www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/elijah-wood-amc-ticket-prices-b2277514.html
Elijah Wood says AMC cinemas’ new ticket system will ‘penalise people for lower income’
This is basically happening in other entertainment experiences. For example roller coaster parks incorporated fast past lines, now there is fast pass plus additional get ahead services. They even do it for food. There’s always a poor person tax.
Everything has tiered pricing and subscription services now.
User deleted comment
1.3y
You end up in prison where you can get two months off of your sentence by having a kidney removed and donated.
Actually I think debt prisons will make a comeback if we continue on this path.
That’s just modern prisons.
You settle for bottom of the barrel while the rich get richer and pay for premium+++.
Crony Capitalism is a pyramid where the most money is spent making the top taller and narrower.
Crony capitalism is just the natural evolution of capitalism. Capitalism has never existed, cannot exist without a state poised to intervene (forcefully if necessary) and “pick winners and losers.” The concept of free markets is a fable. None have ever existed. “Crony capitalism” is nothing more than a term coined to scapegoat the flaws and contradictions inherent to capitalism itself, by suggesting that “true” capitalism would somehow (inexplicably) be free from these problems.
That’s just normal capitalism. The ‘crony’ tag is used to make it seem like a version of capitalism exists that doesn’t absolutely suck for the working class. That is a lie.
Its just capitalism
You become a modern day serf whose only purpose in life is to service debt
They’ll keep taking until we reach a breaking point. They’re betting on everyone being distracted enough and divided that no one ever does anything about it. They usually do this by convincing poor people other poor people are the reason why things are so hard and that some day you just might be rich too
I think the next step is going to be renting your home from your employer and getting all your goods from their commissary. You work for them or you get kicked out of your home. You spend all your money on the stuff they sell to you
I owe my soul to the company store
User deleted comment
1.3y
Another day older, and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me coz I can't gooooo
I owe my soul to the company store!
The poor's aren't supposed to be able to do anything fun. No sporting events, no theme parks, no travel. Just go to your shit job and work until your last breath.
I want my bread and circuses dammit!
You are told you can not afford anything and will be given basic set of things/food every month in return for working on assembly lines. Whatever they are showing us in dystopian sci-fi movies will be a reality eventually.
Whatever horrid dystopian slice of life you have seen in movies are far too tame for what real life capitalists would do.
Also that idea shows way too much forward thinking.
Like realize that oil companies literally knew for decades they were destroying the entire planet but the profits were just too good to care.
This, there was a group of CEOs who all got together, reviewed the data, and still decided “fuck it, well just get rich enough to build a bunker that will last a couple hundred years so when that happens we can dip, and the rest will sort itself out” we will live in our self sustaining bunkers for two or three generations and when it’s safe rebuild and be kings of the new world….
Real ozymandiss vibes on this one.
Debt. Everyone goes into debt. Have you noticed the resurgence of layaway? People have already run out of money.
That’s the one that gets me. Can’t afford your $20 item at target, maybe 12 payments of $2.00 and it can be yours. Like if you are putting a $20 items on an Affirm plan, you can’t afford it.
People just need to cut back on non essentials.
Lower the demand of shit that is nice to have but not important.
Like, why do people still go to Disney World? Their prices have gotten fucking ridiculous. If regular people actually stopped going there would be a price correction. As long as they keep selling max occupancy type numbers they will keep raising prices.
And there are other things too where people really just need to boycott for a bit so the market corrects itself.
Exactly. Many companies are shitty for sure. But also people don’t need to buy so many things.
Eggs are $6? I can do without. Movies are boring and expensive? I can do without.
Plenty of hobbies and activities you can do that are free or cost very little. I meet up with a group of friends about once a week and we all go for a hike. Exercise. Outdoors. Time together and costs barely anything.
Yeah, it’s clear that a capitalism is an issue, but so is consumerism. If people chilled on the consumption, inflation would slow down and people would have more buying power.
