Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Admission price

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Posted by Kara Tillotson (Member # 3899) on 11-18-2006, 01:42 PM:

This is for first run theaters only, what is your admission price?
We had a lady complaining to us about our "exorbadent"(sp) price of 5$ for tickets, and 10$ for a large popcorn and 2 med drinks with free refills.
Now I dont think these are such high prices...the larger nearby towns all have multiplexs like Carmike where children are $5.50, adults are $6.75-$7.25 Even the 2nd run theatre charges $5.25. So I am really baffled about the complaints.
People will even reference the other theaters, Theater A doesnt charge 5$ (which is right, they charge $1.75-$2.75 more....)
So tell me, what am I missing here. I mean math is NOT my best subject, but I think I understand the basics.

[ 03-31-2007, 09:29 AM: Message edited by: Kara Tillotson ]

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 11-18-2006, 03:00 PM:

Maybe you should sponsor (as a promotion) a "New York Weekend." Admission price will be $10.50, etc...a gimmick, but, if you did it on a very special film, it would illustrate what a bargain you are.

My experience is that "the public" does not actually appreciate a bargain; but gauges your respect level by what you are able to extract from their wallet. Not only that but the troublemakers are priced out. Louis

Posted by Christopher Crouch (Member # 3784) on 11-18-2006, 04:17 PM:

The kind of people that vocalize their complaints about such matters are the type that will likely complain under any pricing.

I think any sort of price change brings this issue out. People tend to believe they are being "ripped off" because they are now paying more for the same service, even if the price remains less than what they could recieve elsewhere. They fail to realize unseen issues, like business expenses, change and focus on it being the same experience/service for a higher price than they were accostom to paying.

Posted by Kara Tillotson (Member # 3899) on 11-18-2006, 06:43 PM:

LMAO new York weekend. Thast great.

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 11-18-2006, 08:31 PM:

Just blame the ticket prices on the film companies and compare your concession prices to a ball game. Customers don't understand how the business works anyways, so they won't know if you are embellishing.

Posted by Kara Tillotson (Member # 3899) on 11-19-2006, 11:41 AM:

yeah, but the part I dont understand is that our prices ARE cheaper than the ones they compare us too....

Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 11-19-2006, 03:16 PM:

We once had a special All Tickets $2 and the first customer complained "don't you have a seniors concession?"

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-19-2006, 03:37 PM:

$5 is ridiculously LOW for first run movies. You should be charging at least $6, and probably more. We are at $6.25 for adults and will probably go to $6.50 after the first of the year.

Previous posters are right, you could lower your price to $4 and you'd still have gripers.

Most people who gripe about ticket prices just haven't thought things through. Here are a few tactics I've used on griping morons.

Find out what the movie cost to produce. If you don't know, just assume around $50 million. Divide that by the running time, let's say 110 minutes, meaning the movie cost over $450,000 per minute to produce. Now, at your ticket price, you're charging them LESS THAN A NICKEL A MINUTE to watch the movie that cost nearly half a million per minute to produce. It's the bargain of the century!

If that doesn't sway them, start listing off what stuff in your building costs. I've done this too. "Well, the seat you're sitting in cost $165, and the sound system is worth $42,000, and we're using a $30,000 projector and showing the film on a $2,000 screen, and our heat bill was $825 last month, etc. etc."

If they still don't shut up, mention that over half of their ticket price goes to the film company. Then mention how much money you spent on your last remodel and say, "it takes a lot of five dollar tickets to pay for something like $15,000 worth of carpet!"

Once people understand that you're not just shoveling money into your pockets, they'll usually lighten up considerably. As long as you're nice about it (saying all the above with a smile helps!) you'll quiet their discomfort.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 11-19-2006, 04:57 PM:

1st run prices here in Lawton:

Carmike 8:
Adults - $7.75 evening, $5.75 matinée
Children - $5.75 day and night
Active Duty Military - $5.25 day and night

Dickinson Central Mall 12:
Adults - $7.50 evening, $5.50 matinée
Children - $5.50 day and night
Students - $5.75 evening
Active Duty Military - $5.50 day and night
Early Bird 1st Show special - $4.50

Over the past 15 years movie ticket prices in this area have risen a little over $2. That's not too bad compared to price inflation happening in a lot of other areas.

Inflation is out of control in areas like health care/insurance and education. It was out of control in the housing sector, but now the balloon has popped on that and we're seeing serious price decreases in a lot of coastal housing markets. Certain food and clothing items have seen serious cost inflation. While gas prices have receded some, they're still a lot higher than they were 2 or 3 years ago.

