Greedheads
I’m not understanding the specifics behind the higher-ticket-prices-for-3D-movies story. I paid $14 to see Avatar in 3D at the AMC 34th Street and the Lincoln Square. If prices for 3D films at Regal, Cinemark and AMC theatres are going up (“in one case as much as 26%,” according to a 3.25 Wall Street Journal story), does this mean they intend to charge…what, $17.50 or something?
The WSJ headline says “movie chains are [seeking] to cash in on consumers’ willingness to pay.” Isn’t $14 high in itself? What has happened to provoke this other than a decision to rake as much dough as possible? Is the idea to somehow kill or diminish audience interest in 3D?
Guess Avatar was more of a game changer than we realized.
I guess this only matters in NYC & LA. Even tickets in Vegas look reasonable in comparison.
I’m not sure what kind of movie it’ll take for me to plunk down $14 for a 3D ticket. Not CLASH OF THE TITANS, that’s for damn sure.
Looking over the 3D ticket prices here in Dallas, I haven’t noticed the hike. To see How to Train Your Dragon, it’s $10.50 for a matinee and $12.50 for an evening ticket.
It cost $18.50 to see Avatar in 3-D at the CineramaDome on a weekend night.
Pure greed. It’s the same impulse as the music industry, where the big record companies did all they could to get apple to raise their prices on iTunes for no other reason except to make up for the decline in cd sales.
This is ridiculous. I won’t pay to see the movies upconverted to 3-D in post. The only one of the next batch I’ll pay 3D prices for is “How To Train Your Dragons”…. definitely WILL NOT PAY for “Robin Hood” or “Clash of the Titans” in 3D
You know, as much as I admired the 3-D in Coraline and Avatar, its effect on my enjoyment of the movie experience was negligible. Maybe someday 3-D will holographically immerse us into that movie’s world, but for now…meh.
The 3-D in the corporate contrivance, Alice, to me it made the dumb numbness of it even worse.
Greed is bad.
What has happened to provoke this other than a decision to rake as much dough as possible?
Why would you expect a theatre to not want to rake as much dough as possible?
Im glad Cameron and Ebert are speaking out against studios recent hijacking of 3D technology. It was only a matter of time before Hollywood showed its true intention in forcing this gimmick into zombies households so to attract such said zombies into theaters despite quality of film. Im not yet sold on this new technique, AVATAR certainly was enhanced by the process but stood alone as great film and also years of work was placed into properly converting scenes; this current rush for post production 3D effects will do more harm to the failing industry. Hopefully this price hike will wake people up to the scam.
but the theater doesn’t rack in the dough from the first two weekends of a film. this is all going back to the distributor.
what’s going to be interesting is if there’s a rise in head lice thanks to barely sanitized 3-D glasses.
This makes life simple: 1 3-D movie ticket = 3 out at a time Netflix monthly membership.
Great. This will pretty much guarantee that every theatrically released movie from now on will be a 3D, big budget, CGI-fest.
No longer movies as much as theme-park “thrill rides”, and I don’t mean that in a good way.
I’ve brought it up here before and I’ll bring it up again. I WILL beat this dead horse…… WHY NOT MOVE TOWARDS FLOATING TICKET COSTS???
If you go to a record store, (and still buy those things called “CD”s,) you’ll find that the new bullshit, big-label crap from Mariah Carey, Jonas Bros, etc. will be priced around $18.99, because the peeps are dumb enough to pay.
Meanwhile, indie labels will be selling stuff by the likes of BRMC, Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura, etc. will be priced around ten bucks. Makes it more likely you’ll take a chance on something not shoved down your throat.
Charge $20 for “Clash of the Bullshit 3D”…. but then charge, maybe $7.50 for something like “Adventureland” or “Greenburg”.
Eh?
Eh?
Anybody?
Meanwhile, indie labels will be selling stuff by the likes of BRMC, Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura, etc. will be priced around ten bucks.
Because that stuff sucks.
MILEY POWER.
Seriously though, I kinda get what you’re saying, but who then decides what’s a 7.50 movie and what’s a 19-dollar movie? Rather than be enticed by the 7.50 to pay for “An Education,” wouldn’t most casual viewers see, eh, it’s some cheaply-priced thing, not worth my time? But then when it blows up and gets nominated, does the price get hiked? Is Hurt Locker a 7.50 movie because it’s low-budget, or is an expensive-ticket movie because it’s awesome? An since tiny movies like Greenberg or Girlfriend Experience are never, let’s face it, going to attract people in droves, would YOU want the faithful viewers to pay less?
Cheaper ticket prices for smaller movies would probably hurt the small movies more than the high prices would discourage people from seeing Clash of the Titans. Sure, if Del Taco advertises something like “39 CENT TACOS!” everybody comes running, but I don’t think “39 CENT BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX!” is ever going to be an enticing proposition for the hoi polli.
If anything, they should charge 20 bucks to see the indie stuff.
It’s a good idea, Travis, but what’s to stop everyone from buying the $7.50 tickets & sneaking into the $17.50 shows? Theaters will never spring for the necessary security.
Travis: I read a very detailed article a couple years back concerning exactly what you’re proposing — it’s still online. Arizona Daily Star, Sunday, January 6, 2007. In short the bottleneck for any change as you propose is theater owners fear of upsetting the distributors.
Business as usual, eh?
Lex, if this isn’t the story of your life I don’t know what is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-PMkHoHgBU
While this trend is certainly deplorable, I do think it’s worth pointing out that no article has actually specified where that phantom 26% number is coming from — the initial quote being “in one location”, morphing to “by up to” as the game of telephone continues. The original Variety source mentions the 26% number without specifics, and none of the specifics they offer are anywhere near 26%. The actual average is under 10%.
Present price in my area, (2,000 mi. from NYC): AMC eve. adult $9.75, add $4.00 for 3-D; Harkins eve. adult $9.50, add $3.00 for 3-D.
One hidden aspect of the rush to 3d is that these films are virtually impossible to pirate. For this reason alone, all major blockbusters will be released exclusively in 3d format in the not too distant future.
Oh, well, if it puts these chains closer to the path of irrelevancy when the studios start legally streaming this shit at the same time, I’m all for it.
Dave: Because the economy still sucks, and Avatar is an anomaly?
nodirect: Avatar was an average film, and I’ve seen more behind-the-scenes footage tours at Universal Studios which were more groundbreaking than it.
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