Cinemas all over Europe have become quite used to the fact that they can invite us to watch a film at say... 8:30pm only to subject us to another 20-30 minutes of advertising before the film actually begins. Well if you have had enough of this then Naples is the place to go for your film-watching.
Two avid Neapolitan cinema-goers finally had enough in December 2002, when they went to watch a popular Italian comedy called "Natale sul Nilo". The film was meant to begin at 23:10, they were only allowed in the viewing theatre at 23:30 and by the time the advertising finished it was 00:05 – so practically an hour later!
Well, enough was enough for these two patrons of the cinema who took the owner to court. Three years later the judge has ruled that film should start on the time stated – meaning that any advertising must take place before. The films buffs got 550 euro each and the owner of the cinema also had to pay 900 euro in legal costs.
According to the lawyer of the distressed viewers having to sit in a theatre for half an hour to watch advertising “changes the mood and expectation of relaxation of the watcher, minimizing the enjoyment that was expect and paid for by buying the ticketâ€.
What’s more showing something different from what stated (i.e. advertising instead of the film) “is an example of deception (…) purely for the benefit of the seller, without any warning to the public and impacting on the buyers time schedule and quality of productâ€.
