Cinema chains are facing a problem that has been blamed recently on Netflix, but has been trending long before the streaming giant became a behemoth. While box office revenues have generally risen over the past decade, actual ticket sales have dropped. Cinema chains have tried to offset falling attendance by raising prices, but they’re trying a different spin on that formula.
According to Bloomberg, Regal Cinemas is planning to test “demand based pricing” in early 2018 in select markets with the assistance of app company Atom Tickets. Essentially, what this means is that for popular movies, especially during peak hours, you’ll pay more for a ticket. For less popular movies, and/or during off-peak hours, you’ll pay less.
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The theory here is that audiences will be encouraged to go to the cinema more often, and check out smaller movies that are priced more cheaply. But it remains to be seen if that is actually what’ll happen. What is certain is that for the opening of a movie like “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” you may wind up paying above and beyond the standard price. There’s no word yet if audiences will receive any kind of improved moviegoing sequence with higher priced tickets, or just the privilege of spending more because they’re fans of a particular franchise. There’s also the unaddressed issue that this essentially prices out people on lower incomes or limited budgets who probably already have to make hard decisions about how and when to spend their entertainment dollars.
Frankly, this just sounds like the cinematic equivalent of Uber’s surge pricing, and I don’t quite see how this benefits anybody but Regal. With moviegoers already given plenty of reasons to stay home rather than get a babysitter, leave the house, find parking, and more, tacking on a bigger cost to date night seems counterintuitive. [via AV Club]
