Man wins lawsuit against cinema chain for too many pre-film ads

Ever been annoyed about too many ads before a movie at the cinema?

This man sued. And won.

The Indian man was awarded damages in a legal case against the country’s biggest movie theatre chain after he complained it showed too many commercials before a movie.

Abhishek M R, 31, is a lawyer from the southern city of Bangalore who decided to take action against the PVR INOX chain after he had to cancel work calls because the movie ran over its scheduled finish time.

In a case brought before Bangalore’s District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, he claimed his time was wasted and he suffered “mental agony” as a result of the 25 minutes of commercials that preceded a 2023 screening of the film Sam Bahadur.

According to court documents, Abhishek bought three tickets to see the war drama on the afternoon of December 26, 2023. The schedule at the PVR multiplex in Bangalore suggested the movie, which runs for 2 hours and 25 minutes, was due to start at 4.05pm and finish at 6.30pm.

Abhishek had scheduled a work call for 6.30pm but had to miss it as the film did not finish until about 7pm.

The late finish time was caused by “trailers, advertisements and other fillers which wasted nearly 30 mins of the time of the complainant along with the other viewers”, Abhishek said.

This, it said, caused him to face “losses which cannot be calculated in terms of money”.

He said he counted two public service announcements and 17 commercials before the movie started.

He claimed the delay amounted to “unfair trade practice” and sued PVR INOX for 50,000 rupees ($A920) in damages. He applied for another 5,000 rupees ($A92) for the “mental agony” and for a further 10,000 rupees ($A184) to cover legal costs.

The consumer disputes commission found in Abhishek’s favour and ordered the chain to pay him 20,000 ($A368) in damages and a further 8,000 ($A147) in costs. The company was also ordered to pay another 100,000 rupees ($A1843) to the Consumer Welfare Fund, a government body that aims to protect consumers.

In its ruling, the commission said: “In the new era, time is considered as money, each one’s time is very precious.”

It went on to say 25 minutes to 30 minutes is “a considerable amount of time to sit idle in the theatre and watch unnecessary ads”.

“People with tight schedules do not have time to waste.”

PVR INOX operates more than 900 screens in 173 cinemas across India and Sri Lanka, according to its Facebook page.

Although it did not respond to a request for comment, the court documents show the theatre chain defended itself by saying it was legally required to show 10 minutes of public service announcements prior to the film.

However, most of the footage before the film was found to be advertising commercial products.

Highlighting just how much national and international media coverage the case has got, Abhishek said his “efforts were definitely worth it”, and he hoped the case would have an impact on other Indian businesses.

“Every other business in India has started to think about time being of the essence and how to not waste their customers’ time,” he said.