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More Than 75 Percent Of People Think Cinemas Should Disclose Actual Start Times

More Than 75 Percent Of People Think Cinemas Should Disclose Actual Start Times

Martin Lewis raised the issue and the majority of people completely agree

Jake Massey

Jake Massey

More than 75 percent of people want cinemas to share the actual time that films start.

Cinemas were allowed to reopen yesterday (Monday 17 May) as England began Step Three of its roadmap out of lockdown. And while it's great to be able to get back to the big screen, the majority of people would like to see this fresh start bring actual start times along with it.

A LADbible poll of 7,390 votes found that 76.3 percent would back the move:


MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis called for the disclosure of start times back in 2019 after he sat through more than half an hour of pre-film adverts.

The financial boffin complained: "Went to cinema yest for 8:45pm showing, but it was 9:17 before the film actually started.

"CINEMAS we pay to see films! Fine show 5/10min of ads & trailers, but this inflation to 33mins isn't on. Either cut pre-screening times, or tell us actual start times too."


His tweet picked up a hell of a lot of heat, attracting more than 76,000 likes and 54,000 retweets.

Speaking to LADbible, Martin said he didn't expect his gripe to strike such a chord, but clearly it showed that the issue needs to be addressed.

He said: "I do a lot of campaigns on serious issues - this wasn't one of them. This was a frustrated tweet after I had been to the cinema.

"I get that [cinemas] want us to see trailers, but they are getting longer and longer.

"A lot of has come out from this tweet - for example, it's not easy to keep a child sitting in a chair for 20 minutes and people are having to spend more money on baby sitters, which is an added expense.

Be nice to know when it actually starts, wouldn't it?
PA

"Also for many people who are disabled, who may have incontinence for example, it may not be easy for them to sit in that position for a long time.

"It would help if they just told us that the trailers start at eight and the film will start five minutes after 8.30pm - they could even lock the doors after that if they wanted.

"We understand that they want us to watch the trailer but there needs to be more transparency over it."

He added: "I think you could see a chain become the first to be clear about this with customers. They could see it as a USP. I would love to see a chain do it."

LADbible has contacted Odeon, Vue and Cineworld for comment.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels/Pavel Danilyuk

Topics: TV and Film, Interesting, Community