OK, first of all to complain about what prices used to be, either in 1995 or 1975 or 1925, is just silly. When I was a kid and first started regularly going to movies in the late 1970s, most movie tickets were between three and four dollars, and $1.50 or $2 for a matinee. That has increased substantially in the decades since. In my neck of the woods, non-3D/IMAX regular tickets are around $11 or $12, and early bird matinees are $7 or $8.
As somebody mentioned above, the movie theater these days gets about half, sometimes less than half, of each ticket sold, the rest going back to the studio/distributor. Which is the main reason the prices of concession items have gotten so high. First accept that no matter where you go out to eat, be it a four star restaurant, McDonalds, or your local cinema you are always paying much more than the food and labor to prepare it costs. If you break it down, yes that may only be pennies for the popcorn kernels and pennies for the soda, even if you get the gigantic sizes, and even when you add in the salary of the people working the concession stand, it is a lot of profit per unit. But since their profit margins on the actual ticket to see the movie have been taken down to very little, the food and drink is what they make their money on and how they keep the theater open. A sold out theater where nobody buys food and drink versus a third-full theater where every person got at least one item of food (if you can broadly call soda, popcorn, nacho, and Skittles "food"), they make MUCH more money on the less populated theater where patrons are munching on junk.
Historically this goes back to 1948, a case called United States v. Paramount Pictures, an anti-trust Supreme Court Case that changed the industry. Prior to that ruling, the movie studios themselves owned most major theaters, which is why if you live in a town old enough that still may be holding on to one or two of the historic palaces, they often have basic names like The Paramount or The Warner (here in Washington D.C. the old Warner Theater still exists, under that name). When Warner Brothers owned the movie theater and was the one selling the popcorn, obviously it was all profit, which meant the margins were miniscule since they didn't have to charge themselves to rent their own movies and took 100% of every ticket sold at the box office. Therefore food and drink could be kept relatively cheap since that was just "extra" money, the bulk of their profits coming from the tickets. After the Court broke up that monopoly and barred the studios from owning the theaters, that long chain of events ultimately led to food and drinks being more expensive since that's where the individual theaters were making most of their money. Oh, it also led to the collapse of the old Studio system as it had existed for decades, but yeah, it made your soda more expensive, too.
That's the history and some of the basic economics behind "Why is it so damn expensive to go to the movies these days?"
In the broader cinema fan sense, I don't really give a ***** whether tickets are $8 or $12 or $17, or if I spend another $15 on snacks. For me as a movie lover, $30 to see a movie on a giant screen is well worth it. I go to an average of probably six to ten movies a month, and sometimes more than that. If streaming on Netflix is good enough for you, fine, and frankly I'd prefer it if you stay home and out of my way, because if you're like me how much money I lay out for the experience is way down my list of gripes compared to how fu*king rude people have gotten over the past few decades. I do not expect everybody to wear a coat and tie as if it were 1955, but the lack of common sense and courtesy is pretty outrageous, and I think it has gotten exponentially worse since the rise of DVD at the end of the '90s and now home streaming. Now people are conditioned to chatting about whatever the Hell they want while a movie is on, as if they are on their couch, and the fact that a ticket and popcorn costs so much seems to somehow justify their rudeness. 'Hey, I paid sixty-eight dollars for my lady and I to sit here crunching nachos behind you, if we want to talk during the damn movie, for that much money I'm going to talk,' as if everybody else there didn't pay just as much as you.
The solutions are pretty obvious and simple. If you think the concession prices are outrageous, don't have any damn food or drink. It's not a necessity, and most people are finished with their food within the first half hour, anyway. You've cut your cost down massively just with that step. For the ticket prices, go to matinees whenever you can, that cuts your cost in half again. And if $7.50 is just too much for you to justify going to see a movie, stay home and shut the fu*k up about it. But if you HAVE to have food and you HAVE to go at night, either budget accordingly or just stay home. If you do go, don't be an inconsiderate asshOle.
It ain't complicated.