I agree people complaining about high movie ticket prices have not thought through their argument. They're just reacting emotionally. Perhaps some of them are getting squeezed by high prices elsewhere and oddly taking out their frustration on movie theater staffers.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 11-19-2006, 06:34 PM:

Cinemark 17 in Springfield:
Adult Evening $7.25
Adult Fri/Sat after 6pm $7.75
Child/Senior $5.00
Adult Matinee before 6pm $5.25
First Matinee Showtime Mon thru Fri $4.50
Student $5.75
$1.50 surcharge for 3D DLP shows

Regal Cinema World 8 is usually 25 cents lower than Cinemark across the board. No "premium" for evening weekend shows, no bargain first matinee show.

Will be interesting to see what happens when Regal's new 15-screen opens, currently scheduled for Feb. 2007.

Note that Oregon's Mimumum Wage is currently $7.50 and is adjusted for inflation annually. On January 1st 2007 it increases to $7.80. Movie ticket prices seem to rise 25 cents with each minimum wage adjustment.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 11-19-2006, 09:20 PM:

Des Moines first-run multiplex admissions according to the respective company websites (evening/matinee)

Carmike Wynnsong 16: $8.75/$5.75
Carmike Southridge 12: $8.75/$5.75
Carmike Cobblestone (slope seating): $6.00/$4.00
Cinemark Century 20: $8.25/$5.25
Fridley Springwood 9: $7.00/$5.00
Fridley Cobblestone 9: $7.00/$5.00
Fleur Cinema & Cafe (alternative) $7.00/$5.00

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-20-2006, 01:08 AM:

quote: David Stambaugh
Note that Oregon's Mimumum Wage is currently $7.50 and is adjusted for inflation annually. On January 1st 2007 it increases to $7.80.

Montana just passed a similar min. wage bill. It raises the wage by a dollar an hour in January with annual Cost of living adjustments. (The minimum here is currently $5.15 so it was due for a raise.)

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 11-20-2006, 09:41 AM:

quote:
New York Weekend , Admission price will be $10.50

Well try $10.75 and no bargain matinees gimmick.
If it's IMAX at AMC/Lincoln Square it's $14.00
The Ziegfeld Theatre just upped it's admission to $11.00 for BOND.

Or try the "Hollywood ArcLight Adventure" and sell them reserved seats at $14.00.

[ 11-20-2006, 11:56 AM: Message edited by: Bill Gabel ]

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 11-20-2006, 10:35 AM:

In our area (NW Washington), I paid $9.25 for evening tickets to "Running With Scissors". Evening tickets for "Happy Feet", in Imax are selling online for $10.50 + $2 fee.

Posted by John Joseph Fink (Member # 3619) on 11-20-2006, 10:57 PM:

We don't have it any easier in NJ either - the nicest theater around Edgewater Mutliplex just raised its ticket price to $10.25, the new AMC Rockaway 16 charges $10.00. So come on, five bucks, I wish we had theaters like that around here, the crap ones charge at least nine bucks here for adult evenings. In CT - it's up to 10 bucks also at Showcase Buckland Hills. I don't mind paying it if its a top notch theater (National Amusements builds great theaters), but I hate paying those kinds of prices at a low quality Clearview Cinemas-owned theater (they are up to 9.25/9.50). Personally I like what the Crown Palace did in CT, they have Crown Movie Madness during the week - prices are 6.00 and 4.00 for first run movies. I wish more theaters in more areas did this.

Posted by Jeff Lacey (Member # 3217) on 11-23-2006, 02:51 AM:

What's the lowest first run ticket prices you've ever seen recently?

A local theater company has gone nuts with the competition near them. They play the same movies and are about 2.5 miles from each other.

Their ticket prices are:

Adults after 6 $5.00
Adults before 6 $4.00
Children/Senior $3.00
Twillight $3.00
Students $4.00

The place is not even a dump, just losing out to the competition big time. With prices this low, don't you think patrons are going to think they are getting a lot less for their money?

I just don't see how prices this low is a good thing... Maybe I'm wrong, but why would the film companies even bother booking this theater when they know they will get a larger share down the road and send the "cheap theater's" print to someone else who is charging normal prices?

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 11-30-2006, 09:22 PM:

quote:
you should sponsor (as a promotion) a "New York Weekend." Admission price will be $10.50,

Bill Gable posted that the Ziegfeld is $11.00 for Bond. The AMC Empire 25 is now also $11 and that was for The Prestige (although I think it's $11 across the board.)

Next time someone claims that $5 is expensive to see a movie, ask them what other entertainment only costs $2.50 an hour.