I agree with you, I've tried convincing others of this, but they just don't get it, or just don't care
We will find out this year I think.
User deleted comment
1.3y
Yeah, capitalism is great... until consumers can't afford to buy anything. We are basically there.
User deleted comment
1.3y
The feudal system makes a roaring comeback. You own nothing, all your labor goes to the land owner and you get just enough to keep you alive. When you can no longer work you’re left to die in the gutter and the next family is moved into your space to work until they can work no more.
Isn’t this literally everything though? Theater tickets, concerts, sporting events, airport seats, etc… the more you pay the better the seat
Can’t sit court side for the same price as the nosebleeds. There is something a little sad about theaters waking up and realizing this though.
At least with the other things you listed there's scarcity. Most movies I go to are under half capacity.
And good seats at sporting events or concerts mean you might actually be a part of the show. You could catch a loose ball or a thrown guitar pick. Doesn't matter where you sit in the theater, Tom Cruise isn't gonna high five you when he buzzes by in his Tomcat.
Moderator removed comment
1.3y
It’s literally … just America. Everything about living as an adult in America is harder if you are poor. Everything. Edit: obv I used ambiguous phrasing some ppl need help comprehending. I will clarify: this is, at a basic level, how American society operates. All aspects. Every day. It is not exclusively American to have a harder life bc you are poor. Sheesh, come on, y’all.
Can’t afford the big pack of TP? It’ll cost you!
during the pandemic tp craze I bought a bidet attachment for my toilet and havent bought tp since.
Do you just stick your wet ass back in your underwear? I've also hopped on the bidet craze but I gotta be drying my ass before I finish the process
They probably mean their stock of toilet paper hasn't needed to be replenished since then. At least I hope.
Seriously wtf. I also covyered to a bidet but I'm soaked after using it.
My mom's bidet seems to spray my butt cheeks more than my butt hole. My bidet only sprays my butt hole and is significantly more effective. Not all bidets are created equal.
It's so awful
There's levels of poor too. Depending where you are, you need to make minimum 50k a year just to get by without too much stress. Goes up in many cities. Where I am you need $60k minimum to be OK. And that's not thriving. Just getting by ok.
Western Europe is exactly the same, what are you on about.
We've got thousands of migrants bunched up in places that should barely have hundreds. We have literal outbreaks of Tuberculosis in Brussels because of abhorrent living conditions for asylum seekers.
We've got homeless people dying on the streets of the cold too.
America and Europe ain't that far apart, we've just got a few things socialised that are severely underfunded with intent, so they can be privatised.
Our politicians look at America's system and say "yes please, we want some of that".
Usually in "Let's shit on America threads" people prefer to pretend no other places on earth have problems.
Lol.
That's it, I'm gonna move to a place where being poor is easy.
I think you’re onto something
I have hope that one day the government will subsidize fast passes to level the playing field for all amusement park participants.
Our fast pass, comrade.
It’s literally … just America.
And many other places. If you are going to Europe, you better get the skip the line tickets for the major sites where available. Only a couple bucks more, saved me like 2 hours at the Catacombs in Paris. Anne Frank House in Amsterdam sells tickets online for a time and date, same price I think but you get to walk past another 2 hour line because you have a reservation. Just look into tickets for everything before you go. I would never show up to the catacombs without a ticket, that line was wrapping around the boulevard. You spend thousands to get to Paris for a few days, wasting hours in line just feels like you are losing vacation time.
Driving tickets too. 200 dollar speeding ticket means nothing to a millionaire. It could be mean eating for a week or not for someone making 35K a year.
This is the biggest problem in America right now. That most of us live paycheck to paycheck or not even making it that far and just literally just not eating for days.
So any emergency expense will turn most of our lives into nightmares.
That's why in Finland the speeding ticket price is determined by your income. I don't know what the calculation formula though. But even that doesn't give the same impact for wealthy people. But it works as the best thing we can have right now.