Also, I gotta say that this thread was started by somebody lamenting how much it costs to go see 50 Shades of Gray. Dude.....why? If they let you in for fifty cents and gave you all the popcorn you could eat for free, that's still much too steep a price to pay.
As somebody mentioned above, the movie theater these days gets about half, sometimes less than half, of each ticket sold, the rest going back to the studio/distributor. Which is the main reason the prices of concession items have gotten so high. First accept that no matter where you go out to eat, be it a four star restaurant, McDonalds, or your local cinema you are always paying much more than the food and labor to prepare it costs. If you break it down, yes that may only be pennies for the popcorn kernels and pennies for the soda, even if you get the gigantic sizes, and even when you add in the salary of the people working the concession stand, it is a lot of profit per unit. But since their profit margins on the actual ticket to see the movie have been taken down to very little, the food and drink is what they make their money on and how they keep the theater open. A sold out theater where nobody buys food and drink versus a third-full theater where every person got at least one item of food (if you can broadly call soda, popcorn, nacho, and Skittles "food"), they make MUCH more money on the less populated theater where patrons are munching on junk.
Historically this goes back to 1948, a case called United States v. Paramount Pictures, an anti-trust Supreme Court Case that changed the industry. Prior to that ruling, the movie studios themselves owned most major theaters, which is why if you live in a town old enough that still may be holding on to one or two of the historic palaces, they often have basic names like The Paramount or The Warner (here in Washington D.C. the old Warner Theater still exists, under that name). When Warner Brothers owned the movie theater and was the one selling the popcorn, obviously it was all profit, which meant the margins were miniscule since they didn't have to charge themselves to rent their own movies and took 100% of every ticket sold at the box office. Therefore food and drink could be kept relatively cheap since that was just "extra" money, the bulk of their profits coming from the tickets. After the Court broke up that monopoly and barred the studios from owning the theaters, that long chain of events ultimately led to food and drinks being more expensive since that's where the individual theaters were making most of their money. Oh, it also led to the collapse of the old Studio system as it had existed for decades, but yeah, it made your soda more expensive, too.
That's the history and some of the basic economics behind "Why is it so damn expensive to go to the movies these days?"
In the broader cinema fan sense, I don't really give a ***** whether tickets are $8 or $12 or $17, or if I spend another $15 on snacks. For me as a movie lover, $30 to see a movie on a giant screen is well worth it. I go to an average of probably six to ten movies a month, and sometimes more than that. If streaming on Netflix is good enough for you, fine, and frankly I'd prefer it if you stay home and out of my way, because if you're like me how much money I lay out for the experience is way down my list of gripes compared to how fu*king rude people have gotten over the past few decades. I do not expect everybody to wear a coat and tie as if it were 1955, but the lack of common sense and courtesy is pretty outrageous, and I think it has gotten exponentially worse since the rise of DVD at the end of the '90s and now home streaming. Now people are conditioned to chatting about whatever the Hell they want while a movie is on, as if they are on their couch, and the fact that a ticket and popcorn costs so much seems to somehow justify their rudeness. 'Hey, I paid sixty-eight dollars for my lady and I to sit here crunching nachos behind you, if we want to talk during the damn movie, for that much money I'm going to talk,' as if everybody else there didn't pay just as much as you.
The solutions are pretty obvious and simple. If you think the concession prices are outrageous, don't have any damn food or drink. It's not a necessity, and most people are finished with their food within the first half hour, anyway. You've cut your cost down massively just with that step. For the ticket prices, go to matinees whenever you can, that cuts your cost in half again. And if $7.50 is just too much for you to justify going to see a movie, stay home and shut the fu*k up about it. But if you HAVE to have food and you HAVE to go at night, either budget accordingly or just stay home. If you do go, don't be an inconsiderate asshOle.
It ain't complicated.
Also, I gotta say that this thread was started by somebody lamenting how much it costs to go see 50 Shades of Gray. Dude.....why? If they let you in for fifty cents and gave you all the popcorn you could eat for free, that's still much too steep a price to pay.
__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
Last edited by Holden Pike; 02-18-16 at 09:11 AM.