Just recently, Roger Ebert wrote an article regarding six reasons movie theaters had a relatively dismal year in terms of the amount of viewers. I agreed wholeheartedly with his opinions, and one in particular stood out to me: the absurd prices. I think there are a lot of you out there who feel like, for the most part, only the major blockbusters are worth shelling out the nine or eleven dollars for (more for 3D and IMAX, of course).

I'll be in the movie theaters on July 20th, but I'm not so sure about the rest of the year.

I myself hit up the dollar theater regularly, and for new releases, there’s a five-to-seven dollar theater nearby. I save the “normal” theater for the huge releases that I’m really anticipating (currently only “The Dark Knight Rises”). In fact, let’s take a look at some of the prices of the “normal” theaters around me, and why I don’t use them too often.

Krikorian Premier Theaters:

Early Bird: $7.75                       (First showing of each feature starting before 12:30 Mon-Fri except holidays)
Bargain Matinee: $8.75           (Any show before 6pm) What a bargain!
Adult: $11.00                             Do I get the DVD and/or soundtrack with this viewing?
Child: $8.75                               Parents with 4+ kids are in for a financial beating.
Seniors: $8.75                           C’mon, man, they might not even remember the movie.
Students: $9.50                         fffFFFFUUUUUUuuuu…
Active Military: $8.50               Welcome home, troops.

 

AMC Theater (in Fullerton):

Adult: $10.50                             (after 4:00pm)
Child: $7.50                                (2-12 years old)
Matinee: $8.50                           (before 3:55 pm)
Senior: $9.50                              (Age 60+)
There’s also a special price of $6.00 for movies before noon.

 

A Solution to High Prices

Well, I don’t know if you noticed, but no matter what movie is playing, it’s always the same price. Is it a critically acclaimed movie or a blockbuster? Is it an awesome indie film that nobody knows about? Is it a movie that pulled in people on the first weekend but tanked right after that? Instead of applying some intelligence to the pricing system, everything costs the same amount. Who needs a pricing system anyway? When you go to the car dealership, you can pick out any car, and they’re all the same price, right? I’m definitely going with a blue Ferrari for my next purchase.

Yes, I’m suggesting that movie theaters use their brains and get to crackin’ on how they can offer us movies at various prices depending on things like popularity and anticipated popularity. So, for example, The Dark Knight Rises, a movie that hardly needs any advertising to cause a stampede to the theaters, would be full price.

An unknown indie film, on the other hand, would cost less, maybe even as low as half price. Why? Well, if no one knows about it, why would they take a chance, possibly wasting both time and money? If this unknown movie is a lot cheaper, people will be more likely to check it out. If they like the movie, maybe they’ll tell their friends. Then, who knows, maybe the word of mouth will be so good that the little unknown indie film will rival the revenue of the most recent, so-called “blockbuster” (read: flop).

As for those movies whose sales take a dive over time, why not give them a boost with a price drop? Sometimes they can be replaced by other movies, but when that’s not possible, giving a price drop is better than having an empty theater.

 
Final Thoughts

In general, I would like to see ticket prices come down. Wouldn’t it be great if we could just relax, knowing that we’d only be spending $6 to see a new movie, not worrying too much about whether it’s worth it or not? I can guarantee you more people would head over to the movie theaters if prices were lower. Who knows, movie theaters might even rake in more profits.

With the harsh competition from internet-streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix, which are beyond convenient, movie theaters now need to take the proper steps to secure their business before they end up like Blockbuster, Tower Records, Borders, Circuit City…you did notice those were gone, didn’t you?

Oh, and one other thing. I know there are people out there who are thinking that the pricing system could get confusing with discounts for “child”, “student”, “military” etc. So, to fix this problem, these discounts would be dollars off of their ticket price ($2-3 off for “child” etc.)

Readers, I’ll see you at the cheap theaters.

Mr. Batman, I’ll see you at the normal theaters for your midnight showing.