{"id":603171,"date":"2026-04-14T10:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/603171\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T10:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:15:08","slug":"sony-pictures-boss-urges-theater-owners-to-cut-back-on-pre-show-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/603171\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony Pictures Boss Urges Theater Owners to Cut Back on Pre-Show Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTom Rothman<\/a> came to the desert with a message for movie theater owners: \u201cGet off the ad crack.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAt CinemaCon<\/a>, the annual exhibition industry conference unfolding this week in Las Vegas, Rothman bluntly told the cinema operators in the audience at Caesars Palace that they needed to cut back on the trailers and commercials that can last for roughly 30 minutes before the opening credits even roll.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGet rid of the endless advertising and substantially shorten the long pre-shows,\u201d Rothman, who serves as the chairman and CEO of Sony\u2019s Motion Picture Group, said on stage at the Colosseum while teasing the studio\u2019s upcoming slate. <\/p>\n

\n\tHe noted that frequent moviegoers now show up a half hour late to avoid all the spots (something that reserved seating has made easier than ever before). Rothman said that means many people \u201cdon\u2019t even see the trailers,\u201d which results in \u201centicements gone to waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRothman predicted that the 2026 box office, which has already benefitted from hits like \u201cSuper Mario Galaxy Movie\u201d and \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d will rebound in a big way. But he acknowledged that attendance still trails pre-pandemic levels. <\/p>\n

\n\tRothman has been a vociferous defender of the big screen, pushing studios to embrace longer windows so that movies will stay in cinemas longer. That was a theme that Rothman returned to at CinemaCon, pressing exhibitors to hold strong and agree not to show movies that quickly appear on streaming services or on-demand platforms. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEnforce longer windows,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cYes, even if that means you cannot play every film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to stumping for exhibition, Rothman has practically begged Hollywood to invest in new stories along with all the franchise fare. In a recent New York Times op-ed, for instance, Rothman, the longest-serving studio chief, wrote, \u201cFor all the success of films driven by existing intellectual property, originality is essential to movies. Neither movie theaters nor the art form itself can survive without at least some originality. After all, you can\u2019t make a sequel to nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSony\u2019s slate includes sequels to \u201cSpider-Man\u201d and \u201cJumanji,\u201d but also original fare such as the family-friendly comedy \u201cThe Breadwinner\u201d and the literary adaptations \u201cKlara and the Sun\u201d and \u201cThe Nightingale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Monday, Rothman noted that despite the success of premium formats like Imax that carry higher fees, consumers are dealing with escalating costs that have made them more price sensitive. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAffordability is by far the number one economic issue among the majority of Americans going to the movies,\u201d Rothman said, pushing cinemas to find ways to offer cheaper alternatives for audiences worried about paying their bills. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Rothman came to the desert with a message for movie theater owners: \u201cGet off the ad crack.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,207133,75,178617],"class_list":{"0":"post-603171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cinemacon","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-tom-rothman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}