There's No Escape

Moviegoers are used to seeing ads as they settle into their seats, but Regal CineMedia, based in Centennial, Colo., has taken things to a new level. It is distributing a 20-minute block of digital video with short films and commercials designed especially for theaters from companies like Coca-Cola and Cingular Wireless. Unlike their ads on TV, these are often mini-narratives with plots that have a beginning, a middle and an end. Regal's parent firm, the largest theater operator in the U.S., hopes to have its preshow on 4,500 screens in 375 theaters by the end of the year.

Not all moviegoers take unsolicited commercials sitting down. Miriam Fisch, 37, of Evanston, Ill., sued Loews Cineplex Entertainment because the film she had paid to see started four minutes late as a result of ads. The high school teacher says the theater committed fraud by posting the film's start time while knowing it would not be accurate. Although it would have made a tidy story to say Fisch had gone to see The Hours, she was in fact at the theater to see The Quiet American.