What am I paying for?

I went to see a movie today, as I've done nearly every Independence Day as long as I can remember. Seeing it only reminded me of something I've meant to write about for quite some time.

I recall that, as a kid, I would see three, maybe four movie previews before the actual film started. I'm fine with that, and I kind of enjoy seeing what's coming. Moreover, I know that this helps keep ticket prices down as trailers are essentially paid advertisements by movie companies. Now, though, in addition to my three or four trailers, I've got ten minutes of advertisements. I ask why.

In the past few years, the prevalence of these ads has grown along with ticket prices. I can only assume the ads do the same thing as the trailers -- make money for the movie producers and distributors to keep prices down to me. So why do my ticket prices still go up as the number of ads goes up?

I suppose we can point to rising production costs. CGI, as widespread as it is, ain't cheap. Movies rather routinely post $100 million budgets and more. Once you factor in movies with things that fly or explode, you can just start multiplying those numbers. I get that movies are expensive to make.

But I'm growing very annoyed. Today I saw ads for Cadillac, Coca-Cola, and the ABC Family television network. This was before five movie previews followed by -- this still has me baffled -- a two-minute video extolling the virtues of the digital projection technology used in this particular theater. If that weren't enough, I get the obligatory theater ad, though "ad" is a generous term for what seems like little more than a video montage about how cool the cinema is.

Total running time for ads, trailers, digital projection thing, and cinema ad: 19 minutes. My movie was supposed to start at 4:00. At 4:19, it started rolling.

So, really, with my personal ticket payment, and with my concession donation ($10 for a drink and popcorn can only be considered a tax write-off, really), what exactly isn't being recouped by the movie producers and distributors? What aren't they getting from a national average of nearly $20 per person that they need twenty minutes of advertising to off-set?

What am I paying for?