Chen Xiaomei claims the Polybona International Cinema in the northern city of Xian and film distributors Huayi Brothers Media Corporation should have told her how long the advertisements for the film Aftershock lasted, Xinhua news agency said.

Ms Chen, who is a lawyer, has accused Polybona and Huayi Brothers of wasting her time and violating her freedom of choice.

The case has been accepted by the People’s Court in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, Xinhua said, citing a statement from the court.

Ms Chen is demanding the companies refund her 35-yuan ticket (

20 minutes is a bit long for a single preview.  Heck, for some movies that would be about a quarter of the entire finished product.

Mm.. I wanna make an Uwe Boll or M. Night. Shamalamadingdong joke.. but too tired.

Accipiter - 11 September 2010 01:50 AM

20 minutes is a bit long for a single preview.  Heck, for some movies that would be about a quarter of the entire finished product.

20 minutes for a preview? They’d be spoiling the movie by doing that.

It sounded to me like 20 minutes of adverts in total, not one trailer that length.

Madmouse - 11 September 2010 05:39 PM

It sounded to me like 20 minutes of adverts in total, not one trailer that length.

It’s not really all that clear (imagine that, a news reporter not being clear!).  But the way that the article said “A Chinese woman is suing a cinema and a film’s distributors for wasting her time by showing 20 minutes of adverts. . .” and then “. . .Huayi Brothers Media Corporation should have told her how long the advertisements for the film Aftershock lasted”, I took it to mean that there were 20 minutes of advertisements for that one movie.

Hmmmm. . .okay.  After looking at a few other articles, it seems that it wasn’t even a trailer for a movie.  It was 20 minutes of just the sort of ordinary commercial advertisements that you see on television, for such products as drinks or cars or whatever.  And then came the 135 minutes of the movie “Aftershock”.

And apparently the woman watched the movie twice.  Which gave her a total of 40 minutes of watching car commercials and Coca-Cola ads.

I’m sure someone (maybe Tah or Kurt when we were in Seattle? Grrr, I can’t remember!) told me that over there two times are advertised for a movie - the first is the time the trailers and ads start and the second is for when the actual film begins. I’d love to see that done over here because there have been times I’ve really had to rush to get to a movie only to find I’m then sitting for ten minutes watching ads…

Isn’t it during the ads that you are supposed to stock up on the popcorn and snacks?

Nettie - 26 November 2010 12:26 PM

I’m sure someone (maybe Tah or Kurt when we were in Seattle? Grrr, I can’t remember!) told me that over there two times are advertised for a movie - the first is the time the trailers and ads start and the second is for when the actual film begins. I’d love to see that done over here because there have been times I’ve really had to rush to get to a movie only to find I’m then sitting for ten minutes watching ads…

Maybe it was Kurt. It wasn’t me. Around here the movies start pretty much when advertised. For about 20 minutes before the start time they have an entertainment thing. Three several-minute long clips telling about some entertainment thing (TV show, movie or what have you) with ads mixed between them. Once the movie time hits we get a little introduction/ad thing for the movie theater and all the great concessions that are available. It’s about 30 seconds long. Then about a 30 second item saying to silence your cell phone (most of this ad is silence).

Then the trailers hit (which is sometimes the best part of the movie) followed by the movie.