Older, disabled moviegoers forsaken by cinema corporation

Regal Entertainment Group doesn’t like old people. That’s my take.

For faithful moviegoers like me and my mom, the fact Regal Cinemas canceled its newspaper ads listing the times of its movies is a major story requiring gnashing of teeth.

I’m here to say it’s wrong and discriminates against senior citizens without computers and the disabled. That’s what I told the manager of the Red Rock 16 a week ago when Mom and I helped make "Little Fockers" the top movie earner of the weekend. I filled out a customer comment card expressing my displeasure. Later, I called the Regal customer service line at 1-877-835-5734 to complain and left a message asking for a return call — which never came.

You might not have noticed it, since when something isn’t there, it’s easy to overlook. But as of Jan. 1, Regal Cinemas pulled its movie time ads nationwide.

Locally, the theaters that now don’t buy ads to provide the times in the newspaper include: Aliante Station 16, Texas Station Stadium 18, UA Showcase Mall 8, Red Rock Stadium 16, Village Square Stadium 18, Boulder Station Stadium 11, Sunset Station Stadium 12, Colonnade Stadium 14, Green Valley Stadium 10 and Fiesta Henderson Stadium 12.

Dozens of movie fans, mostly 55 and older, are calling the Review-Journal, thinking it’s a mistake on our part. It’s not. It’s deliberate.

Regal has made the assumption that, if you go to movies, you have a home computer, or can call for times.

But for once, a newspaper is faster than the Internet and far, far faster than calling a movie hot line.

You open the movie page, check out what’s playing where and when and decide which time to go and where. You can compare without going to different websites or making those annoyingly long and repetitious calls.

Regal wants you to boot up your computer and check out the times on the Internet or use some other technical wizardry posing as a phone.

Dick Westerling, senior vice president of marketing and advertising for the Tennessee-based corporation, responded to my questions about inconveniencing seniors and the disabled via e-mail: "Surveys and research show that the majority of moviegoers acquire their movie showtime information online or through mobile technology. Many exhibitors have discontinued placing paid showtime listings in the newspapers without any negative impact. Technology has dramatically changed ours and other companies business practices along with consumer behavior."

Nice try, Mr. Westerling. I live in Southern Nevada where 22 percent of the residents are 55 and above, and not all those folks have or even want computers. Regal is blowing these folks off and I dearly hope they blow back.

Now, lest you think I am complaining because those ads pay part of my salary, I’m not. This is principle, not pay.

I’m speaking for my mom, an 81-year-old woman in a wheelchair with arthritic hands, and others like her, who don’t have access to computers. With her hands, even calling is a challenge. Asking her to write down times for several movies is asking the impossible.

My mom gets her Neon on Fridays and studies it like it’s Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, picking our movie for the weekend. She focuses on the theaters near us — Red Rock, Village Square or Suncoast — and then she picks the movie and time that best fits our schedule.

Regal is essentially saying inconveniencing people like my mom is of no importance.

My mom and I will march in protest. We’ll march to the Suncoast to see "Black Swan" because we’re mad as hell at Regal Cinema’s assumption that older moviegoers don’t matter.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.