User deleted comment
1.3y
What does a vip tour cost and what do you get?
It looks like USD$3,500 minimum for up to 9 people, but you still have to pay for theme park admission on top: https://disneyland.disney.go.com/en-ca/events-tours/vip-tour-services/
You can weigh it against the cost of staying extra days, paying for additional lodging, and any other related expenses that come with a day in Disney.
If you have money and limited time, I can see it making sense.
You also get prime restaurant reservations and priority seating for any shows. You can fit a lot in a limited amount of time in the park.
Sure beats when rich people were paying disabled people to tag along with them so they could skip lines.
I feel like all of the other costs and frankly insane entrance fees exclude entire classes of people. It’s like $120+/person last I remember for Disney land.
My son has Autism, and we took him to Disney when he was 5. All we wanted to do was be able to do was use his stroller like a wheelchair so he could sit in line. I had some of his paperwork from his doctor with me, just in case, they needed written proof but it wasn’t necessary.
We walked up to every entrance, and stood in line to see Mickey Mouse for 5 minutes. We paid regular price for tickets.
Here’s the part where I’ll likely get downvoted to hell. I’m glad we received the experience we did. He was 5, in a time when his meltdowns were massive and he wasn’t even fully potty trained. I don’t care if we were judged by other parents.
It’s just a shame that a bunch of assholes exploited it and created a stigma for those actually disabled.
I have no idea why people pay for that shit lol, so many better vacations to spend that money on.
Because that's what they want to do.
If you can fill a tour (I think it's a 10 person max) it's not horribly expensive by disney standards, as little as like $350 per person. You get a guide who plans your day for you, walks you around the park, you skip all the lines, get private transport if you need to get from a resort or want to move park to park, and you can sometimes go behind the scenes and stuff.
We looked into it once but our group wasn't big enough for it to be worth it.
If you have the money then just do it. The hell that is a theme park on normal mode just sucks. I've been to Dollywood and Disney and others 60 or 70 times and it's almost always a miserable experience. I finally decided to pony up for the vip or fast pass a couple of years ago and I will never go back to just a normal ticket.
They are two different lines though. You’re not really having to shove around people.
Pay a quarter, see a duck.
It’s more akin to a luxury tax (if trying to compare to taxes).
AMC needs to fire the entire PR team.
Why didn’t they frame this as an inflation based price hike with an appended “apology to the fans” offering less desirable seats at a discount.
Instead they opted for “we’re charging you extra, better join A-list, idiot.”
Are you justifying it? By using the idea that other industries suck?
Yea I dated a chick that paid for cut the line passes many years ago. No amusement park has been the same. Went with a buddy to universal studios after that for HHN and we paid extra for express tour of mazes. We knocked all the mazes out quick that night. Next day we revisited 2 we liked and that was the entire night. Parks need to figure out a better way to make lines shorter and no cut the line.
The only way to keep the lines down is to limit daily visitors. That is never ever going to happen.
There are some parks that allow you to book a time on a ride. So for example you can book the 10:35 roller coaster and then the 10:45 lazy river. Yes you still wait but at least you don't do it in a line
Isn't that exactly how fast pass works? You show up at a certain time window?
There are activities you can add to your park that absorbs some of the extra guests. For example, shows, even short ones can absorb several hundred visitors for an hour. Turning encouraging movement through the park vs having people go directly from adjacent ride to adjacent ride. Anything that can lengthen the time a person spends between queuing can absorb some extra guests.
In Animal Kingdom my child loved getting the stamps for their wilderness explorer log. We spent more time doing that than rides.
Worst than that, they do it for transportation now too. A toll road is nothing but a faster route for those with means.
“The movie theatre is and always has been a sacred democratic space for all and this new initiative @AMCTheatres would essentially penalise people for lower income and reward for higher income,” The Lord of the Rings star wrote on Twitter.
Ya'll listen to Frodo.
