TWO moviegoers have taken a theater to court complaining about more than 20 minutes of advertising before a movie in July. They are seeking compensation of 1 yuan (US$0.15) for mental harm, Chinese-language media reported yesterday.
Wang Xia and Xu Jian were also seeking a refund of 80 yuan for two movie tickets for the popular Aftershock on July 24 at the Broadway Cinema in the Coco Park shopping mall in Futian District, the Futian District People s Court was told Monday.
The Guangzhou Daily said the hearing attracted a few dozen moviegoers who were there in solidarity with Wang and Xu, who were also asking for a public apology from the movie theater.
Wang and Xu claimed that advertising accounted for nearly 10 percent of the time of the 150-minute movie, the court was told. The movie was supposed to begin at 11:30 a.m. but it didn t start until after 11:50 a.m. Nobody wanted to watch the endless advertising, but we were forced to, Wang said in court.
The cinema manager, who was identified only as Luo, said the advertisements were placed before the movie by the movie distributors. Cinemas have no right to edit or delete the content of any advertising as stipulated in the contracts with the distributors, she told the court.
Luo said the cinema had not benefited from the advertising. The long advertising also caused trouble for our movie schedules as well, she said.
According to a regulation by the State movie watchdog, advertising before a movie is allowed, but all movies are required to start at the time stated on movie tickets. No advertising is allowed after a movie begins, the regulation says.
However, the Daily said that no movie started at the time stated on movie tickets. The time stated on the tickets is actually the start of advertising in most movie theaters, the Daily quoted a movie industry insider as saying.
The court will announce a ruling at a later date. (SD News)