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 12-04-2006, 08:47 PM:

This is all relative. Of course the metro NY-NJ-CT area is high, because the cost of living is also high. So are the taxes. I'm not just talking about sales tax (here in NJ we are the governor's tax collector to the tune of 7%, which is included in the ticket prices.

Then, speaking of taxes, we have the property tax here in NJ, highest in the country. I'm not even going to begin to tell you what we pay as a business each year, because you would wonder how we stay in business. Of course, we wouldn't if we charged $5-6 for adults.

It's best to compare prices in your area and keep in line with what others charge. It's sort of like the airlines- when one raises or lowers prices, others follow suit.

One interesting thing. I believe it's like the old saying "all politics is local", but applied to the movie business. If you increase your price by 25 cents in order to keep up with costs, you probably will not lose customers to the guy 5 miles down the road, because it costs more to drive there anyway.

Here's another thought, and I don't know the answer to this: What is the threshold price, that once reached, where people will say "screw it- I'm finished with going to the movies"?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-04-2006, 08:58 PM:

An example in Colorado Springs has me scratching my head in wonder.

The evening price of the Carmike 10 (a first run theater with stadium seating and now all digital projection) is only $5.25. Their prices before 6:00pm are $4.25.

By comparison, Carmike's Chapel Hills Mall 15 has an evening price of $8.00. That theater has also has digital projection, but it's inside a mall, has really small auditoriums and no room to grow for anything like a conversion to stadium seating.

I guess the Carmike 10's "best prices in town" policy is meant to draw customers from the two Cinemark locations in the area.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-04-2006, 09:25 PM:

Maybe they're operating under the "If we charge a low price, that'll justify our crappy presentation, understaffed concessions and worn-out seats" theory.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-05-2006, 09:15 AM:

But that's the thing I don't understand. Presentation quality isn't the issue. This location did a complete stadium seating retrofit a couple years ago. And digital projection was just added on all screens in October. The theater building is around 10 years old. It's not like the place is a dump needing to be downgraded to 2nd run or just close.

The main gripe I have with ALL theaters in the Colorado Springs area, with perhaps the sole exception of the IMAX theater at the Cinemark Carefree Circle location, is they run their sound at very wimpy, low levels. Presentation quality at the two Cinemark locations in the 'Springs has definitely slipped a good bit from an already somewhat mediocre level. See my review of Snakes on a Plane for some specifics about that.

Cinemark at Carefree Circle has one regular theater screen equipped with digital projection, and have been charging a $2 premium to watch movies in that format. I don't know if they're still doing that with all of Carmike's screens doing the DLP thing.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 12-05-2006, 09:20 AM:

Are they charging that for ALL DLP movies or just Real-D?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-05-2006, 10:02 AM:

I'm not sure. That one screen has played Real D movies, such as Monster House and The Nightmare Before Christmas. I just checked and the theater is currently playing Casino Royale in regular 2D video at an evening admission price of $7.50.

Posted by Andrew Peter Chobaniuk (Member # 3886) on 12-06-2006, 09:06 AM:

$9.85 CAD - Adults
$8.85 CAD - Seniors/Children

Posted by Dave Ritchie (Member # 4030) on 12-06-2006, 11:19 PM:

I run the Thames multiplex (NZ)and we are

Adult - Day $11 / Night $13

Child - Day $7 / Night $8

We have a lot of Americans though on holiday that say this is very expensive but seeing that $1 of ours is worth about 65 cents of yours it seems alright to me,

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 12-06-2006, 11:57 PM:

We just changed our matinee times a few days ago, now it's only the first set. Being that we can have a 2nd set starting shortly after 2 if it's a short movie, this will make lots of people quite angry, considering it was a flat 6pm cutoff time prior. We've already gotten an earfull. "It's only 4:00 and I have to pay evening prices? I'm going down the street!" And 95% of the do. I don't think the combined gain on each ticket during the second, and sometimes 3rd, sets justifys the number of customers run off by the change, and only gets our floor employee's frustrated from hearing about it numerous times a day. I think REG may have just done Carmike, and the new cinema, a HUGE favor.

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 05-30-2010, 02:08 PM:

It has been 1270 days since the last post.

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 05-30-2010, 02:08 PM:

AMC is switching to $5 all shows except weekends & holidays, starting June 18, 2010.

Five Buck Club

quote: AMC
Starting June 18, our normal price for all movies, all day, any time Monday through Thursday* will be $5 - no club or cards necessary. You will be able to see the latest movies for $5 and we're happy to make this pricing available to all our guests. On weekends (Friday, Saturday and Sunday and some holidays) before noon, you will also be able to see $5 movies at most theatres.