Frodo don’t play that shit
Frodo ain’t never been about playing no shit, Frodo’s bitches better be wearing Jimmie’s
Frodo needs his Gat!
Frodo needs some shoes and some walking around money
AMC:
"But my PRECIOUS(money)!"
Frodo always looks out for the little guy
He’s not wrong but that is the direction we’re headed in. The rich are eating us alive.
Wow. They worked so hard to attract moviegoers over the last decade or so. Now this? Who do they think they are, airlines?
Ticket prices already penalize them.
Yup. But now when they do save up the money to go, they can't even sit in decent seats without paying premium.
They're segregating moviegoers by income, and considering that certain groups are more impacted by poverty than others, they're also segregating by other factors.
In hindsight this was a completely obvious move following their “reserved seat” changes.
I can’t believe more people (me included) didn’t predict it. But now that we know the depths AMC will go unleash the cynicism…
Movie ticket resale? (Of course AMC will use their own resale marketplace)
Adjustable seat fees? (For an extra $2 we will enable reclining; for $5, the footrest!)
Food convenience surcharge (when you purchase your food option we unlock your cupholder!)
And of course the ultimate: private bathroom subscription (for $10 a month you get access to an executive bathroom that isn’t half a mile from your screen!)
Alright... you sold me on the last one
Except this will go along with a change where all the free restrooms are much further from the theaters than they are now and all the current restrooms are converted to executive ones. Basically charging you for something you used to get as part the the ticket price
For a few bucks more, they enable the toilet built right into the recliner
Yeah, it’s not the $2 per seat for “preferred viewpoint” it’s the $20+ per ticket that’s deterring me. The last time I went to an imax moving and bought online ahead of time, cost $20+ per person plus like $3 convenience fee. Came out to almost $50 just to watch the movie. Popcorn and a drink was another $20.
Yeah the $2 is bullshit, but the deterrent was like $7-$10 ago.
They want to be the next Ticketmaster
Funnily enough, Ticketmaster started charging more for aisle seats a year or so ago. It hasn’t been at all shows. I just bought tickets last week and didn’t get upcharged for the aisle. But I’ve seen it a bunch now, and I’d never seen it in the years prior.
That new aisle policy also makes it damn near impossible to buy 3 seats in a row, because everyone buys up the middle and leaves just the 2 aisle seats.
In 2 hours prices jumped 10 dollars for a show I was looking at..
Use a private browsing or incognito mode. Some websites will use trackers to see how many times you visit and raise prices slightly on return visits.
I saw that news, starting at $50 + service charges ~ $499 for tickets and that's not VIP. Just better seats.
I see old these retro photos online of those giant concerts with 50,000+ people and think, it looks epic but they probably paid less than $20 (adjusted for inflation, maybe less than $70 without extra fees). And that was 1 band that someone liked. They probably saw multiple different bands that year.
This new model is made so you can really just go get "good seats" for barely 1 of your favorite big artist each year for a few hours.
Even spending $70 and get the worst seats in the arena sounds like a horrible deal and lose respect for the artist.
I honestly don't care how popular a musician or band is, if there's a $10 - $20 events and it has decent music, I'd rather spend my money there any weekend, 25 to 50 times a year and be at the very front.
edit: a word
He’s right in some ways, but as the head of a lower income family, we haven’t been able to afford movie tickets in years. I would say it’s more an attack on the middle class, and they should be offended. If it wasn’t for the fact that this is a last gasp of a dying business.
I hear you, we went to maybe 1 or 2 movies last year. If you buy tickets online, you get charged fees. Then at the movies, you buy concessions. A family trip to the movies costs us like $80.
Luckily we live 25 miles from a drive in where we can bring our own food. its 15 bucks a carload.
I’d love to do a drive in and be able to bring my own food. Do they usually show the latest movies?
Not the person you asked, but yes. At my local drive-in you actually get 2 movies per screen. The newest movies play first, then there's usually an older movie after that if you want to stay.
