? about Ticket Prices
 

Today I went to the theater to pre-purchase tickets for an MI:3 showing tomorrow. The prices listed on the window were $9.50 for regular admission, $7.00 (or $7.50) for matinee, $7.00 (or $7.50) for student, and $6.50 for child/senior citizen. I asked for 3 student tickets for the 7 pm showing. I was expecting to pay ~$21-22, so when I saw the total was $28.50, I thought she had accidentally charged me for 4 tickets. But then she said that the student price for this particular movie was $9.50, and regular price was $11.50. I asked why and she said something about how the movie studio decided to charge more for just that movie, or some garbage like that. I didn't have time to get a better explaination since I had to get back to school, but I kept my receipt along with the tickets just in case I wanted a refund or something tomorrow. Anyway, has anybody else heard about more expensive ticket prices for particular movies? Or is this theater just trying to cash in on a big movie?

The only time I've paid more than the standard price was when our local comic book shop had reserved its own theater for the midnight showing of Return of the King. THe tickets were $10 as opposed to $6.75 and part of the price went to Toys for Tots.

So, no, I've never heard of this.

Never heard of such a practice, but if it's gonna become standard than I think my once a month trip to the theatres may just become once a year.

One of the theaters I frequent started charging .50 more for Friday and Saturday night shows last summer. It's going to get to the point where baseball is now, charging more for "premium" games.

I go to the movies so often I just bought supersaver tickets, 6.50 no matter what!

I remember the theaters charging $1-$2 more per ticket when "Superman: The Movie" was released way back in 1978 (citing the extra cost it took to make you believe a man could fly). Heh.

In 1939, Gone With The Wind cost a quarter to see when other films were a dime.

I can see the theaters offering variable pricing in order to maximize their revenues. If the movie is going to sell out at $9.50 a ticket, why charge $7.50 a ticket?

It's not really that much different than charging different prices based on the time of day.

Of course, one could argue that charging $2 more for a ticket means $2 less that could be spent at the concession stand, which has a far higher profit margin than the movie ticket itself (especially something like Mission: Impossible, which is probably giving 90% of the box office to the studio over opening week).

I already bought my ticket to M:I:3 tomorrow, and it wasn't higher than the normal matinee price (actually, I should say the listed price was not higher. I used those Diet Pepsi Movie bucks to buy the ticket, so it didn't really cost me anything).

If my memory serves me, when Return of the Jedi came out, theaters couldn't charge a "matinee price" for the first 2 weeks.

I don't know if this is true, so grain of salt and all... I know someone who was doing a booster club thing for his son's football team, and one of the fundraisers they were doing was with a local theatre. The deal was for $10, you get a ticket to see any movie you want on a certain day for two people. The last day, just to get rid of the tickets, they were $5. But he was saying that he couldn't just stand outside a store and do it, because apparently (this is the named example he used, but he meant it as just one of a possible few) there are people, such as Steven Spielberg, who won't allow discounts on their films. If they found out, the theatre could have that person's next film delayed in getting to them.

I never heard anything like that before, but I do find it plausible.

I wonder if they'll bump up the concession prices as well, since they only have a 40,000% profit on popcorn

Luckily the theatre I go to most of the time has free refills.

I also see as many matinees as I can to drop the cost down....its usually about $5.

When The Peacemaker came out, didn't Dreamworks ask theaters to charge an extra dollar to offset the cost of the film? Must have been the extra cost of the screenwriters .... ;)

Sounds to me like your theater is just taking advantage of it's customers. I wouldn't buy that bit about the studio charging more just for that one movie.

as long as i've been at a theatre i can't remember charging more for a single movie. the "friday and saturday increase" someone mentioned sounds plausible. if i'm not mistaken i THINK our theatre does that. i know after 6 the price goes up and it's cheaper in the morning and first show is the cheapest.

According to boxofficemojo.com, the studio's take on the ticket sales is 55%. Anybody know if that's true?

Sort of. The theaters take more of the % on the opening weekend (anywhere from 75% to 90% depending on the movie) and it decreases every weekend. So the longer the movie runs, the more of the tickets prices the theater keeps.

just a small typo there Clemente...what I think you meant was:

The STUDIOS take more of the % on the opening weekend (anywhere from 75% to 90% depending on the movie) and it decreases every weekend.

Distributors don't get theatres to jack up their prices on a per movie basis...that theatre is full of shit.

MATT

Well, I went back to the theater yesterday and asked to speak to the manager about the price because when the employee sold me the ticket she didn't sound too convincing. He told me there was some sort of error in the computer, and the price should have been $7.50, which was what I expected in the first place. He gave me some story about how it was too late to get refunded the difference, but he gave me vouchers for a free movie on our next visit, so I guess it actually worked out in our favor.

I went Edwards Theater in Los Angels and tickets are $10.00 and student tickets are 9.00. I think i should just wait for the dvd's now. I remember back in the days when tickets were 2.xx for a ticket.The good ole days.

There's talk about how Major League Baseball will charge more for premium games, i.e. the Red Sox coming to town will cost more than the Royals. It wouldn't surprise me to see movie theaters doing this.

Although with the rising cost of ticket prices and the increasing rudeness in the audience, along with the fact that the studios are kicking out the DVDs like three months later, make the movie going experience not as fun.

It was a lie. I don't have the literature to back this up, but I am quite sure this is true: theaters cannot raise prises for one particular movie just because they think it will do big business. This is a law issue. There is also no possible way a studio is going to insist on higher ticket prices than what is charged for one film. That is ridiculous. Oh, and it's price fixing. Which is illegal. Huh.

The reason I believe this is because it was reported the Mall of America General Cinema wanted to raise prises just for The Phantom Menace, but weren't able to do it just for one film, so they bumped all their ticket prices by a dollar back in 1999.

I also worked at a theater and was close to the person that booked features. Studios take larger cuts up front, usually around 75-80% of box office of big features for the first few weeks, and then dwindling off. This is how dollar theaters are able to afford such cheap prices as a second-run/third-run theater. This theater is merely upset the studio is charging 90% box office take for the first two weeks, and then making sure they maintain a "normal" box office level.

Sorry, I have nothing to back me up on this, but I'm sure I'm right.

Some teams in some sports already do this.

I know my college charges more for some football games (i.e. Texas and Oklahoma) and less for others (i.e. Baylor and Missouri).

It was a lie. I don't have the literature to back this up, but I am quite sure this is true: theaters cannot raise prises for one particular movie just because they think it will do big business.

I don't know why that would be true.

While studios can't tell theaters what to charge (especially after the Paramount Decree), I don't see why a theater couldn't charge a different amount for a different movie if they wanted to. I would be interested to see which law applies such pricing contraints to movie theaters (and, apparently, only to movie theaters. I shop at all sorts of places all the time that charge different prices for very similar items).

Yep. One of the reasons the studios aren't making what they think they should (aside from the product not being as good recently) is that the cost of 4 people going is greater than the cost of owning the movie a few months later and watching it without rude people, crying babies, etc.

A movie theater (or any other business, for that matter) cannot charge more than the listed price. If they were truly charging more for M:I3, they would have to post separate ticket prices so people would know before buying them that they would be charged more.

That's a far cry from saying they can't charge a different price for different movies, though.