Draven

Yep. IIRC the deal they have with the studios is that they don't get much from ticket sales on opening weekend. As the movie stays in theaters, that starts to shift. Which use to be OK when movies stayed in theaters for months at a time. Now they are gone before the theater can get anything significant from ticket sales.

I love movie theater popcorn but I also tend to get it to help the theater too - like tipping.

windom

I would gladly pay a dollar more to sit in the preferred seats, just so I could literally and figuratively look down on the people in the cheaper seats. Hopefully, it would keep people from sitting near me also.

story

I mostly, mostly, mostly agree with you. However, and I think I've written about this somewhere here, our local AMC showtimes have been dismal since they reopened. No weeknight late shows. Barely any 7:00pm shows! It's all 6:00pm hour show times, what the heck?! I know it's hard to get staff, I know not as many people are there, and I know it's tough all around. But I have a family with young kids. I usually went to an 8:00pm or 9:00pm show after they were in bed. Do you really expect me to leave them at home with my spouse while I go spend $15 on 4 chicken strips that I have to show up 20 minutes early to be in line for?! It's like they're forcing concessions on people in our area, it's just weird!

TomOpus

Was it always like this, even pre-Covid?

Draven

I've been on multiple weekend or opening nights of huge movies and never saw them open. I think they were just part of the design of the theater but in practice, they didn't have the staffing and/or desire to ever open them up.

RichC2

Naw, and it seems to fluctuate.

Until a few weeks ago our local theaters were the same way (7 pm was the last show of the day), but AMC now has bookings until 9:00 PM and Cinemark/Regal have ones until 10:30 PM during the week.

Edit: And weekend for the matter, there's no difference in times. This weekend they appear to be spacing it out a bit for clean up after the Galentine's Magic Mike's Last Dance rush.

movieguru

If they're discount $2 off the value seats and adding $1 for the preferred sightline seats, won't they pretty much break even for a near sold out movie screening? It could even backfire during less populated screenings if people are price conscious. Most everyone could buy the cheap discounted seats, leaving the premium seats empty.

fujishig

That's if there are an equal number of discount and preferred sightline seats (for crowded theaters) and at least on the ones shared so far there aren't. Also the cynical side of me feels like they could justify adding even more seats to the front and sides where available and call those new, terrible seats the discount row.

mndtrp

It still leaves the ticket prices at $14 each. That's more than I'm willing to pay, and it seems like a lot of other people feel the same way. If all of the theaters near me went to pricing like that, I'd just stop going to the theaters altogether.

DWilson

Or, -more likely, -the "discount" seats are the price you've been regularly paying and they just increase the price of the other seats.

Troy Stiffler

I really don’t care about discount seats. Maybe they’ll just save if you’re willing to sit in the front corner.

when I worked at the theater as a kid, people were not ok with those front seats. Now that it’s all reserved seating, maybe this will help fill the unwanted seats. People used to obsess over saving $2 on an earlier ticket. Who knows.

DJariya

Well, there is always discounted matinees.

But that's why I said that most people are only casual movie-goers and can only afford to go to the movies occasionally. I know if I didn't have A-List, I could not afford to go to the movies that often.

TomOpus

Good. More seat choices for me. Though, I've always gone during matinees when seating was never an issue. And Premium Prices don't apply.

Even if they did I think I could find a $1.

story

No, it's a definite change in our area. I could ccould show that started between 8:00pm-9:30pm on any night of the week for years. It was the only time we'd see movies when the kids were really little. Work hard to get them to bed, go out afterward. I'd go one night, my wife would go the next.

Today's final showtimes at my local AMC? 6:45pm, 7:15pm, 6:40pm, 6:30pm, 7:00pm, and several Oscar contenders with one showing each just after 4:00pm so it's after matinee pricing time. But then Titanic 3D starts at 7:30pm. With trailers, that's going until at least 11:00pm. But they're only going to play a 1 hour 40 minute movie like Knock at the Cabin at 6:40pm but not squeeze in a late show at 9:00pm as well, even though staffing would basically be the same? I don't get that.

movieguru

It doesn't have to be an equal number of discounted vs upcharge seats. It's a $2 discount vs a $1 upcharge, so for every one discounted ticket purchased, there has to be two upcharged ticket sales just to make it a wash. So if you sold 40 discounted tickets, the theater would have to sell premium seats before they made a profit under this system and the upcharge profit for the 81st premium ticket would only be $1.

windom

Well, my local Regal theater is now officially closed as of today. The last movie I saw there was Avatar:WotW. After 20+ years of being our main movie theater, we're going to have to go somewhere else starting next weekend with the new Ant-man.