Last time I went we saw IT 2 and after that they played IT 1 as the encore.
And at my local, there's always 1 screen for adult movies and a separate one for kids.
At my local drive in during covid in 2020 they would show old movies, and lots of old horror movies.
It was great, because even if you bring chairs to sit outside your car you're still pretty distant from people.
So my gf and I would pick up some food, get some beer and an ice chest and go to the drive in every weekend.
Man that’s awesome. I’ll see if there’s any around me. Thanks!
Maybe Drive Ins will make a comeback, since regular theaters are going to close.
That actually sounds awesome and worth the price!
I find it weird how people treat buying concessions like it’s a requirement. It’s insanely overpriced, just don’t.
Yeah I never buy concessions but then again I'm one of those weirdos who don't like to eat when I watch movies.
We’ve always brought in our own food and snacks
Seriously! like at my AMC if I can stand to not eat for 2 hours it only costs me $7 to see a movie, pretty cheap activity imo
As someone who worked in a movie theater and ripped tickets, the rule is “just don’t let me see it.” So fill your coat pockets or backpack or purse with whatever you want. Once you’re inside the screen room no one cares. But the managers will be all over staff’s asses if they see a patron outside the screen room with outside food. Worst that will happen if we see it is we’ll say we’ll hold it for you until the movie is done, and set it aside for you to pick up after. Just don’t ask if you can sneak it in, you’re person 1582636 to ask and it’s no longer charming and our mandated “no,” will be bland and without joy.
Or 20 bucks for A-List, and see all the movies you'd realistically want to in a month. (I think it's 3 movies a week, or 12 a month, which I could rarely find 12 movies each month that I'd actually want to see.) A-List also covers online convenience fees as well as these preferred seats. This new policy is probably just to drive more people toward the subscription.
My A-List subscription is my favorite splurge. I always see at least 2 movies a week and never buy concessions, so they're really losing money on me. And I reserve through Fandango, so I earn $5 towards another ticket (for a friend or a Discount Tuesday showtime) every four tickets.
Edit: I love that premium showtimes are included and that fees are waived, which is the reason I chose AMC over Regal.
It's possible for much less than people realize! I paid $12/month (1 year up front) for Regal Unlimited. I can see as many movies I want, whenever I want. Concessions are free due to the amount of points I get by just going to the movies. It's a self fulfilling cycle. I see about 5 movies a month and haven't paid for popcorn in a couple years.
They have the moviepass type deal available, which lets me see quite a few movies but that isn't exactly feasible with a family unit.
I'm not poor, but I can't stomach the idea of paying $70+ for 4 people to see a movie. Have not taken the family to a theater in 4-5 years, and don't plan on it.
And that's if you don't get snacks or drinks. I just looked. $69 for 4 people before tax to see a new release. $58 for an older movie.
I'm not going to risk spending that much money on a movie that might be shit. I'll buy it on a 4k streaming service for $20 3 months after release.
I just wait for them to come to one of many streaming services within 2-3 months. Got a oled 4k with surround sound, I’m not missing the experience of a theater or cost.
Also in a lower class family and we don’t go to the movies either. We might budget for them if they looked good…but for the cost of 1 ticket, we can pay for a month’s subscription to any streaming service and a hot-n-ready pizza. It’s an easy choice.
And this is why movie theaters are hurting. You figured out the game
In-home entertainment quality is def part of it. But theaters also stopped doing their end of the implied deal when you buy a ticket. They don’t have ushers that check on the theater’s regularly, don’t tell people to leave when they’re loud, don’t watch for phones, don’t clean the screens anymore (this is a personal peeve I know but holy shit the last few times I went to the theater, the screen was filthy looking every time a white background was in a scene), they don’t tell parents no when they want to bring a baby into something that isn’t a kids movie, etc.
