Whenever you or I have the privilege of giving a movie theatre around six or seven dollars just for a ticket to see a movie, the American consumer is frequently getting less for his money. I have not been to a movie in the last four months or so that did not start with at least five minutes of commercials. Not previews, blatent commercials, be it for Coca-Cola, the Army, a video, or some other item that has little to nothing to do with the either the movie you’re about to see or a movie not released yet. I’m sure that the theatre recieves oodles of money for every ad shown to such a captive audience, yet they have not chosen to pass any of this profit on to consumers in the form of lower ticket prices. The movie industry is not weakening, in fact quite the opposite is happening, with there being more blockbusters that make more in their first weekend then some movies have made in their entire existence. If the movie theatres shifted the price of the tickets down it would increase quantity demanded and potentially push long term demand higher in the long term.
One reason I’m not complaining too much \though is that I have been repeatedly impressed with the quality of many of the movies in theatres lately. Sure, the occasionaly flop with no plot makes it through, but by and large I’ve been seeing well-developed stories with dynamic characters and impressive cinematography
why should they lower ticket prices? People complain about being gouged, then they shell out 8 bucks plus 5 for concessions. If people really didn’t think a movie was worth that much, the market would correct itself. I was surprised to see this kind of tirade from Capitalism Boy.
I’ve often wondered the same thing. The plot thickens when you discover that only one percent of the money you pay for a movie ticket actually goes to the movie theatre. The rest is actually helping to pay the stars’ million dollar salaries. (At least that’s what they told me at Edward’s) Concessions on the other hand are virtually 100% profit- I mean, come on! 5$ for a box of popcorn?- So what’s the deal? Perhaps they’re trying to weed out the starving students with ticket prices and by so doing, to attract the clientele that will actually pay their ridiculous concession prices. You have no idea how many ritzy folks walked into the theatre while I was working there and actually PRAISED the (at that time) insane price of $7, and the (still insane) fact that “we” didn’t give student discounts, because the “bratty highschoolers” couldn’t pay and as a consequence didn’t come. That left the grownups free to enjoy their movie experience without catcalls at Natalie Portman š
Anyway, food for thought!
Rachel: Not every price is the result of a perfect marrige of supply and demand, and I’m suggesting that the prices of movies are above their optimal level. Edward’s declared bankruptcy a year or so ago, citing the need to restructure their tremendous debt and “return to profitability.“ Regal Entertainment Group was formed by a Denver billionare to buy several bankrupting cinema-related firms. The only thing holding the whole enterprise up at the moment is Regal CineMedia, which sells advertising,hence said commercials. In fact they reported earnings up nearly 15% . . . pro forma.