Zip Tanner is interviewing some B-list actor from some B-list movie who will coincidentally be the answer to a Game Play trivia question as well as the the Turn Off Your Cell Phones Now announcement. Zip says goodbye, the popcorn bag contains only the orange kernels that break molars, and we move on to the trailers demographically designed to appeal to the audience that paid tickets for the movie about to see. Mine are a succession of British historical costume dramas/comedies/thrillers in country estates/gardens/London flats starring Kit Harington or Richard Madden.
And on to our film! No, wait, first there are self-indulgent mini-movies we must watch. A small animated box moving at high-speed through grass for Bad Robot. A rooster mobile for British Pathé. A bunch of flying stars dip into a lake like Princess Jasmine did with her fingers from the magic carpet in Aladdin. Today’s movies cost so much to make you may see four or five vanity plates before — wait, there’s the production company’s name again in the opening credits! — The. Movie. You. Paid. $15. To. See. Starts.
In the business they are called vanity plates for obvious reasons. Producers’ vanity plates reflect their sense of themselves and their power in the film world. Watch this YouTube video https://youtu.be/HaOmp140NvU to see the most powerful. It was, however, recently edited to exclude an earlier company owned by the Weinstein brothers. Mira and Max are no longer quite so proud.