SHENZHEN Broadway Cinema on Monday appealed a Futian court ruling ordering it to pay a couple 20 yuan (US$3) and apologize for advertisements screened before a movie.
The couple, identified as Xu and Wang, said the movie did not start at the time shown on the tickets because of the advertisements. This had damaged their rights, they claimed.
The cinema argued the advertisements were placed by the production company.
The couple went to see the movie Aftershock at the Coco Park cinema in Futian District in June. They were upset with the 20 minutes of advertisements before the movie, saying it had wasted their time. They filed a lawsuit demanding the cinema not show advertisements before a movie, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.
However, the cinema said audiences had no right to make this demand. Screening advertisements before a movie is common practice in the industry and we make it very clear in an announcement at the ticket box, so we did not violate their rights and it was not a coercive business transaction, the cinema said.
The cinema also handed in new evidence to the Shenzhen Intermediate People s Court on Monday, showing the advertisements were placed by the production company, not the cinema, according to the contract.
The Futian court ruling was not a negative influence for us, but we insisted on appealing because we were afraid more people would sue us for the same reason in the future if the ruling was allowed to stand. We also wanted audiences to know that we were also victims in this matter, an unidentified official from the cinema told the paper.
The intermediate court is yet to hand down its decision.
(Wang Yuanyuan)
