Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Higher ticket prices on weekends?

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-30-2012, 01:13 PM:

I noticed at the Billings Carmike cinemas that they charge 25¢ more on Friday and Saturday evenings than the rest of the week. Is that chain-wide and are other places doing this?

We have a "discount night" on Mondays where we lower the price by a dollar but our weekends and other weeknights are all the same price.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 01-30-2012, 01:19 PM:

I used to have a "discount night" on Thursdays, which is the last night of the movie. I called it "Sheep Night". Everyone got in for the Child admission price.

I stopped that a while back because I figured it was doing nothing other than costing me money. A lot of people who came on Thursdays were surprised when they got change back, so they obviously didn't know or care that it was "Sheep Night".

Now the admission price is the admission price, every day of the week.

I do get the odd person asking if there are any discount nights but it's not very often -- maybe one or two inquiries per year.

Posted by Michael Putlack (Member # 6523) on 01-30-2012, 02:15 PM:

The Sundance chain does this pretty heavily. Here is the chart from their flagship theatre in San Francisco's website . They charge these prices on top of their base ticket price depending on the time and day of the showing.

Show-------------M-Th----F-S-----Su
#1 - 12pm-------none----$1.00---$1.50
#2 - 2pm--------$1.00---$1.50---$2.00
#3 - 5pm--------$1.50---$2.00---$2.00
#4 - 7pm--------$2.00---$3.00---$2.00
#5 - 9pm--------$1.50---$3.00---$1.50

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 01-30-2012, 02:31 PM:

I know some Regal and Cinemark theatres do this, but it seems like they have a 50¢ difference. I think the idea is to help boost their weekdays and take some pressure off the weekends. I have no idea if it does any good.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 01-30-2012, 04:19 PM:

I just noted yesterday at Regal Kansas City 18 that their showtimes pricing had a new level for mid-afternoon shows:

Adult Matinee: $7.50
Twilight $6.00
Evening: $9.50

I believe the Twilight shows were shows between like 4 and 6 or so. So going earlier means paying more.

This was a daily rate.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 01-30-2012, 05:38 PM:

In Montgomery Carmike charges 50¢ more on Fri and Sat.
Rave appears to do so also, but they hide their prices pretty well online.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-30-2012, 05:54 PM:

Sounds like a typical Carmike procedure.

No circuits in this area are bumping up prices for the weekends.

Posted by Jim Pennington (Member # 4253) on 01-30-2012, 05:58 PM:

Dubois, PA Carmike 5 Theater Pricing:

Matinee, Adult $7.25
Evening, Adult $9.25
Adult (Fri-Sat) $9.50
Child $6.25
Senior (65-older) $6.25
Additional 3D Surcharge $2.50
Child (Fri-Sat Ages 3-11) $6.75
Matinee (Fri-Sat) $7.50
Senior 65 (Friday-Saturday) $6.75
Super Bargain (4:00-5:30pm) $5.50

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 01-30-2012, 06:04 PM:

they soften the blow to the public with that "Super Bargain" pricing..

...funny how they just want to give more money to the film companies instead of just spreading the increase across the conc. stand items...

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 01-31-2012, 06:57 PM:

Most of the cinemas over here charge more for evening and weekend (offering saver tickets at quiet times). Some offer a certain day at an even cheaper rate (usually Monday or Tuesday), Wednesday has a 2 for 1 offer sponsored by one of the mobile phone networks.

It is a simple form of yield management to encourage customers to visit at the quiet times.

Prices for a local art cinema

quote:
Tuesday - Friday from 5pm, Saturdays, Sundays, Bank Holidays
Adult £7.30 Member £5.30 Concession £5.80 Child £4.80

Tuesday - Friday before 5pm, Late Shows
Adult £6.30 Member £4.30 Concession £4.80 Child £4.80

Mondays (excludes Bank Holidays)
Adult £5.30 Member £3.20 Concession £4.80 Child £4.80

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 02-02-2012, 09:19 PM:

I believe discount nights do nothing but take money out of your (exhibitor) pocket. Going to a movie is a 2-3 hour event by the time to take into account drive time and waiting for the movie to start. Very few people have that kind of flexibility in their weekly schedule.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 02-02-2012, 10:32 PM:

quote: Mike Frese
I believe discount nights do nothing but take money out of your (exhibitor) pocket. Going to a movie is a 2-3 hour event by the time to take into account drive time and waiting for the movie to start. Very few people have that kind of flexibility in their weekly schedule.

