Moviegoers: Thumbs Down on Commercials in Theaters : Advertising: Disney releases survey backing its policy of not booking its films in theaters that screen ads.

Executives of Walt Disney Studios said Tuesday that 90% of moviegoers don’t want advertising shown in theaters.

“We’ve gotten clubbed pretty good for taking one little step,” said Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, referring to criticism from some advertisers and theater owners of the studio’s new policy of refusing to book its movies in theaters where commercials are shown. Katzenberg unveiled the results of a Disney-commissioned survey at a news conference at the Directors Guild in Hollywood.

Disney’s audience survey was conducted by National Research Group over the weekend of March 30-April 1 at 40 theaters nationwide. A total of 18,772 moviegoers were polled on their attitudes toward theater advertising and the showing of coming attractions. Not surprisingly, about the same number of people (90%) against commercials are in favor of showing trailers for upcoming movies (95%).

Katzenberg said that the audience survey showed that newspaper ads were among those considered most offensive by moviegoers in the survey and said he personally checked audience reactions to Times ads at three Los Angeles area theaters over the weekend. “People boo them,” Katzenberg said. “One has to wonder why (The Times) would want to be a part of that environment.”

“We feel trailers work very well for us,” said Laura Morgan, public information supervisor for The Times. “They’re brief, they’re designed for theaters.”

Morgan said The Times ads run in about 1,000 theaters in Los Angeles and Orange counties and that none have been pulled yet. “That could change when existing agreements expire,” Morgan said. “It’s up to exhibitors and Disney.”

Disney’s no-ad policy was announced Feb. 8 during an exhibitors convention in Las Vegas and went into effect with Disney’s current hit comedy “Pretty Woman.” Some theaters with pre-existing ad contracts were allowed to show “Pretty Woman,” but only if they agreed not to renew those contracts.

Disney included in its restrictions all product advertising, which has been growing in recent years, as well as trade-out promotional ads such as those for the Los Angeles Times that local theaters run in exchange for discount advertising rates. Some local chain operators have estimated that the loss of the newspaper ad discount could cost them as much as $2 million or more a year.

The Disney executives acknowledged on Tuesday that they do not intend to abandon income from the industrywide practice of accepting payment from manufacturers for the inclusion of their products in its movies, exposure that is clearly intended by the manufacturers as advertising. Katzenberg said the two issues--advertisements and product placement--are unrelated, and called product placement “part of doing business.”

“We at Disney have undoubtedly been guilty of overdoing product placement,” Katzenberg said, adding that the studio already has eliminated tobacco and alcohol product placement. Ultimately, he said, it is up to film directors to select which brands of those offered by competing companies are most appropriate.

It is standard practice for film studios and producers to submit scripts to representatives of consumer products companies and allow them to make offers for placement in the movies.

In the two months since Disney announced its policy of no theater commercials, no other studio has fallen in line and some have privately accused Disney of posturing with a popular issue. There has also been speculation that Disney’s new policy was another salvo in the ongoing feud between Disney and MCA-Universal--its rival in the theme park business--which is a 49% stockholder in Cineplex Odeon, North America’s second largest chain and a major user of on-screen advertising.

“We can’t talk for the other studios,” said Disney President Rich Frank. “Maybe they don’t care about their product as much.”

“We have been called high-handed and punitive,” Katzenberg said, “and we are putting forth this (survey) information to offset that.”

Katzenberg dismissed the claim by some theater owners that income from screen advertising helps keep ticket prices down.

“Give me a break,” Katzenberg said. “Show me one theater where ticket prices are lower where they show commercials . . . Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t believe people go to the theaters to be targeted or tricked by advertisers.”