There’s no end to the list of small annoyances that can ruin a trip to the movies: Phones pierce the comforting bubble of a darkened theater; toddlers whine through a showing of every Marvel movie; adults whisper loudly to their seatmates. Sometimes, the theater itself can dampen an experience: Facilities can be unclean; popcorn machines are potentially on the fritz. Usually, pre-showing ads are not included in those lists.

These commercials that run before a movie starts are mostly innocuous, usually featuring something silly, like anthropomorphized M&Ms disarming a bomb. But lately, these ads have started to ignite as much conversation as the films that are running after them. No, we’re not talking about AMC Theaters’ viral Nicole Kidman masterpiece (more on that later). For moviegoers at Regal Cinemas, a pre-film reel has become a particular nuisance: a one-minute spot chock-full of quotes titled “Great Move Lines Live Here.”

For those who haven’t seen the spot, presented by both Regal and Pepsi Zero Sugar, the plot is simple: Friends enter a cineplex, purchase concessions and filter into the theater while speaking exclusively through a collage of movie quotes. A patron holding a seat tells another person, quoting Mean Girls, “You can’t sit with us!” and, as the lights dim, an usher looks out at the crowd and declares, quoting Casablanca, that “this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

The spot premiered in June 2022 and, while it seems inoffensive enough, it has slowly garnered an intense dislike among Regal attendees. I privately poked fun at the ad with friends in the last year but, thanks to a recent thread on the subreddit for people who belong to Regal Unlimited, the movie chain’s subscription service, I learned that many Regal aficionados are, to quote Network, mad as hell—and they’re not gonna take it anymore. Just earlier this week, a viral tweet admonishing the commercial—calling it “objectively the worst thing ever filmed”—went viral.

Unlike its competitor AMC Theaters and its beloved Kidman ad, the full snipe, a term for a pre-movie commercial, is not available on its parent company’s YouTube page, though other accounts have uploaded it. (Perhaps it’s for the best, given that it would likely be dragged to filth by commenters, considering theatergoers’ IRL reaction to it.) “It might be the worst ad I’ve ever seen,” said one Redditor. Another said it feels like the script was “created by AI,” given it is an assemblage of quotes. “I’d rather anything at this point,” one person wrote. “I have to go on my phone and try to block out the stupidity when this comes on.”

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The ad’s problem begins, well, at the very beginning (a very good place to start, to quote The Sound of Music). Three people walk into Regal and begin speaking in an odd cadence. The first girl says, “It’s all happening,”—Almost Famous!—though that’s not exactly a unique choice of words, nor a line that’s easily identifiable from the annals of Hollywood scripts. Then, her friend says, “This place is nicer than my apartment” from Beverly Hills Cop, to which another woman quips, quoting Airplane!, “Surely you can’t be serious,” which of course begs the next line, “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.”

Regal Cinemas pre-film reel “Great Move Lines Live Here." Regal Cinemas via Youtube

On a recent trip to the movies to see actor Randall Park’s directorial debut film Shortcomings, a friend experienced the clip for the first time and said that it wasn’t until the “Shirley” line that he got the spot’s quote-grab-bag gimmick. That can be a confounding roadblock for those trying to get on the ad’s wavelength, or who may be confused why these people in the commercial are talking so weird.

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Not feeling “in” on the joke can be a potential deterrent for people, according to Cole Dachenhaus, a marketing strategist who spoke to The Daily Beast’s Obsessed about the snipe. “There’s this expectation that the viewer needs to top-of-line remember these quotes from all those movies,” he said. “Some of the lines felt very forced and inserted.”

Aside from its premise being a bit opaque, the Regal spot also suffers from feeling too desperate to sell you something, namely its subscription and concessions.

A person buying popcorn flashes their Regal membership (“So I got that going for me, which is nice,” she says, quoting Caddyshack.) As evidenced by its IMDb page, the short is not just from Regal, but also co-sponsored by Pepsi Zero Sugar and features an excessive amount of emphasis on the beverage: a bubbling waterfall of cola cascades into a branded black cup. When someone drinks Danny Trejo’s Pepsi Zero Sugar™, he jiggles his empty cup of ice in anger (while quoting The Godfather Part II, natch).

“Yes, you’re going to be able to buy popcorn and a soda at a movie theater,” Dachenhaus said. “Very few don’t offer those kinds of experiences.” But unlike, say, the 1957 classic ad “Let’s All Go to the Lobby,” concessions here are not presented as a joyful counterpart to the movie experience, but a moment of, say it with me, corporate brand synergy.