The asterisk simply leads to "excludes holidays".

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 05-30-2010, 05:11 PM:

There has been an admission price war between Cinemark and Premiere Cinemas in the Bryan/College Station area. Premiere has the most expensive adult ticket at $6.50. Cinemark's most expensive adult ticket there is $5.50. These complexes have their own zones but, according to one of my co-workers who visits the area as he used to live out there, are "down the road" from each other.

Posted by Elise Brandt (Member # 5552) on 06-01-2010, 03:41 AM:

Oh, boy. I just have to chirp in with our pricing. The average ticket price today is 9-10 euros. That's -what- $13, about? 8€ for kids' movies, and usually 12 for 3D. Sometimes, rarely, there's a rerun for €5...

Our medium popcorn and two sodas are €6,50. And we're a small theater. Bigger theaters might have concessions almost twice the price, and tickets anywhere from 6,80 to 13.50 euros depending on the time of the show.

But then again we fill our cars tanks for 1,40 a liter, about €5,20 a gallon. Again, what, $6,40. Ouch.

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 06-01-2010, 07:06 PM:

quote:
See the list of participating locations and eligible titles below:

Columbus, OH isn't listed as participating, and all of the "eligible" films have been out for a while. Unless they expand this to new titles, I don't see it making a whole lot of difference in attendance, except that they may suppress their opening weekend grosses by causing people to wait for the "Five Buck Club".

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 06-01-2010, 07:29 PM:

Those are the eligible locations and titles now. The way I understand it, it changes on June 18 to all titles at all AMC locations. (except those listed at the very bottom - all of which are not part of the overall Kerasotes to AMC deal ... and obviously they'll still charge the 3D surcharge). Of course, maybe I'm misreading it...

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-01-2010, 08:01 PM:

We are currently $7.25 for adults and we're now the highest priced (for tickets) in our area. Miles City and Hardin are both at $6.50 and haven't gone up in years, but gripe that they can't afford improvements. Our price still seems low compared to $9 in Billings, so we don't get complaints.

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 06-01-2010, 08:21 PM:

Jeremy,

Yeah, I see that (all shows, all locations) now. Odd that this wouldn't be splashed all over their homepage.

Posted by Kevin Fairchild (Member # 4985) on 06-01-2010, 11:02 PM:

The Five Buck Club was a Kerasotes promo. I think the $5 tickets will only be available at the recently aquired Kerasotes locations (minus a few)

I believe that list of theates was all previously Kerasotes.

I really doubt that the ENTIRE AMC CHAIN will cut its tickets to $5 for Mon-Thurs.

Dream on.

PS. I hope I am wrong.

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 06-02-2010, 08:26 PM:

Prices in our area keep going up. After our major competitors upped the anti, our principal owner fell into line (my arguments to the contrary notwithstanding). Here's the sad news:

Bargain matinees- ALL SEATS 8.00, 3D 11.75 before 6PM Mon-Thurs., 3PM Fri-Sun and Holidays

Adults 10.50 3D 14.25
Child 8.00 3D 11.75
Senior 8.25 3D 11.75

Again, as I did in this thread in 2006, I ask the question: "When will people say 'enough' and walk away?"

If a family of four decides to take in a 3D movie in the evening, that's $52 right out of the box. And you wonder why concession per caps keep going down?

Now here's another consideration: go to the 2D instead ($37) and you save $15 for that same family. That's substantial. Best bet for families- go to a matinee 2D for $32. In this lousey economy, I think many families are opting for the matinees. If I were a paying customer, I know I would.

This price structure is in effect all over our area. Where does it end? Wish I knew.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-02-2010, 09:20 PM:

I don't really understand why movie prices aren't allowed to go up along with other entertainment products (and everything else). If you leave out the 3-D charges, movies have still increased below the rate of inflation in most years.

Posted by Manny Montes (Member # 5639) on 06-02-2010, 09:41 PM:

Matinee:
Adult: 7.50
Child: 6.50
Senior 7.50 all day

Evening:
Adult: 10

$3.5 real D surcharge

Posted by Maybelline Cabrera (Member # 4495) on 06-07-2010, 09:38 AM:

Child: $4.50
Senior: $5.50

Adult matinee: $5.50
Adult evening: $7.00 (Su-Th) $7.50 (Fri-Sat)

For the most part, our prices increase every year or two. These prices went into effect last summer, I think.

Posted by Matt Fields (Member # 3211) on 06-07-2010, 03:38 PM:

2D:
6.50 adult
5.00 kids/senior/matinee

3D (Dolby):
8.50 adults
7.00 kids/senior/matinee