Now it’s ‘here’s your ticket stfu’ and they think their job is done as soon as you walk past the ticket taker when it used to be known that they had at least some responsibility of things to keep doing until the movie ended…
If it wasn't for my local theater running $5 Tuesday matinees, I wouldn't have been to the movie theater since...... Inside Out? Kubo and the Two Strings?
Honestly, the middle class is probably what the multimillionaire is talking about
I went to a movie last month and most of the pre-previews (you know, the “who said this line?” Segments) were actors and directors thanking you the viewer for doing the RIGHT THING and seeing movies WHERE THEY’RE MEANT TO BE SEEN—it put such a bad taste in my mouth, it may genuinely impact whether I go to the theatre again to avoid a lecture lol
Last movie I saw in theaters was The Force Awakens.
Last I saw was The Rise of Skywalker. You got out at the right time.
If they do this they’ll be out of business in no time…
They should be focused on bringing value back to the theater experience and not taxing their already declining customer base.
I'd settle for keeping people off their phones and quiet. Last time I went to a theater was my first trip in years and the amout of cell phone use and unruly children in an R rated movie convinced me to only go back for a very rare film and weekday early shows. I already grow weary of the public. I'm not paying for the privilege of having my movie ruined.
I only go to Alamo Drafthouse for this reason. It’s the only theater I have been to that takes having a quiet movie experience seriously.
I went to my local theater when I first moved here, to see Spiderman last year. It was awful. Expensive, and kids and parents were talking and on their phone. All that money to have a “cinematic experience” and it was totally trashed.
And the closest Alamo is 6 hours away from me, for the record lol. It’s by where my parents live. So going forward, I will only go to the cinema when I visit them.
I really respect that
This is the only reason I don't go to movies much anymore. Unlike a lot of people, I really love seeing movies in theaters, but I get so frustrated with people being disrespectful and obnoxious in the movie theater. It's infuriating.
It almost feels like AMC and Netflix are colluding to drive everyone back to piracy.
This is vastly blown out of proportion. Varying seat prices have been a thing in Germany since I can remember, and I've never heard anyone complain that the standard seats in the first row are cheaper than the reclining comfort seats in the middle. And the best part is, the only people checking your assigned seat are the people sitting on the assigned seat. So if you go on the 4th week and buy the cheapest tickets and the cinema is empty, just sit wherever you want. Just go away when the actual seat owner comes.
I mean…people just wont buy tickets anymore to movies. And why should they? Everything hits streaming services within a month of release anyway.
And you know they’re not lowering prices, so the lowest tier will probably be the normal price with everything else costing more.
It’s like entertainment providers are trying to kill their businesses. Netflix and now AMC both trying to get more money out of people in this economy is batshit.
Greed is a drug and corporations are overdosing on it. They keep having record profits but despite that, are price gouging and laying people off. It's the big squeeze. The working class is being squeezed harder than ever before. The wealthy are seeing how much they can get away with.
In AMCs case it isn’t greed, it’s survival. They’re bleeding money, they aren’t going to survive in the status quo. Two hits in the last 12 months isn’t keeping the doors open. Even if one of those hits is Avatar. Because outside of that and Top Gun, they lost money showing almost every other movie.
We all like the theater, but even with lower prices, people are going less because their home setups are so much better than when we were younger. This is the last gasp of a dying business model.
I know. Its incredibly stupid. Hopefully the plan fails and they look like idiots.
I don't go to the theater to see movies sooner, I do it because I like the experience. And I'll pay more for an outstanding experience. For instance, many theaters now offer drink service in the theater. Sold.
But until they back down and apologize for this nonsense, I'll drive much farther to avoid an AMC.
I do that or if I REALLY care to I go to local theaters that are cheaper and have a nice ambience
Everything penalizes people of lower income.
It's too fucking expensive to live. And that's without spending extras on "entertainment".
"I didn't buy coffee from starbucks in my 20s now I own a home and have a 500k 4o1k!"
