I just realized that at my AMC theater the matinee price is only $2.00 less than full price. It used to be much more substantial. It hardly seems like a bargain anymore. $7.50 vs. $9.50.

So are matinee prices becoming extinct or are differences more severe in other locales?

There aren't really any matinee prices in LA. Some theaters (Arclight) have different prices for different times of the week, but it's a choice between $11 or $14, so what's the point.

They are not becoming extinct, they are simply becoming the price of what used to be a normal show years ago.

I hear ya man. That's why I'm always driving to the AMC in Burbank to watch movies. The closest theatre for me is The Pacific at The Grove, but it's like $10.50 for matinee. And you gotta pay for parking.

6.50 for matinee and 9.50 for night shows in most of the Bay Area, Ca from what I have seen from the different theatres. I love the theatre in AZ where my mom lives, $5 for matinee until 8pm and 7.50 for night time shows.

$6.75 for a matinee here last time I checked. Next time I check it'll probably be $7.50. Big reason why I don't get out to the movies like I used to.

Wow! I can't imagine paying that much - I feel for you.

$5.25/$8.00 for the theater the gf and I frequent.

I pay from 5.50 to 6.25 for a matinee....but you're right. I remember when I was a kid (late 80's), the night time shows were 6.25 and I thought that was excessive. Although, when I was a kid, on weekends, only the first show of the day qualified as a matinee, today no theaters around here are that restrictive.

I also didn't have a job back then though.

The biggest theater here in Irvine has limited matinee showings lately. They used to be for every show before 5, but when i went to see Ultraviolet a few weeks ago, only the two earliest shows had matinee pricing.

the smaller cinemark theater here (chesapeake) has matinees for 3.25. granted this theatre is older and doesn't have stadium seating. the consolidated theater i go to has 6.50 for matinee and student ticket prices.

which brings up another question. concerning student prices, as long as you have school ID no matter how old you are, will they give you the student price? like if you're 45 and getting your bachelor's, you are a student so will they give you a ticket?

In NYC, if you go see the very first show of the day, you get matinee pricing, beyond that, its the same price through out.

I don't go to the theater unless it's free. I've been given two sets of movie tickets from shopping at Safeway this month. I'm glad because I'd be pretty pissed if I had paid to see The Libertine.

I'll only go to matinees unless it's opening night for a movie. There's something about a date-type dinner and a movie on opening night that's just a blast. Did it with Batman Begins, Star Wars III, and recently with V for Vendetta.

Well, the biggest theatre chain in Vancouverm is Famous Players and they did away with matinee pricing over a year ago. I believe it is around $11 CDN, I haven't ben to one of their theatres in almost 6 months... I wonder if there is a connection.

Around here, they are charging a "premium" for Friday/Saturday nights as well. So instead of being raped like you do on a Thursday night, you have to pay even more on those day.

I don't go to the theater anymore unless it's something I can't really duplicate at home. For example, digital media or 3d presentations.

Matinees are $7.50 here on Staten Island too. Not sure about regular prices, because I haven't been to a non-matinee movie in about 8 years.

In Canada, Famous Players/Cineplex/Galaxy are all owned by the same company. About 18months ago, Famous redid their pricing...used to be $9 for a matinee and a WHOPPING $14.00 for an evening show... they then decided to just do away with Matinee pricing and made ALL SHOWS $9.95... seems to me this was a VERY FAIR trade... when they were bought out by cineplex/galaxy, their pricing followed suit (the only exceptions are a few of the bigger theatres in TO and apparently VAN, where it's $11.95 all the time).

It makes much more sense for it to be the same price all the time...since matinee pricing wasn't much cheaper at all, I'm not sad about it...now 10 years ago when a matinee was $4.25 and they had $4.25 tuesdays, I miss those days, but $10 a pop ain't bad.

MATT

There's a theater in Des Moines that stops its matinee pricing at 2 p.m., which seems a bit early to me.

NYC never had matinee prices, i don't think...at least as long as I've been here (10 years).

In queens, we do have them and i'm not sure how much it is.

Can you beleive the UA 14 closed? Although the theatre was shit, it was the only one that had some "indie" movies available. The parking by UA 16 is atrocious, even during some daytime movies.

$4.00 before 1:15 (at one major chain here), $5.75 until 5:30 and $8.25 in the evening.

Damn. $4.00? That's as much as a rental! Hmmm ... ideas run amuck. Sounds like a good plan for theatres who don't get ANYONE before 2:00 p.m.

6.50/8.50 here in DFW.

$4 was the sweet spot around here for the longest time. Now like everywhere else it is around $7 for a matinee. Not worth the $1.75 difference.

Sundays used to have matinee pricing ALL day here as well. That vanished with the $4 pricing.

Yes, the $4.00 price is great. It started a couple months ago. When all the first run theaters had the same price of $5.75 for matinees, we used to almost always go to the newer, slighty nicer theater. The slightly less nice chain started these $4.00 early matinees and now we almost always go there since we generally see our movies early in the day anyway. They got our business back.