Cineplex Charging $3 Extra For The Good Seats

The local theatre near me started charging $5 a ticket. It is full every night pretty much. Whereas the AMC nearby with its $14 tickets has a dozen people in it.

Theaters would make more money by lowering their prices.
 
I would actually argue that it may be a good idea or perhaps for the movie theater to have some rooms with such setup. Not every person wants to waste 30+ minutes sitting there holding up their seat, as in they have better things to do with their life/time. They should really have some rooms with reserved seats and perhaps some with usual setup. Many movie theaters in europe have reserved seating just like in the theater or sports arena. We stopped going to the moview a long time ago and just wait for blu-ray to come out. Better experience and you get plenty of into as to whether the movie is good or not and can watch it on your time. Haven't missed the movie theater at all, not their high prices and annoying crowd.
 
I really wouldn't mind $15 a ticket if the seats were nice, the floors were clean, the ushers actually threw out the idiots ruining the movie for everyone else, and people had the god damned common courtesy to at least MUTE their cellphones during a movie.
The way it is right now though, I'm only interested in going to see this year is Guardians of the Galaxy, the rest I'll wait till its on DVD or Netflix.
 
matteos said:
The local theatre near me started charging $5 a ticket. It is full every night pretty much. Whereas the AMC nearby with its $14 tickets has a dozen people in it.

Theaters would make more money by lowering their prices.
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Theaters do this and are basically forgoing their part of the movie sale.

For example they don't need to do it Thursday Friday Saturday because even at 10-15 dollars people will still attend the movies. So if you don't buy popcorn because lets be honest you won't then the theater is still making a percentage or mark up on the ticket price. For example studio takes like X percent the theater has their X percent and at 15 dollars a pop it might be like 3-4 dollars a person. That keeps labor/utilities/operating expenses etc going.

However smarter theaters have realized that people will forgo seeing movies on the weekend and will gladly wait to see them during the week when they sell like a dozen tickets. A dozen tickets even at 15 dollars a head won't keep labor/utilities in check.

So they say fuck it: we will forgo our cut of the movie ticket sale by lowering the prices to where the studio basically makes all the money on the ticket and get it on the back end with food.

How does this help you? Basically because with a food centric model, you have more choices (beer/pizza etc).
 
MavericK96 said:
I can see this as being both good and bad, really.

The good is that you don't have to get there early if you buy tickets ahead of time for the good seats.

The bad is that people will probably buy out the good seats before you and if you just show up early you won't even have a chance.
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They were smart here in costa rica, all seats have numbers, you pick it when you get your ticket!

What is scary is people WILL pay for this, just as short people pay for emergency exit seats on Airplanes.
 
You know if they had said we are raising prices and discounting the seats with a worse view no one would have had a problem with it...
 
roaf85 said:
I can't argue that inflation is out of control? What does economic inflation have to do with movies? It doesn't and no it isn't out of control. Would you like me to list your current inflation figures? If you would have said "average family earnings are not what they use to be when adjusted for inflation" then maybe I would agree with you.

However when looking at movie tickets:

http://collider.com/movie-ticket-price-inflation-statistics/

They are actually some what cheaper compared to inflation for the last 40 years. To summarize. Movies are still cheap entertainment.

Certainly if you have a family it is not a cheap affair, but then nothing is really a cheap affair with children. But families are the only movie audience out there. Teens/young adults/seniors etc all go to the movies.

To be honest if you don't like going to concerts, you don't like drinking you don't really it seems like spending money in society then how do you figure those places are still in business? Because people actually do spend money on those goods and services and chose to and in turn they create jobs.

Just because you don't like something or can't afford something doesn't make it terrible.
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Inflation does have an affect on movie prices and adjusted for CPI, yes, movie tickets are inflated right now. You are correct in that they are not wildly out of control, like vast other goods are, but the fact still remains, as a fact, that movie tickets are indeed inflated right now.

Given that the CPI in 1980 was 81.0 and the avg movie ticket price in 1980 was 2.69 it can be correctly calculated from the CPI of April 14 being 237.072 that the avg movie ticket price should be $7.87. Right now the avg movie ticket price is 7.96, and that's only because it happened to fall in the first quarter of 2014. It was even more inflated in 2013. So while not 'out of control', yes inflation does apply to the even the movie ticket price.

I realize other people like going to concerts or they still would not be there. That is simple supply vs. demand. I am of the thought, though, that they are wasting a large part of their pay to do it. Concert tickets, as compared to the CPI, is indeed wildly out of control, however, there are other major factors into that considering most bands use touring as their main source of money now as compared to recordings back in the day.

At any rate, I'm not a miser and I spend my money, I just choose to spend it more frugally and will tend to fight for my dollar value as much as I can. Sometimes its a fruitless venture or sometimes I just give into the demand.
 
