Not for nothing, but the art houses tend to charge more than the Cinemarks, Regals and AMCs. Fact is, the price of the movie has no real bearing on the price of a ticket. The studios, the ones who pay to make the movies, don't set ticket prices. They get a percentage of the gate (which is pretty well set at 55% these days), but for the theater that sets the price, one movie costs the same as any other movie (55% of whatever the gross is). The price of a movie ticket has gone up because the theater chains believe enough people are willing to pay the higher price to make the higher price more profitable for the theater chain. The costs (of the film itself or, really, of the theater's operations) really have no bearing on the issue.
That's not really true anymore (though it was for a long while and until fairly recently). The theater chain bankruptcies and consolidation gave them more leverage in dealing with the studios, so for the past several years, the split has settled into a 55/44 split with the studio getting the 55% for nearly every movie released.
I don't go to the theaters much any more, but when I do, my friends and I normally go to Alamo Draft House.
I find myself doing this more and more now. And it's pretty easy for the wife and I since we pretty much get up every morning between 630-8 for either work or the baby.
You guys are lucky. 9.50 for matinee and 11.50 for evening prices in SoCal. 6 bucks is the before noon price. A tub of popcorn and a drink costs 11 bucks.
I remember from my time in NYC and DC over the past few years that movie ticket prices there are definitely higher than in TX. If I recall, Mark Cuban and his 2929 entertainment were gonna run with an idea they had of releasing a movie on dvd at the same time it would come out in the movie theatre. At that time the idea seemed crazy, but now- today, as an average movie theatregoer, I think its an awesome idea. Might suck for the movie studios and theatres but awesome for the everyday people.
News flash! Prices on everything are going up! Its time for folks to realize this. I made my peace with it a few weeks ago. Your dollar just isn't worth what it used to be.
Back in the day, students were given discounts because they were a big movie watching crowd, usually went in groups of two or more, and were more pinched to purchase tickets. There was a $$$ reason for doing it, not because it had to do with fairness or because we should give people in school perks. These days, if a student can't afford to watch the movie, the two buck price difference isn't enough to change their mind from just downloading it illegally for free. The students that can afford to buy the ticket with their parents money or those who don't download films are going to buy the ticket anyway, having a discount won't matter. It's nice to get discounts, I won't ever complain if I get one, but it's silly to think that you deserve to get one just because you are a student.
Corn is used in production of Ethanol. Ethanol is being used in gasoline now ... more and more ... More and more corn is being used up for gas ... popcorn costs more ... ticket prices go up.. Stupid gas!
I'm no expert, but wouldn't part of this problem come from the fact that there are much fewer art house theaters than the ones that show major motion pictures? Yes, an indie film might only cost a few hundred thousand to film, but if it's only getting shown in 5-6 theaters, is this not similar to showing a movie that cost $150 million to make in thousands of theaters? I should have further clarified...but if the masses enjoyed the type of indie films that have minimal budgets and those films were released on a wide scale, then the average ticket price would be lower, no?
yup, the Richmond one is still there, work right by there I live near the Pearland one, and they rock, $5 first showing everyday, $5.75 before 6, $7.25 evenings ($7.75 on Fri/Sat evenings).
that place is just as expensive, plus parking? I sometimes go to the Edwards in the Marque because they have Imax movies, at $13
