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Here's a question: If you go to the movies and the scheduled showtime is, say, 7:30, when do you actually expect the movie to start? If you said 7:30, you go to very unusual screenings. If you said 7:45, you're closer to what many experience. If you said 7:50, you're still in range: there's often some advertising other than trailers, the limit for trailer length is two and a half minutes, and theaters sometimes run seven or eight trailers. Eight would add up to 20 minutes.

Theater owners are antsy about the long delays and the complaints they get from patrons, and they're asking for a change, writer Pamela McClintock tells NPR's Renee Montagne on Thursday's Morning Edition.

McClintock recently wrote a piece in The Hollywood Reporter about the disagreement, in which theater owners have asked movie studios to shorten the length of trailers from two and a half minutes down to two. The reason? In their current form, theater owners argue, they both take up too much time and give away too much plot.

McClintock says the dispute could end in a couple of ways. The guidelines are voluntary anyway (and imposed by the Motion Picture Association of America, not theater owners), but certainly, the studios could choose to go along with the change, or with some change.

But studios are nervous that if there's no agreement, theater owners might just start refusing to play trailers at all unless they comply with the two-minute guideline. And even with the power of YouTube and other online outlets where trailers are seen, putting a trailer in a theater is still considered an enormously important part of marketing a film.

This entire area tends to be one of delicate negotiation, since theaters, after all, have their own reasons for wanting to help market films — especially in ways that make them look like great theater experiences. At the same time, going to the movies is expensive, and blockbusters seem to be getting longer all the time (even Star Trek Into Darkness is well over two hours long, and The Avengers was almost two and a half). Theater owners understandably want to make the experience more pleasant, and if that means fewer trailers, they just might be willing.

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"A record 40 percent of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family," the Pew Research Center reported Wednesday as it released data that certainly won't surprise many Americans but will underscore some dramatic shifts over recent decades.

Citing data from the Census Bureau as its source, Pew notes how much has changed in just a few generations: In 1960, so-called breadwinner moms were the sole or primary sources of income in just 11 percent of U.S. families with children.

According to Pew:

— "Breadwinner moms are made up of two very different groups: 5.1 million (37 percent) are married mothers who have a higher income than their husbands, and 8.6 million (63 percent) are single mothers."

— "The growth of both groups of mothers is tied to women's increasing presence in the workplace. Women make up almost of half (47 percent) of the U.S. labor force today, and the employment rate of married mothers with children has increased from 37 percent in 1968 to 65 percent in 2011."

The research center also released results of a related survey of public opinion. Among the highlights:

— "About three-quarters of adults (74 percent) say the increasing number of women working for pay has made it harder for parents to raise children, and half say that it has made marriages harder to succeed. At the same time, two-thirds say it has made it easier for families to live comfortably."

— "About half (51 percent) of survey respondents say that children are better off if a mother is home and doesn't hold a job, while just 8% say the same about a father."

— "On the topic of single mothers, most Americans (64 percent) say that this growing trend is a 'big problem;' however, the share who feel this way is down from 71 percent in 2007."

The April 25-28 national telephone survey of 1,003 adults has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points on each result.

Related:

— Stay-At-Home Dads, Breadwinner Moms And Making It All Work.

— NPR's "Changing Lives Of Women" special series.

One year after Facebook's troubled initial public offering, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that it has "charged Nasdaq with securities laws violations resulting from its poor systems and decision-making ... [and that] Nasdaq has agreed to settle the SEC's charges by paying a $10 million penalty."

According to the SEC, that is the largest such penalty ever paid by one of the stock exchanges.

The agency says that: