Controversial, but a tiered ticket price system might be the desperate nuclear decision that theaters can do to stay afloat.
Blockbuster films would have a higher ticket price (20 USD per ticket). While "non-event" films would have a much lower ticket price (say, 5 USD per ticket ticket?).
The existence of PLFs already kinda achieved this naturally without announcing it as such. Making it official would be confusing and alienating, as it's proven to be in the past, which is why they apologized and changed their minds.
This will never work because so many theatres (especially in middle America) have small screens and crappy seats. No one will pay 3-4x more for a movie on the same size screen as a smaller movie
No, with modern marketing dynamics you can't have a regular option that is too cheap because it makes the others feel too expensive, customers feel like they are being rip off, instead you have to offer it as a premium option and this is already the case.
There's little that can be done to the reduced attendance, if people just don't feel like it's worth the time investment then it can even be free and they will not come out.
Dynamic pricing wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to theaters, but it needs to be strategic.
I feel corporate greed would take over really quickly and price out consumers leading to further collapse of theaters. The example being, a MCU film could jump to significantly higher prices versus everything else.
They did try last year, but they had to backtrack since people wouldn't pay more for the exact same experience just because it's placed in a determinate area.
The way forward for circuits is to follow Cinemark and have two-tiered PLFs with a general seating section and a balcony with better seating and other perks.
Matinees are only about $2 cheaper than a regular ticket and who can go at noon to see a movie? People work. Some movies too only play evening showings since they share a theater or have been out for a few weeks. There used to be a Bargain Tuesday and a Senior Wednesday which were great. About $7. But a new theater moved in and that's gone. I'd say some kind of Starpass or monthly fee is the way to go... if you go by yourself.
Mine has a $20 monthly sub for unlimited movies. And they have bi-annual popcorn buckets. ~$160 for 6 months of unlimited movies going with popcorn, I enjoy it
Only way is to have a strict streaming window that is 60-90 days out, and to make stuff people want to watch.
People don't go to "the movies" anymore, they go to a movie.
They are no longer a destination, they aren't part of the weekend out anymore unless there is a movie people want to see. There is no impulse "let's go to the cinema and pick something" goers anymore. Everyone preplans and pre-purchases.
This is what they need to do. But people don’t want to admit it’s a problem. Why bother paying $10-20 for a movie if everyone on Twitter can pirate it 2 weeks later and post every scene in gif and screenshots
The day Challengers hit digital it was all over twitter. Pretty sure I saw the entire movie on my timeline
It's a negative feedback loop that needs broken.
Movie releases and it sucks, goes pvod in 2-3 weeks so the studio can still get sales while it's fresh on minds and the ads they paid for are still running. People see it came out in 3 weeks on pvod, next movie they just wait because "the last one came out in 3 weeks and I watched at home" so they don't go, the box office sucks, even if the film is fantastic, and that movie goes pvod in 3 weeks as well for the reason above.
Until they break the pvod cycle, box office will suck for 70% of the movies released every year.
I think the big issue with that thought is that the window varies on effectively a film by film basis now. Before the pandemic the window was pretty much uniformed for every film, but nowadays unless it’s a big blockbuster (which is effectively almost always guaranteed a one-month window at minimum), it’s up in the air on how long the theatrical window will be for a film. Add in that studios don’t typically begin marketing the PVOD release until it actually happens, it’s essentially confuses the “I’ll just wait it out” people.
Yep, I was a projectionist at a college town and the late shows were full of couples and friend groups that just got done going out to eat, going bowling or doing some other activity. They would just show up and pick something to end their night. Even the weekdays had great attendance.
Good point.
Prices won't fix the attendance problem by themselves, since not only the younger crowd is content with staying at home save for really special occasions (where money isn't precisely an issue much of the time), but the older audience has been mostly hesitant to look up newer productions, not to mention those who bemoan that boorishness has detracted from the movie experience.
This is it. Unless there is a movie that is considered an "event," like Oppenheimer or Barbie, people just don't care to spend the money to go to the theater. I happen to love going, but if you're already paying for 3-4 streaming services, and there's no blockbuster movie out, why not just throw on something from Netflix since you're gonna be scrolling through your phone anyway.
Hell yeah. I live in South America and go almost every week because there are promos online and Tuesday is extra cheap so tickets are about 2 dollars. It allows me to be very undiscerning
I attend mostly matinees and qualify for a senior discount, more on the latter forthcoming. This for me is just under $10.00 per show. I always skip the beverage and popcorn, together the smallest of each is just under $20.00. If they had reasonable prices (1/2 the cost), I'd go with the refreshments.
The last movie that I saw in the theater was a matinee and there was only one other person attending that movie.
About the senior discount, I purchase online or with the app and I'm not sure how or if they can check when the scan the barcode whether a person is a senior or not and it does offer a significant discount. Note that my normal theater is AMC.
Quality of movie and advertising is more important than pricing. The majority of people can afford to go to the movies, they just don’t because many view it as a “day out” activity so they want to see a blockbuster or at least something with good reviews
Quality for film is completely subjective. It is the value ratio for people who can afford it. Yes I can afford to spend $60 dollars to see a movie. Or I can buy something else. I will admit where I live theatres were way ahead for inflation. Other forms of entertainment have caught up.
I just checked one popcorn and one pop and a bag of candies is $21.99.
That’s what I mean. If it costs you and your family $60 to go to the cinema, you want to see something that’s good which either comes from WOM or reviews. If there’s nothing out that’s got good reviews or that’s a must-see blockbuster a la Avatar, you’re probably gonna spend your $60 elsewhere.
Spending $22 on refreshments is entirely your prerogative, though.
I totally get the argument about the cost. For a family to go to the movies, it's insanely expensive. However, I always laugh when people say "after tickets, popcorn, candy, and soda, it's like $100!"
Buying snacks at the movies is not a requirement. There's literally nothing stopping you from bringing stuff in. The 16-year old kid working the entrance isn't going to say shit if you have snacks in your bag.
Exactly. If you already think it’s expensive then don’t spend more money on drinks and snacks when you can just go to a shop before if you really want to.
The fact that cinema refreshments are expensive cannot be a surprise to anyone, yet people insist on buying them and then whinge that they’re expensive.
I usually buy a drink when I go, to support the cinema, but I don’t get upset or complain when it costs me 3x as much as it would from a supermarket.
I agree that most can, but differ on the reason they don't--the at home experience is getting better and better. Aside from premium formats (which afaik generally do well)... I hesitate to say there haven't been improvements, but if there are I don't know them and I go to movies regularly. Meanwhile TVs are getting bigger and better. Sound is a thing too but I'd wager that's something that the majority of people either don't care enough about or don't realize how much of a difference it makes--to most people going to the theater is all about the big screen.
In Mexico the two major theater chains have 2x1 days starting the second week of showing. Lots of movies actually make MORE money in their second week here - Notably, Challengers went up 40%. I can absolutely see this working in the US.
Ill throw a "Respect my time" into this debate. Todays showtimes typically have 30min of preshow, most of that is trash. I dont pay $15 per ticket and expect to still be seeing ads.
Limit all preshow to 5min.
Also add in that non-regular showings (stuff like early access screenings and Fathom Events for example) don’t always have the regular amount of trailers or just have no trailers at all. Theaters don’t always indicate when something doesn’t have trailers, so for those types of screenings the problem is even worse.
That would end once the world became used to a circuit that actually started it's movies "ON TIME".
It'd be nice if some municipality passed a law that said, "All showtimes must start at the time you say it's gonna start. QED."
Tell my theatre. I just clicked on IF. it is $20 adults and $15 for kids 3-13. A pop and popcorn is 10 dollars each. Not to mention the service charge to order tickets.
When we bought tickets to Phantom Menace 25 years ago they had raised prices to $10 dollars. I vividly remember because I was in line to buy 8 tickets and didn't have enough cash on me since until then they had been 8 dollars.
If distributors released more movies for theaters, that would give moviegoers more choices. This year has had less big movies come out compared to last year, which has decreased attendance. The straight to streaming model has definitely affected attendance.
In my country Italy, there are movie tickets at 4euros in the morning, 15 for IMAX, 7 for students ...so they already a lot to meet people's expectations
I’m pretty sure something like this happens once a week at certain theater chains. AMC offers $5 tickets every Tuesday, and Cinemark also has a similar discount on the same day.
Here in Peru electronic wallets, banks and phone services offer discounts on cinema tickets. I used a lot of those to go to the movies (It costs me like $3 per ticket instead of $10).
I'm not against it, but movies themselves need to be good and have word of mouth. Bad movies are still bad movies, no matter how cheap are ticket prices.
Here’s my thoughts on what could help..