I love those articles where they brag about how they own a house and have zero debt and then at the very bottom it briefly mentions that their parents paid for their college tuition and also bought them a house. And they act like they accomplished something. It's pathetic.
I haven’t been to an AMC in years and that certainly won’t be changing now. I just hope Cinemark doesn’t try to get cute.
It the last nail in the coffin for a dying company desperate to please shareholders at the expense of the customer.
The shareholders don’t even want this. They’re in debt right now, so there aren’t dividends. Pretty sure the shareholders just want the company to continue to exist.
They prefer to think of it as “disproportionately prospering from people of higher income”. They’re doing the poor a favor!
There isn’t a single aspect of modern society that isn’t being ruined by greed at this point.
not completely disagreeing... but the theaters are all in the red, the workers arent paid shit.
this business is just broken.
If anyone is responsible, maybe its hollywood for strong arming the cinemas into ticket rev share that cant support a profitable theater industry.
Dang, was structuring our entire society around greed and loudly proclaiming greed is good somehow actually a bad idea? It is possible greed is bad and altruism is good?
People get all nostalgic about the 1980s. Imo, our current dystopia is the result of everything the 80s stood for. It was a garbage decade, and the ideas it fostered were diseased with greed.
Luckily the pricing for seating in my HT basement will remain the same: free. Snacks in the drawer and a (gasp!) unisex bathroom around the corner. And at the rate cinemas are going I will make my $$ back faster than ever.
It's like these fucks forgot why everyone was pirating so much in the first place.
As if I needed another reason to just watch movies at home. Where I can pause, pee, and smoke pot.
This is as stupid as Netflix.
Capitalism is great until a majority of consumers can't afford to buy stuff. We are here.
ehh there's a difference between cant afford and "oh i can afford it but still- FUCK YOU" Thats where im at with it
It’s weird because you think these businesses would realize that people will pay for convenience. Like, I’ve pirated hockey games before because there’s literally no way to watch them. But I’d gladly pay $15 a month if I could get all of my team’s home and away games.
Like, I don’t want to pirate, but no one’s paying for something that’s expensive AND inconvenient.
User deleted comment
1.3y
I’m surprised it took this long, actually, for a movie theaters to copy what every other entertainment venue does already
I’m surprised America didn’t already have that. It’s been like that here in Germany as long as I can remember.
Exactly. And it's so much more convenient. I don't have time to stand in line for 2h just to not end up in the first row.
Just buy tickets online and arrive after the ads are through (not sure about the US, but in Germany we get like 30 mins of ads before a movie starts)
Theaters - “we’re struggling to fill seats and stay in business” Also Theaters - “we’re going to charge more for good seats”
Elijah Wood somehow being the chillest, most grounded guy who just loves horror cinema continues to give me faith in humanity
errr. the ticket price excluded lower income people years ago.
Now we are just segmenting the rich...
It’s just not how we’ve done it before and clearly a degrading of the experience with no added benefit. I didn’t really need another reason to skip out on the movies, and I genuinely feel most Americans will be happy to say ‘Nah, fuck off’ to whatever the fuck premium seating is
Some of us can afford the good seats and are just cheap though.
Not that he’s wrong, but our entire economic system penalizes people for lower income.
The movies are already way too expensive for me and I’m lower/middle class I already can’t afford it and I used to work at a theater when I was 15 I cannot believe how crazy the prices are
Protest with your wallet.
Like I needed another reason not to go to the cinema. Aside from the dire quality of films to see.
Before I was married, a trip to the cinema was a cheap date. When dating my wife, we used to go to the cinema three nights a week just to get some quality alone time and allow us to save for the deposit for our first house.
Can't imagine doing that now, minimum $30 for tickets $15 or more in concessions, three nights a week would be the thick end of five hundred dollars .... We'd have never had any spare cash to save.
It really won't because people just won't go anymore.
