How You Can Tell That the Movie You’re About to Watch Has Too Many Commercials

18th August 2008 at 8:32 AM • 12 comments

When a 1 hour 36 minute movie takes 4 hours to show.

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And before you start thinking too much, I already did the math for you:

  • Movie length = 96 minutes
  • Total length of showing = 240 minutes
  • Total commercial time = 144 minutes (Total length - Movie length)
  • Amount of commercial time for each minute of movie time = 1.5 minutes (total commercial time / movie length)

That means that if they display 10 minutes of movie, you have to sit through 15 minutes of commercials.

And you just know the commercials on the Hallmark Movie Channel will make you want to scratch your eyes out.

Update (May 22, 2009) — They’ve done it again!

Comments
Douglas
Aug 18, 2008

I remember looking through the guide on TV and seeing that movie was 4 hours and thought that was ridiculous.  Now that’s even worse.

TIMMAY
Sep 24, 2008

You’re an idiot, whats 12 minus 4?

Gregg
Sep 25, 2008

bottom line: if ur watching any movie on broadcast TV, it’s too many commercials. And good movie parts are withheld (cut out for commercials). Go home theater: Blu-ray & DVD only. Stop paying for cable and satellite delivery of crap programming. The only way to stop the networks from airing crap is to take our business elsewhere.

Andy o
Sep 25, 2008

pointless post, that’s obviously a mistake. Those dvr boxes always have time errors.

Josh
Sep 25, 2008

TIMMAY: 8.  Was that the “idiot test”?  How did I do?

B.W.
Sep 25, 2008

I can’t tell if you’re serious or making a joke about the DVR’s conflicting information….but imdb.com lists this movie as being 170 min in length…and in two parts. Granted, it does leave for (240 min - 170 min =) 70 minutes of commercials…definitely eye-gouging…..

Youguysaredumb
Sep 26, 2008

Its called an encore. 2 times in a row. tnt and tbs do it all the time. pwnd

Josh
Sep 26, 2008

Youguysaredumb: Sorry, but you’re probably wrong on your assumption.  When TNT, TBS, and the other stations do that, it’s always two distinct programs.  I’m guessing that B.W. is correct…it’s both halves of the movie, but the DVR is only publishing the length of the first part.

Samuel Wright
Sep 26, 2008

Along those same lines, I saw a movie listed once that gave you an idea of how much some of the networks chop up movies.

It was for “Dances with Wolves”, run time was something like 135 minutes.  Anyone who has seen that behemoth know that it is a little longer.

autumn
Oct 5, 2008

i think the real question is this: was the movie actually any good?

Josh
Oct 5, 2008

Autumn: I have no idea.  I wasn’t willing to invest that kind of time in a movie on the Hallmark channel.

It’s got 4.3 out of 10 on IMDB, so it can’t be that good.

Jeff
Oct 16, 2008

You should see the Hallmark Channel in England. Endless commercials about their own shows. If I see the commercial of Monk walking so as not to step on any cracks, I’m gonna crack. Now I understand why Elvis shot tv’s.

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