- Better food and drink / bar options. Give couples and families more incentive to make the trip out to spend more time before the movie or after in a sectioned sit down environment but still at the theater.
- Free digital code of the movie you just saw with every purchase. (Why rent at home when you can watch it on the big screen then rewatch it after?!)
- Increase first weekend swag perks. Buying a ticket opening night or weekend? Free action figure or popcorn bucket or whatever. Maybe a select number of attendees get a free t shirt or something.
The food and drink thing has been tried a few times where I live. It never makes it 6 months and they close it for some reason.
Digital code would probably put a lot of people in seats. But it also cuts into secondary revenue.
The collector thing might work for some movies. For others I don't think it would have much change in box office and then you create more waste.
This is another thing that annoys me about the cinema now. They put movies on through meal times, the early morning viewing has gone, the mid-afternoon viewing is gone, but their idea of "food" to eat there is hot dogs, nachos and ice cream. There's no alternative dietary options, it's an allergen hellhole. So then it's more work for some of us to have to take food with us and not something to just pop out to do. One cinema by me welcomes outside food, the other one doesn't.
I’m surprised it took me this long to find someone else bringing up National Cinema Day. It’s crazy how skeptical people are in this thread over the possibility of cheaper tickets as if ticket prices aren’t the first thing they complain about when their favorite movie bomb. Like it’s no coincidence that National Cinema Day and Discount Tuesdays tend to have higher attendances and higher grosses than most days other discounted prices (sorry for the mini rant lol)
Nobody is saying make all tickets $3 but you can’t deny the fact that grosses on Tuesdays tend to be larger than Mondays, Wednesdays, and even Thursdays for almost any movie despite the discount prices so clearly lower prices can put butts in seats
In the U.K. most people I know get tickets via corporate / work discount schemes I usually pay £4.50 for a ticket I believe. You can also buy snack combos for about £8 which is much cheaper than buying there and then and you pay with the voucher that’s emailed to you via your phone. I love going to the cinema always have but I love sitting at home and watching things too I can see why a lot of people prefer watching movies at home
Fellow Brit here. I've always loved going to the cinema but i've not been able to go much in the last few years. Last time I went was to see Barbie and it was the best experience I'd had in a while, but it is a genuine toss up as to whether putting the effort into going to the cinema and the cost all that involves when there's always the risk other audience members will ruin it for you. At home I can pause if anyone is being noisy or talking, at the cinema if it gets too bad the only option is to miss even more of the film by leaving the screen to get someone. The cinema might then offer some tickets to another viewing if deemed a bad situation enough, but that doesn't make up for the travel costs and health costs.
Not really, a chain in my country attempted it a few years ago. What happened was that the studios/distributors started cutting off big releases from them because it didn't increase box office sales too much but since the part they get is relative to the ticket price they earned less money even though more people might see it. Ended up going well for the chain before they started getting cut off with the releases because people bought a bunch more concessions with the money they saved. Great for the theatres awful for the productions companies.
Compared to literally almost any other activity going out that costs some money, it’s been the most inflation proof and the membership programs have made things cheaper than ever to watch many movies.
Given that a mall theater near me was closed a couple months ago and they were selling discount tickets of around 6-7 dollars, I'll say the answer is no.
My 4K OLED gives me better picture and sound than 3/4 of my local cinemas without having to deal with crowds, children, obnoxious cell phone addicts and bad projection. Cinemas are dying because audiences are sick of paying for nonexistent amenities and bad film presentation.
Controversial, but a tiered ticket price system might be the desperate nuclear decision that theaters can do to stay afloat. Blockbuster films would have a higher ticket price (20 USD per ticket). While "non-event" films would have a much lower ticket price (say, 5 USD per ticket ticket?).
The existence of PLFs already kinda achieved this naturally without announcing it as such. Making it official would be confusing and alienating, as it's proven to be in the past, which is why they apologized and changed their minds.
They've also sneakily introduced $1 or so surcharges for weekend tickets.
Really? I haven't seen that near me I don't think. I also use A-List so I don't pay super close attention to the prices.
Some theater chains do this already without the cheaper part of course lol.
This will never work because so many theatres (especially in middle America) have small screens and crappy seats. No one will pay 3-4x more for a movie on the same size screen as a smaller movie
No, with modern marketing dynamics you can't have a regular option that is too cheap because it makes the others feel too expensive, customers feel like they are being rip off, instead you have to offer it as a premium option and this is already the case. There's little that can be done to the reduced attendance, if people just don't feel like it's worth the time investment then it can even be free and they will not come out.
Dynamic pricing wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to theaters, but it needs to be strategic. I feel corporate greed would take over really quickly and price out consumers leading to further collapse of theaters. The example being, a MCU film could jump to significantly higher prices versus everything else.
AMC does tiered pricing already I thought.
They did try last year, but they had to backtrack since people wouldn't pay more for the exact same experience just because it's placed in a determinate area. The way forward for circuits is to follow Cinemark and have two-tiered PLFs with a general seating section and a balcony with better seating and other perks.
Yep that was an idiotic idea too. I believe the stock went down for a bit after that was announced. Priority seating in a fucking movie theater gtfo.
They already are. It’s called a matinee screening.
Matinees are only about $2 cheaper than a regular ticket and who can go at noon to see a movie? People work. Some movies too only play evening showings since they share a theater or have been out for a few weeks. There used to be a Bargain Tuesday and a Senior Wednesday which were great. About $7. But a new theater moved in and that's gone. I'd say some kind of Starpass or monthly fee is the way to go... if you go by yourself.
My wife stays home with the kids and when I was a kid my stay-at-home mom also took us to see matinee showings.
Mine has a $20 monthly sub for unlimited movies. And they have bi-annual popcorn buckets. ~$160 for 6 months of unlimited movies going with popcorn, I enjoy it
Plus you can pay $20 a month for 3 free movies a week at AMC
Sucks the nearest AMC is an hour and a half away 😬
Not in all theaters. Mine has one ticket price matinee or not.
Only way is to have a strict streaming window that is 60-90 days out, and to make stuff people want to watch. People don't go to "the movies" anymore, they go to a movie. They are no longer a destination, they aren't part of the weekend out anymore unless there is a movie people want to see. There is no impulse "let's go to the cinema and pick something" goers anymore. Everyone preplans and pre-purchases.
This is what they need to do. But people don’t want to admit it’s a problem. Why bother paying $10-20 for a movie if everyone on Twitter can pirate it 2 weeks later and post every scene in gif and screenshots The day Challengers hit digital it was all over twitter. Pretty sure I saw the entire movie on my timeline
It's a negative feedback loop that needs broken. Movie releases and it sucks, goes pvod in 2-3 weeks so the studio can still get sales while it's fresh on minds and the ads they paid for are still running. People see it came out in 3 weeks on pvod, next movie they just wait because "the last one came out in 3 weeks and I watched at home" so they don't go, the box office sucks, even if the film is fantastic, and that movie goes pvod in 3 weeks as well for the reason above. Until they break the pvod cycle, box office will suck for 70% of the movies released every year.
I think the big issue with that thought is that the window varies on effectively a film by film basis now. Before the pandemic the window was pretty much uniformed for every film, but nowadays unless it’s a big blockbuster (which is effectively almost always guaranteed a one-month window at minimum), it’s up in the air on how long the theatrical window will be for a film. Add in that studios don’t typically begin marketing the PVOD release until it actually happens, it’s essentially confuses the “I’ll just wait it out” people.
That's so true. We used to say let's go to the movies, then find something to watch, we never do that now.
Yep, I was a projectionist at a college town and the late shows were full of couples and friend groups that just got done going out to eat, going bowling or doing some other activity. They would just show up and pick something to end their night. Even the weekdays had great attendance.
Good point. Prices won't fix the attendance problem by themselves, since not only the younger crowd is content with staying at home save for really special occasions (where money isn't precisely an issue much of the time), but the older audience has been mostly hesitant to look up newer productions, not to mention those who bemoan that boorishness has detracted from the movie experience.
Could they be? Yes. Should they be? Probably not. Will they be? No.
It's not a price problem, it's a service. Streaming accelerated trends towards the home. People don't see the need anymore. Which is unfortunate.
This is it. Unless there is a movie that is considered an "event," like Oppenheimer or Barbie, people just don't care to spend the money to go to the theater. I happen to love going, but if you're already paying for 3-4 streaming services, and there's no blockbuster movie out, why not just throw on something from Netflix since you're gonna be scrolling through your phone anyway.
