The Twenty

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The Twenty is the mixture of paid advertisements, movie trailers, and theater chain branding that has become commonplace in American movie theaters. The term itself is derived from the fact that the block often takes up twenty minutes of runtime which has to be factored into the showtimes which the theater publicizes.

The standard structure of The Twenty usually is as follows:

• About two to four advertisements. Movie advertisements tend to run longer than the average television advertisements, between thirty seconds to a minute on average.
• Optionally, a public service announcement (PSA) might be aired in lieu of the final ad. One series of PSAs that were made specifically for the movies were the MPAA's anti-piracy PSAs.
• A selection of trailers, usually from two to five. These are selected by the theater and spliced into the reel separately.
• The theater branding. Usually running two to three minutes, this short segment identifies the theater chain. It also is often used to inform the audience about exits, ask them to refrain from smoking, talking, cell phone use, and encourage patronization of the snack bar.
• Many (though not all) movies today ship with one or two trailers at the lead of the movie, which play after the branding. Theaters are contractually obliged to play these trailers as a prerequisite of screening the movie.

Many movie buffs have complained about the expansion of the traditional block of trailers into The Twenty, especially the addition of ads which often have no connection to the movie whatsoever. Theater operators, on the other hand, point to shrinking attendance, rising operation costs, and backlash against higher ticket prices as justification for the addition of ads, noting that they need the ad revenue to remain solvent. Some of the larger studios, such as Disney, have negotiated no ad policies for their movies, using their power to gain this concession from the theaters.