Accurate movie starting times…what a concept!

Having rushed to get to many a movie before its published starting time and been forced to sit through an endless series of trailers and ads, most of which at a decibel level that could start my ears bleeding, I had come to regard “the phony starting time” as one of many outright deceptions that I and the rest of the public quietly accept from corporate America like a herd of sheep. Then, without so much as a “Baa Ram You” from the flock, Loew’s Cineplex has announced that henceforth (beginning May 13 in Connecticut and gradually over the rest of the country) its movie listings will note that the feature presentation will start 10 to 15 minutes after the published show time.

Loew’s didn’t have to do this. It could have stuck to the rationalization that “everybody knows” that there are four hours of Adam Sandler movie trailers before the movies actually begin (all right, not four hours, but it seems like that sometimes). But the fact is that most of us sheep still think we’re “late” for a movie if we don’t get there by the published start time. The fact is that we had come to accept the Deafening Trailers That Never End, but we still felt abused by them.

Now, thanks to Loew’s Cineplex, we’ll have nobody to blame but ourselves if we end up eating a bucket of popcorn and a box of Junior Mints before the movie even starts.

Loew’s Cineplex is an Ethics Scoreboard Hero.