I feel ill as I calculate the cost. On a fixed income…there is no way that anyone can afford the ‘extras’ at the movies. Perhaps they can give us seniors a discount at the consession stand as well?????

I also suppose if I was to bring my own pop and popcorn I would be forbidden to go any further than the ‘ticket taker’!!!

I think it is terrible the amount that this franchise charges at their consession stand. Something HAS to be done….in the name of those who don’t bring in $14,000 a year and want to have a ‘nite out on the town’!!

The rest goes on to a sliding scale. Where as in week one the theater gives 80% of the ticket revenue, in week two and three it will drop to 70%, and so on. The longer a movie is out the less of a take is made by the distributors. That is why dicount houses can charge 2.00-3.00 and still sometimes come out with more profit. The only time a theatre is making huge ticket price profit is when a movie has legs or picks up as it plays. Forrest Gump is an example here. Or sometimes after an academy award a movie will get a nice bump like with Amadeus.

Now as to prices. A lot of the high ticket prices is fueled by the industry. Say you own theater A and have a price of 8 with a 5 first matinee. Brings your total average ticket price with discounts, seniors, etc to say 6.75. Then take theater B who charges 10.75 , etc with an average ticket price of say 9.50. If you are the distributor who gets the movie? Especially when you factor in the higher opening percentages?

Also many times theatre companies will negoatiate a price for ALL of their locations or for entire areas. AVG ticket price takes into account the regions. That is why you see similar prices among an entire region and by a company.

Concession prices are VERY high I agree however that is where the company makes almost ALL its profit. Believe me the profit margin on theatres to make money is very small when all is factored in.

So while I bemoan the high prices to see a movie the fault lies with the industry as a whole. Unfortunately the industry is ran and controlled by distributors.

The “concession companies” ARE the movie theatres. They sell their own crap or they lease out space to recognized chains to put up mini stands. Which they also get a cut of the profits from.

The studios/distribution co’s charge a flat fee for screening and a small percentage of ticket prices.

Cinemas set the prices and its unjustifiably beyond the cost of running their business.

How come everyone is so angry with the theaters but no one is angry with the studios and/or distribution companies? Are they so big that we are forgetting where all our money lies? Dear author, Where did your $14 dollars go? 80% went to the Studio.. a slice maybe went to the independent middleman who who arranged the screening. The price of concessions went to the cost of building the theater, utilities, equipment and maintenance, the cost of LEASING the actual films, and the cost of paying their employees.

Concession companies could have provided the theater with 25-50,000 dollars to build a new screen. In that case they would receive 1/2 of sales at concessions.

Don’t blame the movie theaters. Fight the big dogs!

You wanna know how we’re gonna win? Remember these initials, baby!

ctm

LOL

And here’s a link to a site that is trying to fight commercials in movie theaters: CaptiveAudience.org.

Vic

The best way to save cash is to talk to one of the pushover managers and make a mundane complaint so they’ll be bullied into giving you a “yellow pass” (one free movie, also known as a guest service pass, courtesy pass, etc.). Complain about barf on the seats, the obnoxious teens next to you, whatever. Milk it for all it’s worth. Hope your next visit goes a little better.

Like others said before, the first two weeks the theater gets about 2% of ticket sales. All of their income is from the concessions and commercials.

Another thing most people don’t realize is that on weekends in the summer the theaters are crowded. But when I worked today for example, I literally ripped about 6-8 tickets an hour (I’m an usher). There is simply no way the theater is not losing thousands of dollars on days like this. My managers keep cutting everyone’s hours, and many times we don’t have nearly enough people working. They keep saying that the head office says we’re spending to much.

I think the studios need to stop taking so much money, and then wasting millions of it on famous people that can’t act and stupid movies that don’t make any money. I think Hollywood is the biggest wasters of money in the world.

But I guess nothing is going to change as long as people will pay. I would say people should start downloading more movies untill Hollywood learns how to spend less, but that would just make movies not profitable and then nobody would make good ones. Because for some reason the producers absolutely must have Tom Cruise, and for some reason Tom Cruise absolutely must have 50 million dollars.