Movie theaters are finding it more difficult to find buyers for those often irritating pre-show commercials, thanks to hard times suffered by one traditional client source and the lack of a need to advertise by another.

Deadline reports a top seller of such ads suffered a first quarter net loss of $1 million, down from a profit of more than $1 million from the same period last year.

Part of the reason for the shortfall, according to the firm’s CEO, is lack of advertising from Japanese auto and electronics makers who are suffering following March’s earthquake and tsunami, as well as the National Guard, which no longer needs to advertise as much because high unemployment numbers push so many candidates its way.

While we’re on the topic, here’s my favorite pre-movie commercial:

Theaters Scrambling For Pre-Movie Ads As Companies Grapple With Economy, Tsunami [Deadline]

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