Ok but concert tickets even punish the middle class. I thought of driving out to Vegas to see Adele for my birthday but tickets to her residency show were a minimum of $1800. They went up to $10k. For a concert that happens regularly and you don’t even get anything special, just a seat.
Regal boutta pop off after this
aw that’s sweet but I haven’t been to the movies since once upon a time in Hollywood and the idea of being in a dark enclosed space with breath-y strangers still deeply freaks me out
I think the new system is stupid and another deterrent to go to the theater but isn't any price increase or price in general a penalty on the poor?
I think it's stupid from a business perspective. I already rarely go to the theater, maybe once a year, because it's not worth the cost to go see a movie and have a very good chance some moron is on their phone or talking through the movie. This will make it even less likely I go and I'm not even poor.
Companies raise prices all the time, I don't think they are attacks on the poor it's just businesses being bemusinesses. It's their job to maximize profits and that's what they are trying to do. In the end I think it bites them in the ass because movies are already expensive, not just for poor people, and also it seems like people are tired of being nickeled and dimed with fees and add one that used to not exist or be included. It's the Airbnb cleaning fee and reataraunt recovery fee all over again.
There will just be half empty theatres
This will backfire. They'll sell some expensive seats in the middle of the theater and the rest will go empty.
who even goes to the theatre anymore,,,, the whole experience is expensive and dreadful
It won't penalize anyone cuz we will stop going to AMC all together
This will kill off cinema’s which is probably their plan. Make all their money on line.
AMC does not produce shit and relies entirely on people going to theaters… exactly what purpose does “killing off cinema” serve a business who makes the entirety of their revenue from people showing up to their space to view cinema.
As someone who worked at a movie theater for years, I’ve been scratching my head for years about how they’re still open. I’ve talked about this with people I used to work with and other people I’ve met who worked at theaters back in the day, and NO ONE understands how they’re still open.
Theaters make pennies on the dollar off ticket prices, pretty much all of their revenue comes from concessions. People aren’t going as often, have been sneaking in food for years, and the electric bills for a movie theater are absolutely astronomical.
My theory is that the studios are subsidizing the chains like AMC and Regal and Carmike, but with every studio being absorbed by either Disney or Warner Bros it looks like the RLM guys were right and theaters are just gonna become extensions of Disney theme park rides soon
Person you’re replying to has got it all wrong. It’s not some malevolent evil genius move. It’s a desperate flail by a sinking company to do something, anything, to stay alive in a world where it’s dying. It isn’t this malicious plot, it’s desperation.
While I understand that, I just don't see how raising prices on anything right now is going to bring people back in?
People are complaining about barely surviving with paying their necessary bills... jacking up an entertainment extra cost is only going to make people just wait til it's cheaper. I'm not saying you're wrong - it does seem desperate - but let's see how that works out for them.
It’s not going to work. But they need to appease shareholders and they’re dying the way they’re operating right now. They have no other options than this. It’s going to fail and speed up their demise, but they need to try something to show shareholders that they’re not dead yet. It’s a stupid terrible idea but the way the stock market works, they gotta try something to keep shareholders happy, even if it doesn’t work.
They make their money off concessions and ticket sales…
AMC has been losing billions of dollars for years while diluting the shit out of their shares. AMCs purpose is to make their top dogs even richer.
Oh, this is why a friend was complaining about assigned seats in theaters.
Well, also because it means he can't get up and go away from the teenagers making out or assholes talking all movie.
There's a special hell for those people.
I can’t think of a movie I wanted to see bad enough to see it in theaters for at least 5 years.
For the price of a few dozen family outings, you can get a 75” tv and actually save money by watching at home without the hassle of other asshole moviegoers and the lack of pausing to use the bathroom.
Theaters can die like blockbuster.
Wait, but I missed wandering around the store trying to find a movie to watch. "What about this one honey?" Nah
People aren't going to movies that much anymore anyways right ? How is this going to make me want to go
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.