Theaters have been doing that for as long as I can remember. They’ll sell tickets for less during the day when they don’t otherwise have a lot of customers and charge more in the evenings when more people want to go to movies.
But this isn’t an example of that. Nobody is going to pay fifty dollars just because the time is convenient.
This strikes me as the theater trying to turn movie tickets into pseudo-luxury items. They’re testing the market to see if people are gullible to pay premium prices for a non-premium product. Tell people something costs fifty dollars and some people will be dumb enough to believe it must be worth fifty dollars - even if they know they can get the exact same thing someplace else for ten dollars.
If it was a very limited release of a new epic with sweeping vistas that just demanded to be seen on the big screen and not at home, and if it was on a topic that really, really interested me, yes.
Does it come with a steak and a blow job? If not, no. I am not even willing to pay $10 for a ticket. $5 is about the most I’ll pay. Other than that, I’ll wait.
We have Five Dollar Tuesdays here* (and Five Dollar Student/Teacher Thursdays), and all the theaters have renovated to add bigger screens, awesome sound and leather recliners (except the Sundance theater, which is quaint).
*(Madison, WI… so you have to balance that against the months of snow…)
I could possibly imagine a set of circumstances that would entice me to spend $50 on a movie ticket. But only if the movie is far better than the ones studios have been putting out recently. And I’m not (just) talking about amenities. I have a nice couch, home theater system, 4K big screen in my living room. And I don’t mind waiting to see a movie, so exclusivity alone won’t get me there.
I recently saw “They Shall Not Grow Old” in a limited run at the theater. It cost $30 for two tickets. They have fancy lazy boy recliners now that recline with the push of a button. The snacks were about the same price as you’d expect, but I didn’t have to share a cup holder with the guy in the next seat, so I could put my soda in one cup holder and my milk duds in the other. Stadium seating means I don’t have to worry about tall guys with hats sitting in front of me. I’m impressed with how much theaters have done in the last few years to compete with people’s living rooms.
But I still can’t pause the movie and go to the bathroom. I still can’t invite a bunch of my friends over to watch a movie for free the way I can at home. I can’t rewind to catch a bit of dialogue I missed. The last movie I saw before that was “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” on its 70th anniversary. In fact, it’s been several years since I just went and watched a movie at the theater. Before that Bogart film, I think the last movie I saw was “The Hateful Eight” in 70mm. So I can appreciate “big event” type movies with something special to offer, once in a while.
But all those movies were regular price at around $15. I can’t see much that could make me pay over three times that amount. Maybe if there was a live score by somebody like The Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra? I saw “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth” once and the director had a Q&A with the audience afterwards. Something like that might get me to pay more if it were the right director. Maybe if it were a set of pictures, a serial, like a TV show, and buying one $50 ticket allowed me to see all three installments at my convenience over the next few weeks. Speaking of serials, maybe I’d pay $50 if they recreated the 1940s era “all day movie pass” with a bunch of shorts, some cartoons, maybe some news, and a couple features. Perhaps I’d pay if it were a “people with money pay $50, and we let a bunch of less fortunate people in who otherwise couldn’t afford to see a movie” deal, say for disadvantaged kids or the homeless.
So I could just barely see where I might possibly be drawn to a $50 motion picture event. But for the vast majority of films, most of the time, no way.
I didn’t vote beacause, to me, it’s not a strictly black or white. I would not pay $50.00 just for a comfortable seat to watch a new movie. But, the last three times I went to the movies, it cost me between $30.00 and $40.00 dollars per person. That included the cost of the ticket(with assigned seating,) food, and dessert and/or adult beverages.
All of them were at The Studio Movie Grill and one of them was literally a once in a lifetime event (Muse: Drones World Tour concert film.)
There’s a big difference between paying for a movie and paying for an overall experience.