I agree. I know of few cases where people would work their schedule around a fifty-cent discount.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 02-02-2012, 10:43 PM:

I totally got bonkers when I saw that AMC Mazza last week was charging $9 for it's first show of the day (before noon) of 'The Grey' - it's supposed to be $6 - so after getting more than peeved at the manager on the phone - he stated it was in the Cinema Club, my retort: 'so you're selling alcohol then?' 'uh, no' [pause] 'hold on for a sec' [longer pause] 'okay the pricing is now correct' 'thanks'

Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 02-03-2012, 06:28 AM:

The Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood is notorious for this practice. On Mondays through Thursdays, their Adult pricing (or, as they call them, "Adult Non-Peak") is $13.75 for 2D and $17.25 for 3D. On Friday nights and all day Saturday and Sunday, Adult Peak prices are $16.00 for 2D and $19.50 for 3D. But, if you are an Arclight member, you save a buck per ticket if you buy your tickets online.

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 02-03-2012, 07:33 AM:

quote: Mike Frese
I believe discount nights do nothing but take money out of your (exhibitor) pocket. Going to a movie is a 2-3 hour event by the time to take into account drive time and waiting for the movie to start. Very few people have that kind of flexibility in their weekly schedule.

Many people have standard 09:00 - 17:00 work days and would be able to go to evening shows any night of the week.

If they save half the cost of the ticket it may encourage them to go on one of the discount days, rather than on Friday/Saturday night.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 02-03-2012, 10:06 AM:

quote: Mark Hajducki
Many people have standard 09:00 - 17:00 work days and would be able to go to evening shows any night of the week.

If they save half the cost of the ticket it may encourage them to go on one of the discount days, rather than on Friday/Saturday night.

9 to 5 jobs here in the States I find is a cliche and grossly overstated - I don't have a job at the moment so it's very interesting when I'm out and about doing errands and everything at odd hours of the day just how many people are driving in and around the DC metropolitan area - don't you people have jobs? [Big Grin]

I went and saw a movie last Monday at noon at the Egyptian in Hanover Maryland and I was really surprised how many people were going to the movies (at noon and the 2-3pm showings) - and they weren't just retirees.

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 02-03-2012, 10:41 AM:

Friday afternoons bring about more adults whom I suspect are "playing hookey" from work to see a new movie.

Posted by Mike Frese (Member # 4361) on 02-03-2012, 07:38 PM:

quote: Mark Hajducki
Many people have standard 09:00 - 17:00 work days and would be able to go to evening shows any night of the week.

If they save half the cost of the ticket it may encourage them to go on one of the discount days, rather than on Friday/Saturday night.

The average person (assuming they have to work the next day) only has 3-4 hours of spare time at night. Much less if they children and dealing with feeding, homework, & getting them to bed. Plus weeknight television is much better.

Posted by Christopher Crouch (Member # 3784) on 02-04-2012, 05:24 AM:

quote: Jonathan Goeldner
9 to 5 jobs here in the States I find is a cliche and grossly overstated

I have to agree. 9 to 5 may have been the norm for decades. However, these days, there are an increasing number of people with non traditional work schedules; especially in large metropolitan areas. This growing trend also shows up in the number of restaurants/retail outlets that are rethinking their hours of operation; moving to expanded hours or full 24 hour schedules.

As for discounted times/days/weekends. While the practice obviously increases attendance for traditionally "off" time periods, there is a negative flip side to such a pricing strategy. While operators hope the ticket savings will be spent on concession, more often than not, the people who make a special effort to attend discount periods are less likely to make a concession purchase (i.e. if you are looking to save .50 or $1, you probably aren't going to be interested in buying a $5 popcorn). This behavior can be extreme at the discount theatre level, with per caps falling in to the sub $1 range during "value" days. At some point, the extra volume almost becomes moot.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-04-2012, 02:36 PM:

quote: Christopher Crouch
9 to 5 may have been the norm for decades. However, these days, there are an increasing number of people with non traditional work schedules; especially in large metropolitan areas.

I would say around here, the people with 9-to-5 schedules are actually in the minority. Our biggest industries in this area are the railroad, where they work whenever they work (there is no set schedule for them) and coal-mining, where many of the workers are on split shifts or rotating shifts. Then there are lots of farmers and ranchers, whose workday starts before sunrise and ends "whenever."

Posted by Joseph Hernandez (Member # 6676) on 02-04-2012, 03:31 PM:

I just started doing this at my theater. We raised our weekend matinee price by fifty cents and our evening by one dollar.

We did this mostly to raise our average ticket price and help us book movies faster as we consider ourselves "intermediate" run.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 02-04-2012, 03:50 PM:

In my area, the day job (or "9-5") is more the normal. We don't have and big industries like mining, railroads, manufacturing, and so forth. The majority of small businesses are closed by no later than 6:00pm. We don't have a ton of restaurants or other traditional night businesses.

