THE Futian District People s Court has ordered a cinema to issue a written apology to a couple for screening 20 minutes of advertising before a movie in July.
The cinema was also ordered to refund the couple 10 yuan (US$1.51) each, Thursday s Chinese-language newspapers reported.
Wang Xia and Xu Jian went to see Aftershock at Shenzhen Broadway Cinema on Fuhua Road on July 24. The couple claimed that the lights went off at 11:30 a.m., but the movie was not screened until 11:50 a.m. The interval was filled with 10 minutes of trailers for several movies, followed by commercial advertising for a dozen products including cars and drinks.
The couple complained to staff at the theater to no avail.
Aftershock ran for 150 minutes, but the advertising lasted nearly 20 minutes, accounting for one-seventh of the running time. We were forced to watch seemingly endless advertising, Xu said.
Xu and his wife demanded that the cinema offer them a written apology, sought a refund of 80 yuan for their movie tickets and compensation of 1 yuan each for psychological trauma.
The Futian court ordered the cinema to apologize and to refund the couple 10 yuan each, but rejected the other claims.
Xu said he and his wife had no objection to the court ruling, while Broadway Cinema said it was considering whether to appeal. The cinema had argued in court that it had become common practice for cinemas to run advertising before movie screenings.
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, media reports pointed out that movies never start at the time stated on movie tickets. (SD News)
