Rushing to the theatre you grab the first parking spot you can find. Panting, you drop $10 at the ticket stand, the same at the concession and find yourself in disbelief of the fact they actually charged you for butter on your popcorn as you take your seat.

The lights go down.

You made it -- and just in time.

Then it hits you -- a commercial. You're trapped.

Jason Thompson, Director of the Captive Motion Picture Audience of North America (CMPANA), says paid commercials before movies first caught his attention in 2002.

"I hadn't seen these types of ads before. (With) rising ticket prices I wondered why we were suddenly being subjected to them," Thompson says.

The CMPANA, based in the U.S. but beginning to draw attention in Canada, has been lobbying the issue for some time now. And they've had some success. In the US, Loews theatres has agreed to post times for when the feature begins, not the commercials.

But Canadian theatre companies say without the commercials, we'd most likely be paying more for a ticket than we are now.

Pat Marshall is the vice president of communications and investor relations for Cineplex Galaxy LP. She says they are working on a new way to get advertisements into movie theatres.

"It's 20 minutes of pre-show entertainment with ads interspersed between it," says Marshall.

That's when the lights are on.

Right now, Cineplex allows a maximum of 2* minutes of paid advertisements before the coming attractions in their theatres.

"It helps us keep ticket prices low," says Marshall.

The 20-minute pre-show has been used in the U.S. for some time.

Thompson says the pre-show ads came as a compromise from theatre companies who needed alternative-revenue sources.

Yet some say these advertisements are nothing new.

Andrew Sherbin is manager of corporate affairs for Famous Players. He says commercials at the movies have been something that has been going on for more than 10 years.

"It's part of the experience these days," says Sherbin.

But he does say customers can rest assured the amount of time allotted for them will not increase in the near future.

"We don't want to jeopardize our customer's experience."

And it is just this fear that the CMPANA wants to capitalize on. Thompson says if tickets sales continue to decrease, as they have two years in a row in the U.S., the commercials will go away.

But he adds advertising isn't the big issue here.

"What's to stop theatres from playing commercials in the middle of a movie rather than just the beginning, (or) placing a radio ad as the first track of a new music CD," says Thompson.

But there is good news for family moviegoers at least.

Since 1990, Disney has prohibited theatres from airing commercials before their films. But only for Disney films geared towards children.

You know, the people without money or jobs.

As for the rest of us, you can now print off a seat-reservation sign from the CMPANA's website -- www.captiveaudience.org -- that reads, "Reserved: This patron is avoiding cinema advertising and will return when the feature begins."