Doubtless this differs from theater to theater. At the one I go to most often there is always someone checking a ticket. It is before the stairs that lead you up to where all the theaters are. Once past that person they seem to not care at all how long you stay and what movies you walk into. No one checks.
Indeed, I have never had it where no one checks the ticket before letting you in. Apparently some places don’t even want to do that much.
For what my personal experience is worth, the only places I’ve seen checking tickets (phone or paper) are either for a limited seating “event”, or the few remaining theaters that have general, not assigned seating. Otherwise, for assigned seating places, have not been checked at all.
General seating places seem to be more empty than the assigned seating place, but that may be biased, as almost all the things we do are assigned seating/events (like the upcoming MST3k event next month).
And we’re almost always going to the local dine-in theater with the linked arcade, gastropub, alcohol sections. Next month we have not only the MST3k at the alternate “big” theater, but 9/7, 9/14, 9/21 special event showings of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with themed menu and drinks, raffles and giveaways.
Honestly, I think such things (We’ve done similar with Spaceballs, The Mummy, and a few others) are really good opportunities for theaters. Lower costs for a big screen experience, old enough movies that it shouldn’t be challenging cost wise (and digital anyway) and appealing to the last few generations of in-movie watchers reliving movies they love.
The LOTR movies were (checks digital ticket) only $6.95 each before tax and (sigh) the $1.70 per ticket service charge I mentioned earlier. So, maybe half the price of a ticket to a recent release.
In the multiplexes near me the old seats have been torn out and replaced with half as many recliners. Not only are they more comfortable, they also put you twice as far away from other potentially germy audience members. Another feature is that it is possible for someone in the middle of the aisle to go to the restroom or concession stand without significantly disturbing half a row of people. The downside is the price of tickets is about a third more than pre-pandemic.
I like buying the ticket online so I can choose my preferred seat (middle of the row and midway up the theater). If only bad seats are available, I might opt for another showing.
Rarely I have bought the ticket at the box office but the screen is hard to see. And I have the Cinemark Movie Club so I don’t pay online fees and I get one free ticket each month.
I had dinner at the local Movie Theater Grill once. After my plate was served in the dark, I had to immediately get out my phone & shine a little light on it – how would you know if there was a hair or fingernail or worse in your food? The experience was actually kind of creepy.
That is correct, and while I expected the small audience size for an early midweek showing, the lack of any visible employees was the real shocker. And since it happened twice, it seems to be SOP and not just a temporary staffing fluke.
Yeah. I don’t go often but have been to the Camino Real and the Metro 4 downtown. They still make you show a ticket at the door and the seem to be mostly poorly attended showing in progressively more grubby surroundings. The only good theaters at the new SBIFF facilities on the Riviera and Downtown, but they mostly show art films. But the are cutting edge in comfort and tech.
I remember when this was a standard bit in every other stand-up comic’s routine about fine dining (along with “they keep the lighting low so you can’t see how small the portions are!” 
).
Seems a bit low for tix bought online. Can you give me link? Or did you ask Google AI?
(In another thread I asked if "I asked Google" means “I asked Google AI” or "I did a search on google and found this cite."*
I don’t remember a consensus answer. To me at least there is a big difference so it’s nice to know.
*specifically on the SDMB
I found that very hard to believe so I also Googled and that data is from 2019. It appears to be the exact opposite now with online sales being the vast majority.
In 2023 it was 67%. It would only have increased since then.
I asked Google “What proportion of tickets for movie theaters in the U.S. are bought online and what proportion are bought at the movie theater?” It said that 75% are at the movie theater and 25% are online. It appears that the most recent information that it could find was from 2019. The website that Eyebrows_of_Doom quotes says that the proportion bought online has greatly increased. Can anyone quote an actual survey in which they ask most moviegoers or most movie theaters for their statistics? It would be nice if we had really precise statistics. Clearly it’s not sufficient to talk about what you and your friends do and what you local movie theater does.
I would suggest a problem, these days, with buying a ticket at the theater is you probably do not know what seat you are going to get.
Most first-run theaters these days (at least by me in a very large city) have all assigned seating. When online buying you get a map of the theater you chose showing the seating arrangement. You can then choose which seats you want. If you prefer aisle or center or closer or back or just the best of what’s left you can see it on the map (it shows already sold seats).
If you buy at the ticket counter how can you choose the seats you want unless you really know that theater well?
Also, now your tickets are on your phone in a QR code (probably). No losing tickets (unless you lose your phone but that is less likely and a MUCH bigger problem).
I can’t remember the last time I bought a movie ticket at the theater. Many years now.
I know the theaters I go to very well.
I was less worried about nonfood things being in my food and more annoyed because I couldn’t see where the jalapenos or the sour cream were.
And, because of recliner, I couldn’t sit up enough over my plate to keep from dropping food on my shirt.
When I did this, years ago, the ticket seller showed me the screen showing the available seats. Not as easy to see as at home on my computer screen or my smartphone screen.
Sports stadiums have solved this problem decades ago. They have a paper map of the stadium taped to the box office window. Stadiums being huge, it just shows the sections. But within each section the seller can say “I have aisles up high or centers down low. Which do you want?”
Not quite as nice as a zoomable pannable seat-by-seat map you can now get online. But adequate to let an in-person buyer make an informed selection. Easy enough for a much smaller theater to do the same.
I’ve not been to the movies since forever. But all this talk about seats, foods, tickets, prices, etc., has me wanting to make an experiment / take one for the team at my local IPIC. Which I have heard is quite nice. Problem being I’m suffering from whatever crud is going around and I can’t go 5 minutes without coughing, snuffling, or blowing nose. Uggh! Which would be impolite in a theater. Maybe next week …
I think that’s standard now for assigned seats you purchase at the window. Here, not only do they show the screen (on a swivel) but you select the seats by touching the screen yourself.
Probably for the best. That way if the customer complains, they can point out that the customer chose the seat themselves.
I was against assigned seating at first, because “that’s not the way we always did it!” [pout]
But now I don’t care. Mostly because I only go during the week. When I went to my most recent theater showing (not The Manchurian Candidate which was a special showing), I was the only one in the theater. And i barely saw anyone in the common areas. But they did check my ticket.
As a matter of fact, at Harkins, on the slower times, they keep the outside box office closed, and you walk in to the customer service window and buy your ticket there. And then just go on in, because they know you’re not sneaking in.
I feel sad like something is passing, never to return. Detting a job in a theater was always a good entry level job. What are kids supposed to do to learn how to be an adult now?
The Manchurian Candidate was at Tempe’s Majestic theater, which is a retro-classic theater which brings food to your seat. But! It is standard to scan a QR code and have a phone ap to order your food. Damn this pervasive ‘you need an ap for that’ world in which we live in.
The best thing about assigned seating is that it doesn’t allow you to leave just one seat between you and a stranger. I remember the bad old days when you brought a date to a sold out show and potentially had to sit apart because every group left one seat empty between them and any other person or group. Now there is no reason to get there ridiculously early and save a place in line.
I’ve been to two different cinemas recently. One was an AMC multiplex that had an IMAX screen that I went to in order to see The Odyssey. They had reserved seats that I bought in advance online.
But my normal theater that I go to is a non-chain theater with six screens that still does things the old-fashioned way. No online purchasing and no assigned seats. I greatly prefer it. I want to be able to pick my seat and move if necessary, like if someone sits directly in front of me. They also only show ten minutes of ads and trailers instead of 30 minutes at the AMC theater.