Eventually movie theaters will be a dead delivery model when people demand more and more to have new movie releases streamed directly to their home theater setups.
 
shade91 said:
Eventually movie theaters will be a dead delivery model when people demand more and more to have new movie releases streamed directly to their home theater setups.
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I don't know about that...theaters cater to quite a few different things such as social gathering (family/friends), relationships (dating, etc), the experience (very large screen and sound system).
 
shade91 said:
Eventually movie theaters will be a dead delivery model when people demand more and more to have new movie releases streamed directly to their home theater setups.
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I hope not. Even some of the better home theaters I've seen are excellent, but nothing compared to a 'good' theater. I've seen some that are better than shitty theaters, no doubt. But, if you find a good one, it's hard to match it. Besides, it's like going to a restaurant. You can get delivery, but you don't get that experience that you do when you go out. It's less of a date when you take your woman into the home theater to watch a movie than it is to go out to the theater and watch some stupid retarded chick flick.
 
About inflation then i find it amusing i can see a movie here in Costa Rica for about $5 for a normal theater, as good as any in North America, and yet in NA it cost 2x to 3x as much for the same movie on the same screen and the same seats....

Just shows they can rape the viewer.
 
As a proponent of watching movies in movie theaters, this sickens me. Charging an arm and a leg for optional food and drinks is one thing. Purposefully degrading the experience for frugal movie goers is completely unacceptable.
 
I always thought the best seats were in the back row, darn I will get a discount for my favorite seats.
 
I don't see the big deal here. It will never happen in my city to my 73 year old theater regardless. I wonder how it will work when the showing only has a few people in it though. Will ushers come yell to get back to their assigned seats? I mean, the last packed movie I went to was 8 mile.
 
How much extra do I need to pay to get the right to take care of the cellphone users with my own hands?
 
collegeboy69us said:
whoever came up with this idea... I really really hope they get fired when they see how it permanently hurts their business.

Premium seating? What are they going to have some kind canadian bouncer there to screen people? for two adults it's already hitting the 50 dollar mark for ticket/popcorn/soda/candy and they want to tack on another few bucks?

These movie companies are just making it easier and easier to stay home, enjoy cheap snacks, no loud/fat/smelly people next to you, and save 50 dollars.

I'm sure they will blame their soon to be slump in sales on piracy.

Fuck em'
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+1 and a big LOL about the fat/loud/smelly people. lol. Especially teens talking out loud and then they have the nerve to act like you are the one in the wrong when you say something to them, as if they are the only ones in the world who matter.
 
gathagan said:
I've never understood why theaters don't just go with all reserve seating.
It's not as if you can get more people in the theater if you don't assign the seats, at least not legally.

We have a local complex that has a Titan XC theater. Reserved seating, 4K video and Dolby ATMOS. That works great.

I've also been to theaters where they combine a restaurant with the theater.
You buy your ticket, you get a menu and order what you want. It's delivered before the movie begins and you sit at higher than normal tables in seats that aren't quite like a theater seat, but much better than your average restaurant chair.
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I believe Europe had reserved seating at least 10-15 years ago. If you catch the first Matinee on a Sunday (church time), you can avoid the hassle. I don't get why people go at night. If you're on a date there are better things to do than a movie.
 
shade91 said:
Eventually movie theaters will be a dead delivery model when people demand more and more to have new movie releases streamed directly to their home theater setups.
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That is bullshit. I will give you about 10 reasons why movie theaters will exist 20 years from now:

1. The model for delivery (internet speeds) is in a war right now vs speeds. Basically cable companies know that consumers are cutting cable and basically jacking up fees on internet. Adopting rate of higher than 10 mbps internet will be slower in the next coming years as cable companies get bought out or merged.

2. Movie prices in home won't be cheaper. It will be a convenience factor and since studios really don't know how many people will watch a movie in house they will charge basically a family tier of pricing. Like for instance 29.99 per movie.

3. Social aspect of movie theaters. You are still going to have a large demand of people that want to watch a movie in a social setting outside of their home.

4. Median Home wages as an impact on home buying. Literally no one ever tracks this but when I go to Best Buy etc what do I see as an entire aisle in home theater? One speaker units...Why? Because your median home buyer now a days is probably either down sizing or buying a smaller home due to the recession. Or work mobility meaning the average worker might move 10 times in their lifetime. They aren't looking for an elaborate setup.

5. Theaters are looking to capitalize on things that have higher profit margins. Alcohol vs pop for example. Plus they are turning into Dinner/movies vs just trying to sell out a bunch of seats. Theaters are in a better position right now vs movie companies.

6. More movies catering to specific audiences. Animated movies/fan based comic movies etc. All of these movies that used to have a specific audience are so engrained in pop culture now that they rake in tons of money and people continue to pay to see them in theater whether it be on a super screen etc, people want the best experience possible.

7. Movies are cheaper right now vs other forms of entertainment.

8. More movie tie ins. Books, food, mobile games, youtube advertising. Basically one movie is about 100 different avenues for money making.

9. Emerging markets didn't have movie theaters until recently. Think of China etc, the internet has opened up a new audience where people around the world want to see American based films. US of Motherfucking A.

10. My personal favorite. Where else are we going to get hand jobs?
 
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