http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/nyregion/04movie.html

Ads to Admit That if Showtime Is 8, Movie Time Will Be 8:10
By JAMES BARRON

Coming soon to a movie ad near you - if not to a space-squeezed marquee - the time that the movie starts. The time that the movie really starts, not the time that the trailers and the commercials start. Or words to that effect.

Loews Cineplex Entertainment says that next month it will begin publicizing true starting times, sort of.

John McCauley, the company's senior vice president for marketing, said the times in the company's newspaper and Web listings would still be the times when the trailers and commercials start. But the ads will also carry a note advising that, as Mr. McCauley put it yesterday, "the feature presentation starts 10 to 15 minutes after the posted show time."

Loews said it had heard from moviegoers annoyed by commercials that run before the trailers for soon-to-be-released films. Loews has heard from people who resent feeling that they are a captive audience for commercials that seem longer than ever. Loews has heard from busy moviegoers, so busy that they have to coordinate their moviegoing with busy babysitters, who want them home on schedule so they can catch the late show.

Loews, which has 11 theaters with 84 screens in New York City, will begin testing the notices next week in Connecticut, where it operates two theaters. The 198 theaters in New York City and the rest of the country will follow a few weeks later, once any kinks are smoothed out, Mr. McCauley said.

He said it was just a coincidence that Connecticut was the home of State Representative Andrew M. Fleischmann, a West Hartford Democrat who sponsored a bill requiring real times in listings. A similar bill was introduced in New York City Council by Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer of Manhattan.

Both legislators gave the Loews plan a thumbs-up and said other chains should follow suit. A call to a spokesman for the nation's largest, Regal Entertainment, was not returned.

Loews does not expect that the notices will change anyone's behavior. "We still think people enjoy coming early, getting their popcorn, finding their seats, talking amongst one another," Mr. McCauley said.

But some moviegoers at the Loews 34th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, said they have already changed their habits.

"Sometimes I come 10 to 15 minutes later to miss the commercials," said Angelique Anderson, 52, an artist who lives in Chelsea.

Now the challenge will be how close to cut it without ending up where the empty seats have always been when the movie starts, down front in the neck-craning section.