Obviously we have the normal medical personnel and police, but I think the only employers who have large staffs working swing shifts or graveyards are the indian casinos. If I had to guess, I would say less than 5% of the local population works outside of traditional business hours.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 02-06-2012, 12:18 AM:

quote: Edward Havens
The Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood is notorious for this practice. On Mondays through Thursdays, their Adult pricing (or, as they call them, "Adult Non-Peak") is $13.75 for 2D and $17.25 for 3D. On Friday nights and all day Saturday and Sunday, Adult Peak prices are $16.00 for 2D and $19.50 for 3D. But, if you are an Arclight member, you save a buck per ticket if you buy your tickets online.

Wow. I didn't think they could possibly charge more. Wow.

As I recall, they charged an additional "convenience fee" if you bought your tix online.

And do they still charge for parking? They were charging $2 extra for parking.

I should say, they charged $2 for "VALIDATED" parking... :roll eyes:

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 02-09-2012, 02:20 AM:

It's no wonder the theatre business, as a whole, is suffering. Between the exorbitant ticket prices, ridiculous concession prices, typically rude staffing, even ruder patrons.... it's a wonder anyone goes to the theatre anymore.. It certainly can't be for the modern "experience" they are getting. It's sad. Very sad.

Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 02-09-2012, 09:11 AM:

Actually, the theatre business as a whole is not suffering. Breaking 2011 down week by week in comparison to 2010, one notices that the second, third and fourth quarters of 2011 saw higher attendance than 2010. The only quarter that was off was the first quarter, and the only reason why that was off? No Avatar-like holdover. Cameron's movie made 2/3 of its gross in the first quarter of 2011.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 02-09-2012, 09:29 AM:

What if we examine long-term change? How does the industry look compared to, say, the 1980's? My gut tells me that more people went to the movies back then. I know I did. And I felt better about the overall experience back then.

Posted by Jonathan Althaus (Member # 5042) on 02-09-2012, 09:50 AM:

I went to buy 10 tickets for a midnight 3d show in a premium format.....$152.50, but then i remembered I'm a corporate employee and got them for $0

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 02-09-2012, 10:08 AM:

^ heehee - that's funny

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-09-2012, 10:56 AM:

quote: Manny Knowles
What if we examine long-term change? How does the industry look compared to, say, the 1980's?

Here are the stats from the NATO website. Note that this is # of admissions, not dollars. Edward is right, the sky is not falling. The media just loves to say it is.

It would be nice if we could get back to the figures of the early 2000s, but there is a lot more competition for the leisure dollar (and leisure time) now than there was then, and if you figure in the crap economy and the crap movies we've had lately, plus the shrinking window, plus presentation and audience problems in SOME (not all) cinemas, none of this is surprising.

Year Admissions
2010 1.339
2009 1.414
2008 1.341
2007 1.4
2006 1.401
2005 1.376
2004 1.484
2003 1.521
2002 1.57
2001 1.438
2000 1.383
1999 1.440
1998~ 1.438
1997 1.354
1996 1.319
1995 1.211
1994 1.240
1993 1.182
1992† 1.099
1991 1.14
1990 1.19
1989 1.26
1988 1.08
1987 1.09

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 02-09-2012, 11:19 AM:

Okay. Interesting to know that more people are buying tickets than in the 80s. But there are also more screens, aren't there?

What would these "overall" numbers look like if the per screen averages remained constant?

What I'm getting at is that I've sat almost totally alone in theatres a lot in recent years. And it doesn't seem to matter if I'm in a "big city" like Los Angeles, or a small college town like Bloomington, IN. The industry *appears* to be under-performing somehow.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-09-2012, 12:03 PM:

quote: Manny Knowles
I've sat almost totally alone in theatres a lot in recent years. And it doesn't seem to matter if I'm in a "big city" like Los Angeles, or a small college town like Bloomington, IN.

I think the reason for that is the huge emphasis placed on the opening weekend these days. They front-load the movies so much that nobody has trouble getting a seat in the early days, leading to near-empty auditoriums in the subsequent weeks.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 02-09-2012, 12:12 PM:

Yes, I could agree with that.

But it means that even though admission numbers have remained more-or-less stable, the cinemas do not benefit as much as they once did, due to the fact that most of the revenue is earned during the period in which the distributor earns the lion's share of box office receipts.

...or has that "sliding scale" been re-worked..?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-09-2012, 04:01 PM:

Well a lot of the studios now use this "sliding aggregate" scale where the rental percentage is based on how much the final gross is. I like it better, since we only play movies for two or three weeks max, it lowers the film rent for us. One of the few times a small place gets a break.

Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 02-09-2012, 05:10 PM:

I just noticed I typed 2011 instead of 2010 when I was talking about Avatar grosses. Sorry about that.

If you notice the NATO admission numbers, you'll also notice theatrical admissions continued to grow in the 1980s and 1990s, even though more distractions were being thrown our way, with the Internet and more cable channels and more video gaming systems and cell phones. And they continued to grow well in to the early 2000s, topping off in 2002.

Now, compare that to the video release window. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, one had to wait seven months or more for a movie to be released on home video. Even in 2000, the average release window for all major distributors was five months and sixteen days. But year by year, that window started shrinking, and as of 2010, the last full year of statistics, the release window was at four months and ten days.

Here are the average release windows for the 2000s, according to NATO:
2000: 5 months 16 days
2001: 5 months 12 days
2002: 5 months 8 days
2003: 4 months 27 days
2004: 4 months 20 days
2005: 4 months 18 days
2006: 4 months 11 days
2007: 4 months 19 days
2008: 4 months 14 days
2009: 4 months 11 days
2010: 4 months 10 days

Release window shrinks, movie theatre attendance shrinks.

There's one your culprits, in simple black and white.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-09-2012, 07:36 PM:

quote: Edward Havens
you'll also notice theatrical admissions continued to grow in the 1980s and 1990s, even though more distractions were being thrown our way, with the Internet and more cable channels and more video gaming systems and cell phones. And they continued to grow well in to the early 2000s, topping off in 2002.

Even in 2000, the vast majority of consumers were using dial-up for access the Internet. Its influence on movie theaters at that time was pretty small, although larger in the absolutely most technologically advanced cities.

Posted by Michael Riley (Member # 5693) on 02-10-2012, 12:19 AM:

Just to add, Regal recently instituted a chain wide policy chain where matinee ends at 4PM. I know some NYC area locations don't do matinee on the weekends or holidays at all.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-10-2012, 01:10 AM:

That's more or less making them like AMC. AMC has, for many years, done it where the evening price kicks in at 4:00.

But apparently when I worked there, I didn't notice that the corporate people still haven't figured out how matinee/evening works.

It used to be that the pricing said that the adult ticket was for "After 4:00 pm" so people would periodically complain that 4 pm should be matinee (since apparently 4:00 isn't after 4:00). Well, now to fix that, they've changed the pricing to say that matinee is for "Before 3:55 pm" and "After 4:00 pm" with 3:55 and 4 pm shows in some sort of no-man's-land.

Posted by Maybelline Cabrera (Member # 4495) on 02-11-2012, 10:46 PM:

Our theater started the different pricing for weekends a year or two ago, I think. I'm not sure if any of our other theaters are doing the same thing. But an adult ticket costs 50 cents more on Friday and Saturday evenings. Everything else retain their respective pricing throughout the week.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 02-12-2012, 01:43 PM:

The AMC's here in Bloomington charge $5 for shows Monday-Thursday all day, and shows with start times before noon on Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

Of course, their presentation quality is hit-or-miss -- especially the 35mm shows. Even so, I do find myself "going out" to see a movie more frequently here, compared to when I lived in Southern California.

I guess, for me, what it amounts to is this: If I'm going to pay for an overpriced ticket in a major city, I'm going to expect perfection -- and I never EVER got that level of excellence anywhere in Los Angeles. As a moviegoer, I'm more tolerable of presentation flaws when I haven't overpaid.

Do I see the flaws? Yes. Do I wish they weren't there? Yes. Do I want to take over the booth and fix things? Yes.

Do I get so angry that I write letters of protest/complaint to the management? No.

Can I still enjoy the movie? Yes. Is it because of the reasonable ticket price? Yes.

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 02-12-2012, 02:29 PM:

“So if you want to get people to go out to the movies, to pay a premium price for some kind of premium experience, it better be damned premium. It better be extraordinary.”

Doug Trumbull.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-12-2012, 09:54 PM:

Here's a Carmike price list from one of their Montana plexes. I always thought we were being too complicated with four ticket prices, but maybe not:

Ticket Pricing:
Adult (Fri-Sat): $10.00
Adult (Sun-Thurs): $9.75
Senior (65-older): $6.50
Additional 3D Surcharge: $3.00
Matinee Mon-Thur: $7.00
BigD Matinee, Adult: $9.00
BigD Evening, Adult: $12.00
BigD Child: $9.25
Super Bargain (4-5:30pm): $5.50
Child (Fri-Sat Ages 3-11): $7.25
Child (Sun-Thurs Ages 3-11): $7.00
Matinee (Fri-Sat): $7.50