As noted by so, so many people, the AMC preshow has gotten stupid long. While it’s true, and highly recommended, you don’t have to sit through any of it. Just show up 15 to 20 minutes after the posted start time and you should be fine. However, you choose to sit through it all, there are a few interesting things to see. Also, who hurt you? I know I’m sick in the head and sit through it, but you can be better. For this exercise, we are looking at what transpired before the 5:00 pm showing of Americana on August 16th. Let’s begin with the first section: The Noovie first half.

The main thing to notice here, and what really is the problem with Noovie, is nearly all of the original segments are placed at the beginning of the preshow. Once you get past the Recess Therapy short (which I don’t even understand why it’s part of this), all you get for the next 10 minutes are ads. Not just ads, but ads that will be repeated at least more than once later on. The same Progressive ad is here three times. Certainly didn’t need that. You will also notice that rather beginning the AMC Open at 5:00 when it’s supposed to, Noovie plays a short that end with “We Love That You’re Here.” This has been the exact case the last four movies I have watched at AMC. It’s annoying. Moving on to the final two sections: Noovie part 2, and the Trailer section.

We have more repeats here and only ads for the next 6 minutes, but we have finally escaped Noovie. If you cut out the repeated ads, we might save 4 to 5 minutes. This is the main area that people seem to be mad at. When you see the movie is starting at a certain time, you expect at least one thing: there will be trailers. So, when the time comes and you see ad after ad knowing there are still trailers, people’s patience gets tested. 20 minutes for trailers isn’t too bad, and the issues I have with current trailers is well documented. See my post on that topic I posted a bit ago.

AMC has said they are going to shorten the preshow by 5 or so minutes. What I think they will just do is shorten the programming down and keep the ads. What I’ve noticed this weekend at the two visits I made to AMC is the AMC closing is the short version, and the Nicole closing is an abbreviated version, so I think my theory is correct. We also have a Galaxy phone ad in the middle of the trailers now. Like I said at the beginning, there is no reason to show up on time unless you are bored. I always get to the theater early and just play Mahjong on my phone until Nicole tells us movies are magic. That doesn’t mean you can’t find a better use for your time though.