hairlesswookiee
PALPATINE CRUSADER!!!!
Most definitely. The Dark Knight is another one of those movies that is awesome on Blu Ray, but not as awesome as it was in the theater.
Are movie pricing themselves out?
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Most definitely. The Dark Knight is another one of those movies that is awesome on Blu Ray, but not as awesome as it was in the theater.
ProgMatinee
circlesendwheretheybegin
i never knew that theaters didn't make money off of the actual film. thats ludicrous! imagine if walmart only made money if you stopped in their snack bar... wtf?
Well, retailers do have similar tactics. Wal-Mart advertises and sells things that it doesn't make big profits on, hoping that folks will buy some of the other crap that costs them a lot less during their trips to pick those specific items up. Black Friday as a concept is built on that idea. Obviously, the analogy isn't a perfect one, because movie theaters ostensibly exist to show people movies, but the point is that businesses don't always make money in the ways that initially seem most straight-forward.
ProgMatinee
circlesendwheretheybegin
yeah...places like Best Buy offer CDs cheap to entice you to come in and buy a refrigerator or tv.
theaters? i always think of them as in the business of showing movies and food was just a second thought
so how does this work? if Regal upped their ticket prices by 25 cents does that mean the 25 cents have to go to the studio? or if the theater only sold 5 tickets to a movie at 10 pm they only have to send the studio $50? i don't understand, how would a studio enforce the accounting of that?
why wouldn't a theater just charge $1 to get in if thats all they would have to send to the studio per person?
theaters? i always think of them as in the business of showing movies and food was just a second thought
so how does this work? if Regal upped their ticket prices by 25 cents does that mean the 25 cents have to go to the studio? or if the theater only sold 5 tickets to a movie at 10 pm they only have to send the studio $50? i don't understand, how would a studio enforce the accounting of that?
why wouldn't a theater just charge $1 to get in if thats all they would have to send to the studio per person?
The Craw
Super Freak
i'm sure there is a minimum price and the slight fluctuation from theater to theater is just profit for the theater itself.
ProgMatinee
circlesendwheretheybegin
"minimum price" for tix? or per showing or per screen?
if its per ticket why wouldn't a theater just lie to the studio about the number of tix sold?
if its per ticket why wouldn't a theater just lie to the studio about the number of tix sold?
Nope. It's a revenue share. The studio gets a percentage of the ticket price. That percentage lowers across time, but few modern movies last long enough for theaters to benefit from that. Studios also lay down all sorts of conditions on top of that, which is why you'll sometimes see notices prohibiting the use of coupons etc.
Theaters are audited on a fairly routine basis. The real penalty is a blacklist for blockbusters, which in turn affects your ability to draw a crowd and sell concessions. The screening industry is basically a studio shakedown, which is one of the reasons why the kind of mom and pop theaters you saw Raiders of the Lost Ark in don't exist anymore.
ProgMatinee
circlesendwheretheybegin
wow. thats a bad business to be in. no wonder even big chains are in financial trouble.
DinoDB1975
Super Freak
Jumping in on the tail end of this thread and I haven't read the earlier posts beyond the recent ones, but this is correct. I worked for a theater chain in management while in college over 15 years ago, and the theater chains do not make their money on ticket sales. Their profit is in concession sales. Additionally, the movie studios basically rule with an iron fist. If you wanted a certain movie, you had to agree to the stipulations set by the distributing studio. For example (and I'm making this up for the sake of argument), ABC theater chain wanted to carry Avatar. Fox comes back and says, ok, we'll let you show Avatar in your chain, but you need to show them on X screens total. Oh also, you have to agree to show (enter name of under performing film of your choice). That's why you se some chains carrying certain films and others that don't.
Theaters should give away popcorn, then. It would work like pretzels at a bar--everyone would be compelled to pay whatever the theater wanted to for a drink.
I have had suspicions for a long time that my local theater intentionally keeps the water in the fountain warm to convince people to buy a soft drink for $7 or whatever. I could swear that I tasted salt in the water fountain at some places. . .
I have had suspicions for a long time that my local theater intentionally keeps the water in the fountain warm to convince people to buy a soft drink for $7 or whatever. I could swear that I tasted salt in the water fountain at some places. . .
Why would they do that? They're already not making money on tickets, and popcorn is the top sales item aside from soda. It's also got outrageous margins, which helps them meet their overhead when most of your expensive Avatar ticket is being kicked back to the studios.
LOTRFan
The Grey Pilgrim
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My two earliest theatre memories are of Peter Pan and Return of the Jedi; and yeah, it is the best to be able to pass that on to our kids. Kids however are part of the problem, having to find a damn sitter everytime I want to catch a flick.
That's the killer. Sample conversation:
Cinema: We want to carry Big Explosions 2.
Studio: Okay, but you'll also have to carry Unfunny Comedy for four weeks.
Cinema: But that movie won't survive opening weekend. I'll lose one of my four screens for four solid weeks, which means a 25% hit to concessions for a month!
Studio: Don't worry about Big Explosions 2, because you're not getting Big Explosions 3, either.
Because the customers would then buy more soda. Much, much more soda. So much that it would make their current soda + popcorn sales pale in comparison. Like I said--same reason you get free pretzels at bars.
LOTRFan
The Grey Pilgrim
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Really, I thought that The Dark Knight was horribly mixed; the Blu got it all wrong, esp the dialogue.
I can see your logic, but I don't think it applies in this situation. Most people don't leave a screening once the lights go down. You buy more drinks at the bar because you're already where the drinks are. On top of that, most places put the fountains outside the concession stand, which means refills are free. There's no reason to keep people thirsty in that set up - it actually works against your bottom line!
Yeah, but like I said, the water is always warm in the fountains where I go to see the movies (intentionally so, I would bet). And if you get free, salty popcorn, you are gonna get up to drink something, even if the movie already started. Sure, you could keep getting that warm, salty water, but it is so much easier to just pay the $15 for a bucket of soda. I really think this would be a good marketing strategy for theaters to try out. Maybe it wouldn't work, but I bet it would.
Only thing is--they would have to crack down on security to make sure no one was sneaking sodas into the theater.
Voorhees27
Super Freak
Isn't it true that movie theatres make next to nothing on ticket admission? If thats the case then i'd sell crap (that costs almost nothing to make) for ridiculous prices too.
I love going to the movies. When I do, I don't buy ____!
I love going to the movies. When I do, I don't buy ____!
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