While Regal’s segment is hard to understand, at least initially, and feels overly corporatized, AMC’s infamous Nicole Kidman ad, formally titled “We Make Movies Better,” presents a much different world. It’s important, of course, to point out that Kidman’s snipe came first. Released in September 2021, Kidman’s stirring monologue served as a clarion call to return to the movies after the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered most cineplexes and consumers were still hesitant as to whether enjoying movies could be a health hazard.

In comparison to the busy, loud world presented by Regal, AMC’s ad emphasizes the magic of the moviegoing experience, and, despite its partnership with Coca-Cola, doesn’t feature any branded snacks. At one point, a cup rests in its holder next to Kidman’s arm, but it is not flashy and it bears an AMC logo, not a Coca-Cola one.

“AMC is very much like, ‘This is an emotional thing,’” Dachenhaus said. “It’s good for you to take two hours to yourself and listen to a story, even if you come by yourself.” The theater itself is regal (pun intended), while in Regal’s short film, the theater is barely shown, with the camera more obsessed with snacks and moviegoers.

Kidman’s ad captured the public imagination in a way that Regal’s has not. The AMC spot was parodied on Saturday Night Live, became a Twitter meme, and has nearly a million views on AMC’s YouTube. That’s not to mention the parody it inspired from RuPaul’s Drag Race alumnus Katya, as well as a House of Gucci cut that has garnered over a million YouTube views. Part of the appeal, as pointed out by a Collider investigation into its popularity, is that the spot is “unabashedly dramatic and theatrical,” as opposed to Regal, which perhaps hasn’t landed among the stars because it didn’t shoot for the moon. The Regal version feels smaller because its scope is smaller. In the world of Kidman, moviegoing is an act almost as sacred as creating art.

Much of the difference in the two can be perceived through their approaches to celebrity. Kidman speaks uninterrupted as she walks among empty rows of seats, a singular Hera on her Mount Olympus. In contrast, Regal employs Danny Trejo, an actor who has most likely played a small part in a dozen or so movies you’ve seen, who is as ubiquitous as Nicole, if less of a household name.

In fact, to some, Trejo’s work in the ad, in which he is not emphasized and instead treated as a sort of Easter Egg, underscores the fact that Regal might be for real movie lovers, who have such an encyclopedic knowledge of films, they’d recognize each of the quoted movies and have a soft spot for a cult film icon.

Perhaps the greatest chasm between the two reels is that Regal’s is literally unquotable. Much like a “cento,” a poetic form that creates a patchwork poem of lines from other poets, the Regal commercial is composed of lines from other sources; in contrast, the Nicole Kidman ad has become oft-quoted, most especially “heartbreak feels good in a place like this,” a line so singular that it earned its own profile in Variety and a shoutout from Kidman herself.

Nicole Kidman in the AMC Theatres ad. AMC Theatres via Youtube

That’s not to suggest that Regal’s ad is artless. Its bricolage of found quotes, rather, suggests that there is a lot of artistic merit to it, just as there can be art to a cento or a jukebox musical. And, just as it has many detractors, there are many people who find the Regal spot endearing for its careful work curating a collection of movie quotes that appeals to a broad swath of moviegoers. As one Reddit user wrote, “I hated it the first time. And the tenth time. And the thirtieth time. Now I’ve seen it so much that I love it. I will honestly be sad when it inevitably disappears forever.”

While some have found the experience frustrating, others have come to see it as a game, a challenge to be surmounted.

Jennifer Martin, who lives in Richmond, Virginia, and has seen the reel several times as part of her Regal membership, said that its game-like quality has endeared it to her over time. “I was like, “OMG! I know what they’re doing, they’re doing movie quotes!” she told Obsessed. As she saw the promo again and again, she began to pinpoint each quote’s origin, eventually leading her to watch every movie that is referenced.

Aside from loving the Regal ad, she also believes that it is superior to its AMC counterpart, which she called “gimmicky” in comparison. “I like the lightheartedness of the Regal one,” she said. “It’s not trying to be this super fancy crazy celebrity ad.” She added, “It’s advertising what it is without being overly majestic.”

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It’s a bit of a hyperbole to say that the ad ruins a visit to my favorite theater. A one-minute spot can’t erase the fact that it’s the place where I first felt the manic joy of the (sadly unbuttholed) Cats, was drawn into Jordan Peele’s excellent Nope, or where I clenched my seat during the Scream re-quel. It’s not the first theater where I dipped my toe back into moviegoing after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (that distinction belongs to The Beacon in Beacon, New York) but it is where I first felt comfortable seeing a movie without wearing a mask.

It’s unfair to say that the snipe dampens every darkened, air-conditioned journey into a new visual world. But it is enough to induce a heaving sigh, a heavy groan, a little bit of heartbreak. And it doesn’t always feel good in a place like this.

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