though....totally not cool. You should let the manager know even if you will never go back before that employee manages to drive even more people away.

Actually, I recognized the voice...He's the ASSISTANT MANAGER.

[blas]

Where I live, we have two major theaters (and a downtown budget theater that shows movies that are a few months out of theaters for a discount price, and also a drive-in theater), and the two major theaters have to split the movies half and half. So, you may have Twilight at one theater, but the next Twilight movie could be at the other theater.

What pisses me off is that the movie posters don't always belong to the right theater. Like I said before about the Country Strong and Burlesque posters, before they were even in theaters, and also because neither movie played at that theater.

They have a poster for Scream 4 outside the smaller major theater, but it's playing at the one at the mall.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Where I live, we have two major theaters (and a downtown budget theater that shows movies that are a few months out of theaters for a discount price, and also a drive-in theater), and the two major theaters have to split the movies half and half. So, you may have Twilight at one theater, but the next Twilight movie could be at the other theater.

What pisses me off is that the movie posters don't always belong to the right theater. Like I said before about the Country Strong and Burlesque posters, before they were even in theaters, and also because neither movie played at that theater.

They have a poster for Scream 4 outside the smaller major theater, but it's playing at the one at the mall.

Something similar happens here in Fairfax. There are two movie theaters within about a mile of each other (one has stadium seating, the other doesn't), and they split what comes out between them, but it's fairly consistent across franchises and studios, at least.