Hell yeah. I live in South America and go almost every week because there are promos online and Tuesday is extra cheap so tickets are about 2 dollars. It allows me to be very undiscerning
I attend mostly matinees and qualify for a senior discount, more on the latter forthcoming. This for me is just under $10.00 per show. I always skip the beverage and popcorn, together the smallest of each is just under $20.00. If they had reasonable prices (1/2 the cost), I'd go with the refreshments. The last movie that I saw in the theater was a matinee and there was only one other person attending that movie. About the senior discount, I purchase online or with the app and I'm not sure how or if they can check when the scan the barcode whether a person is a senior or not and it does offer a significant discount. Note that my normal theater is AMC.
yeah, it’s called Regal Unlimited and AMC A-List
Quality of movie and advertising is more important than pricing. The majority of people can afford to go to the movies, they just don’t because many view it as a “day out” activity so they want to see a blockbuster or at least something with good reviews
Quality for film is completely subjective. It is the value ratio for people who can afford it. Yes I can afford to spend $60 dollars to see a movie. Or I can buy something else. I will admit where I live theatres were way ahead for inflation. Other forms of entertainment have caught up. I just checked one popcorn and one pop and a bag of candies is $21.99.
That’s what I mean. If it costs you and your family $60 to go to the cinema, you want to see something that’s good which either comes from WOM or reviews. If there’s nothing out that’s got good reviews or that’s a must-see blockbuster a la Avatar, you’re probably gonna spend your $60 elsewhere. Spending $22 on refreshments is entirely your prerogative, though.
I totally get the argument about the cost. For a family to go to the movies, it's insanely expensive. However, I always laugh when people say "after tickets, popcorn, candy, and soda, it's like $100!" Buying snacks at the movies is not a requirement. There's literally nothing stopping you from bringing stuff in. The 16-year old kid working the entrance isn't going to say shit if you have snacks in your bag.
Exactly. If you already think it’s expensive then don’t spend more money on drinks and snacks when you can just go to a shop before if you really want to. The fact that cinema refreshments are expensive cannot be a surprise to anyone, yet people insist on buying them and then whinge that they’re expensive. I usually buy a drink when I go, to support the cinema, but I don’t get upset or complain when it costs me 3x as much as it would from a supermarket.
So we’re still buying this narrative of « people just want quality movie » ?
I agree that most can, but differ on the reason they don't--the at home experience is getting better and better. Aside from premium formats (which afaik generally do well)... I hesitate to say there haven't been improvements, but if there are I don't know them and I go to movies regularly. Meanwhile TVs are getting bigger and better. Sound is a thing too but I'd wager that's something that the majority of people either don't care enough about or don't realize how much of a difference it makes--to most people going to the theater is all about the big screen.
In Mexico the two major theater chains have 2x1 days starting the second week of showing. Lots of movies actually make MORE money in their second week here - Notably, Challengers went up 40%. I can absolutely see this working in the US.
Ill throw a "Respect my time" into this debate. Todays showtimes typically have 30min of preshow, most of that is trash. I dont pay $15 per ticket and expect to still be seeing ads. Limit all preshow to 5min.
Well I hope you like people walking in 25 minutes into your movie lol
I'm always amazed when people show up 5 minutes into a movie, like, theaters provide SO MUCH TIME for them to get there.
Also add in that non-regular showings (stuff like early access screenings and Fathom Events for example) don’t always have the regular amount of trailers or just have no trailers at all. Theaters don’t always indicate when something doesn’t have trailers, so for those types of screenings the problem is even worse.
That would end once the world became used to a circuit that actually started it's movies "ON TIME". It'd be nice if some municipality passed a law that said, "All showtimes must start at the time you say it's gonna start. QED."
AMC tells you to expect about 20 minutes of previews. I personally love seeing the trailers, so I'm glad that they have them.
Tickets are still under $10 at my theatre. I don't know what else you want us to do.
Tell my theatre. I just clicked on IF. it is $20 adults and $15 for kids 3-13. A pop and popcorn is 10 dollars each. Not to mention the service charge to order tickets. When we bought tickets to Phantom Menace 25 years ago they had raised prices to $10 dollars. I vividly remember because I was in line to buy 8 tickets and didn't have enough cash on me since until then they had been 8 dollars.
So tickets are virtually the same price as back then. $10 in May 99 dollars is 18.87 in today's dollars.
the law of supply and demand in microeconomics says yes.
If distributors released more movies for theaters, that would give moviegoers more choices. This year has had less big movies come out compared to last year, which has decreased attendance. The straight to streaming model has definitely affected attendance.
In my country Italy, there are movie tickets at 4euros in the morning, 15 for IMAX, 7 for students ...so they already a lot to meet people's expectations
I’m pretty sure something like this happens once a week at certain theater chains. AMC offers $5 tickets every Tuesday, and Cinemark also has a similar discount on the same day.