The other Regal in my state that was announced to close is still open. Maybe they were able to renegotiate their lease and remain open. I was hoping that would happen with mine.

DJLinus

Starting tomorrow, my preferred local moviehouse is instituting an "adults only" policy for showings after 7:30 pm: https://www.nbc12.com/2023/02/27/new...mes-after-730/

One of my daily go-to's for geeky entertainment news/commenty is the John Campea Show. Imagine my surprise when he did a segment on the theater's policy yesterday.



I don't have kids - though stepkids might be in my near future - and am cool with this. Certainly there are a-hole adults at the theater, but this hopefully will improve the moviegoing experience, which has gotten steadily terrible over the years. (Except at Alamo Drafthouse.)

fujishig

That seems fine for a weekday, but for weekends, and all the way up to high school age? That seems crazy to me. They must have the data to show there's enough demand though, I guess.

Brian T

Do they favour movies that are more arthouse-y or film festival-ish, or Drafthouse type stuff?

One thing I enjoy about the actual TIFF festival here (and many of the smaller festivals we have) is the '18 or over' rule for all screenings. I think this translates to people treating the main TIFF theatre-plex downtown similarly all year round, even though under-18's are permitted to those regular showings as they would be in a mainstream cinema. Most times I've gone to see stuff at the 'Lightbox' during regular days it's been virtually all grown-ups in attendance, so no yakking, no phones lighting up, no noisy posturing to impress the girls/boys sitting a few seats over. I hope to do it more often now that I have a bit more time in my life, although I do wish there was something similar closer to my neighbourhood.

Spiderbite

Good way to kill the future of the movie theater experience quicker if more theaters follow suit.

I grew up going to movies with my family for evening shows and spent many of my weekend nights as a teen with my best friend seeing new movies every weekend. And gasp...they were after 7:30pm.

Due to that (and my Dad), that is why I have a passion for watching movies and still make my way to the theater even in these days of streaming everything.

Poor foresight on their part in my opinion.

Brian T

Surely there are options for family movie experiences nearby? Or is that 'Movieland' place the only game in town?

Maybe folks can still take their restless, noisy kiddies and bored tweens 'n teens to a matinee, or a different theater where they can do what they do in the presence of like-minded others.

Sometimes it's nice to have assurances that only adults will be in the house, and who are there to simply watch the movie.

DJLinus

It's just a general audience movie theater that does a little arthouse stuff and rep showings on the side. It gets pretty much everything. It definitely caters to the blockbuster crowd. Across the parking lot they have a smaller building dedicated solely to arthouse movies, but that closed during covid. They say it'll reopen at some point, but it's still shuttered as of now.

Richmond is a mid-size city and the Bow Tie definitely isn't the only game in town. This is Regal country. (I wish we had an AMC so I could get in on that monthly program of theirs.) There's only this one Bow Tie in the area and there are a few other small chain theaters like Cinebistro. And we have the historic Byrd Theatre a few blocks from my house, where I go see It's a Wonderful Life every Christmas night. So there are definitely options for families and teens.

My all time favorite chain is Alamo Drafthouse. I have *never* had a bad viewing experience during my many trips there. Unfortunately Richmond doesn't have an Alamo. My girlfriend lives an hour north of me and if we decide to go to a movie while together up there, we'll drive an additional 30+ minutes north just to go to the closest Alamo. Winchester, VA of all places has one. Why can't my city?!

Brian T

I always wished they could've expanded the Drafthouse into Canada, particularly here, where I think it might've done well. Our Cineplex chain has some 'VIP' screens in some of their plexes, with booze, food service, huge reclining chairs, etc. Haven't tried it yet, but it's still geared toward mainstream movies and crowds, so I find it hard to justify the added (marked up) expense.

Draven

That sounds like a theater I would frequent - I make the 30 minute drive to the Alamo here just so I can have silence and no phones during my theater experiences. We drop a lot of money when we go there (we have dinner too) but it's worth it for me.

mndtrp

My wife and I went to the Alamo a couple weeks ago. The plastic cups they use amplify any noise the ice makes a ton. So many jackoffs swirling their drinks. Or the other ones who like to eat the ice, constantly jostling the cubes in their plastic cups throughout the whole movie. It would be impossible to "raise a card" for all of them, and was insanely irritating. All supposedly "adult-only". Most of my movie-going experiences have been pretty good at any location or time, or clientele.