KEY POINTS:
Hoyts Cinema Ltd's claim of "the biggest screen in the world" was likely to mislead consumers, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled.
A Hoyts Cinemaxx newspaper advertisement in the New Zealand Herald promoted the films 300 and Mr Bean's Holiday, making the following claim: "Cinemaxx, the biggest screen in the world."
A complainant told the authority the newspaper also featured an advert on the same page by SkyCity Cinemas making the same claim. Only one of these claims could be correct, the complainant said, adding consumers often selected which cinema to visit to view "action" movies based on screen size.
Hoyts Cinema said more than 95 per cent of all new films were delivered and projected exclusively on 35mm film format. The cinema at Sylvia Park was the country's only industry-approved digital cinema.
It said the Cinemaxx cinema screen at Sylvia Park was 30.63m wide and 12.29m high and could play all 35mm films. Hoyts said it believed the Imax SkyCity screen was 27.3m wide and 19.92m high. Imax could not project 35mm films to the full height or width of this screen.
The complaints board noted the advertiser provided a certificate from Guinness World Records stating the Hoyts Sylvia Park Cinema had the largest fixed 35mm projection screen in the world, but this differed from the wording of the advertisement.
The authority upheld the complaint, finding Hoyts Cinema Ltd's claim of "the biggest screen in the world" was likely to mislead consumers.
- NZPA
