I was planning to see a movie tomorrow, so I checked the movie listings. One of the theaters near me had a listing for a Tamil language film starring the astonishingly beautiful Aishwarya Rai and with music by A. R. Rahman. I thought “Cool, I’ll go see that.” Then I checked the ticket prices.
$18?!? In Kansas City, at 1:00 PM on a Monday? What the hell!
Are they on drugs? Is this a mistake? Has this film opened anywhere else, or are the filmmakers convinced that people will pay that amount?
Out of curiosity, I looked up theaters in LA, and the only theater showing it is Big Cinemas Norwalk 8 and indeed it is $18. Salt, on the other hand is $2.50, so I have no idea what is going on here.
Supply and demand.
This seems to be a HUGE hit in Asia, and so pretty much anyone with an interest in Indian film is going to want to see, to the point where they will be willing to pay extra.
But that particular demographic is rather limited in America, so studios are not going to be able to use high volumes to make their money. They’ll have to rely on higher prices.
So, let me make sure I have this straight:
In India, it is massively popular, thus they can charge more.
In America, it is far less popular, thus they can charge more.
It’s the Invisible Hand of economics! Seriously, the demand is very high among the schmucks in the US who want to see it.
That came out wrong. Anyone in America with an interest is Indian film is going to want to see it, because it is generating so much buzz. They will want to see it so badly they will pay extra. Studios will want to make as much money as possible, but they have a limited audience to do so with. This means they have to be willing to charge high prices, where normally they would not want to risk the goodwill that inflated ticket prices would cost them.
A limited but fanatical audience is the perfect condition for higher prices.
Well, even though I love Bollywood films, enjoy the music of A.R. Rahman and think Aishwarya Rai is one of the most beautiful women to ever walk the face of the Earth, I won’t see it in the theater.
This sort of shit must *not *be encouraged. One of the best things about the movies is that every film costs me the same. I see a movie that cost $50,000 to make or a film that cost $50,000,000 to make, the ticket price is the same. And that is exactly as it should be.
I saw them filming on location at Machu Picchu when I visited there a couple of years ago. </tangent>
Photo I probably wasn’t supposed to take:
And another one:
And another one:
I went to a movie theatre in Rochester, NY last night. They were showing Endhiran in another theatre and it was the same $18 ticket price.