AMC, the largest theater chain in the United States, will soon start showing even more commercials before the start of a movie. This is on top of the usual 20 minutes of trailers and ads already shown before most films.
On June 3, Bloomberg reported that AMC Theaters has reached an agreement with National CineMedia, one of the largest cinema advertisers in the country, to start running more ads directly before a film starts. This is described by CineMedia as a “platinum spot” and is much harder for moviegoers to skip as it plays just minutes before the movie begins. It also means that the already long stretch of trailers and ads that play before a movie may soon be closer to 25 minutes, or even more.
Starting July 1, AMC will begin running ads in this “platinum spot” nationwide. AMC will get a cut of the ad revenue from these spots, with the company calling it “vital revenue.”
For nearly six years, AMC was the only major theater chain that refused to let CineMedia run ads right after the trailers but before the movie had actually started. At the time, AMC said it didn’t play ball with CineMedia because it believed moviegoers would react “quite negatively” to more ads being squeezed into theaters. It was the sole holdout as Cinemark and Regal agreed to the deal. But now, in 2025 and after some of the worst box office years ever, thanks to COVID-19, AMC is taking the deal.
“While AMC was initially reluctant to bring this to our theaters, our competitors have fully participated for more than five years without any direct impact to their attendance,” said the company in an email seen by Bloomberg.
If you’ve been to a movie in the last few years, you know there are a ton of ads and trailers to sit through before the film starts. Some of these are just TV commercials. It’s annoying. And now, even people who skip those ads might be sitting down just in time to catch one more ad before the movie starts.
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