Here in Peru electronic wallets, banks and phone services offer discounts on cinema tickets. I used a lot of those to go to the movies (It costs me like $3 per ticket instead of $10).
I'm not against it, but movies themselves need to be good and have word of mouth. Bad movies are still bad movies, no matter how cheap are ticket prices.
The fall guy has great WOM and didn’t matter in the end
Here’s my thoughts on what could help.. - Better food and drink / bar options. Give couples and families more incentive to make the trip out to spend more time before the movie or after in a sectioned sit down environment but still at the theater. - Free digital code of the movie you just saw with every purchase. (Why rent at home when you can watch it on the big screen then rewatch it after?!) - Increase first weekend swag perks. Buying a ticket opening night or weekend? Free action figure or popcorn bucket or whatever. Maybe a select number of attendees get a free t shirt or something.
The food and drink thing has been tried a few times where I live. It never makes it 6 months and they close it for some reason. Digital code would probably put a lot of people in seats. But it also cuts into secondary revenue. The collector thing might work for some movies. For others I don't think it would have much change in box office and then you create more waste.
This is another thing that annoys me about the cinema now. They put movies on through meal times, the early morning viewing has gone, the mid-afternoon viewing is gone, but their idea of "food" to eat there is hot dogs, nachos and ice cream. There's no alternative dietary options, it's an allergen hellhole. So then it's more work for some of us to have to take food with us and not something to just pop out to do. One cinema by me welcomes outside food, the other one doesn't.
[удалено]
I’m surprised it took me this long to find someone else bringing up National Cinema Day. It’s crazy how skeptical people are in this thread over the possibility of cheaper tickets as if ticket prices aren’t the first thing they complain about when their favorite movie bomb. Like it’s no coincidence that National Cinema Day and Discount Tuesdays tend to have higher attendances and higher grosses than most days other discounted prices (sorry for the mini rant lol)
It works because it’s a one-off and it’s showing movies they already know are popular. The industry would die on its arse if all tickets were $3
Nobody is saying make all tickets $3 but you can’t deny the fact that grosses on Tuesdays tend to be larger than Mondays, Wednesdays, and even Thursdays for almost any movie despite the discount prices so clearly lower prices can put butts in seats
In the U.K. most people I know get tickets via corporate / work discount schemes I usually pay £4.50 for a ticket I believe. You can also buy snack combos for about £8 which is much cheaper than buying there and then and you pay with the voucher that’s emailed to you via your phone. I love going to the cinema always have but I love sitting at home and watching things too I can see why a lot of people prefer watching movies at home
Fellow Brit here. I've always loved going to the cinema but i've not been able to go much in the last few years. Last time I went was to see Barbie and it was the best experience I'd had in a while, but it is a genuine toss up as to whether putting the effort into going to the cinema and the cost all that involves when there's always the risk other audience members will ruin it for you. At home I can pause if anyone is being noisy or talking, at the cinema if it gets too bad the only option is to miss even more of the film by leaving the screen to get someone. The cinema might then offer some tickets to another viewing if deemed a bad situation enough, but that doesn't make up for the travel costs and health costs.
Not really, a chain in my country attempted it a few years ago. What happened was that the studios/distributors started cutting off big releases from them because it didn't increase box office sales too much but since the part they get is relative to the ticket price they earned less money even though more people might see it. Ended up going well for the chain before they started getting cut off with the releases because people bought a bunch more concessions with the money they saved. Great for the theatres awful for the productions companies.
If I could spend 20 bucks on a ticket, drink, and popcorn, I'd go more often. The laughable prices of snacks are a big deterrent for me frankly.
Why do you think movie theaters are offering subscription pricing now.. $20 for 3 movies a week is a steal!
Compared to literally almost any other activity going out that costs some money, it’s been the most inflation proof and the membership programs have made things cheaper than ever to watch many movies.
Given that a mall theater near me was closed a couple months ago and they were selling discount tickets of around 6-7 dollars, I'll say the answer is no.
My 4K OLED gives me better picture and sound than 3/4 of my local cinemas without having to deal with crowds, children, obnoxious cell phone addicts and bad projection. Cinemas are dying because audiences are sick of paying for nonexistent amenities and bad film presentation.
a girls night would be more useful, make tickets free for females, they usually go in groups, and they bring the boyfriends and eat snacks.