Movies

Pre-movie ads will get longer

Think cinema ads are too long? Well hold on to your popcorn — they’re getting longer.

With demand for in-cinema advertising growing, moviegoers should expect to sit through five minutes of commercials from now on — up from three to four minutes last year, according to Jim Tricarico, the chief revenue officer at Screenvision, a large seller of moviehouse ads.

“The number of ads is more than last year,” Tricarico said, but explained they’re broken up with entertainment content from TV companies.

Indeed, the typical “pre-show experience” runs around 20 minutes after which theaters then show around 10 to 15 minutes of trailers ahead of the actual movie.

The 20-minute program, which includes ads, won’t get longer, but ads will take up more of the program.

Ad sellers don’t count non-movie entertainment, like TV show promos, as advertising.

Tricarico said cinema ads are taking off in part because he lowered pricing to place it on par with broadcast TV — and helped bring in tools to make it more comparable to buying TV airtime.

CPMs, or cost per thousand, are between $30 to $40.

The $600 million cinema ad business is forecast to grow in the low single digits this year, says Cliff Marks, head of the Cinema Advertising Council and sales president at the publicly traded National CineMedia, which has an estimated 62 percent share of the movie ad business.