According to the Guardian today, US movie ticket prices rose (as if you needed me to tell you that) while the audience figures dropped throughout 2004.
Higher ticket prices were expected to push takings up to a record $9.4bn (£4.8bn), beating the previous record of $9.32bn in 2002.
However, box office experts Exhibitor Relations said they expected a 2.5% dip in the number of tickets sold from 2003’s 1.54bn admissions.
Time for a change perchance? No such luck, let’s bleed ’em dry seems to be the attitude.
“I don’t think it’s time to panic yet,” Jim Tharp, head of distribution at DreamWorks, told the Associate Press. “It would take another couple of years of this trend for it to be something of concern.”
Either that or they are just incredibly slow learners. What is interesting though is what accounted for the money coming in, five movies are responsible for a nearly a sixth of the project Hollywood revenues. Chew over that fact for a moment or two, that’s quite amazing. They were:
Shrek 2, Spider-Man 2, The Passion Of The Christ, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban and The Incredibles
The figures don’t look good, but it looks like the execs are going to take a good two years of this continuing trend before they even think of doing something.
This is just poor business sense, they’ve dropped for a reason, find out the why people don’t want to go to the cinema anymore and attract them back in, oh and don’t try that piracy line again the drop in admission doesn’t correlate with the connection rates to the Internet.
Actually, looking at it another way, it’s excellent business sense. There is a captive marketplace and there is still healthy turnover, whether it’s down on last year or not. So just keep going until the profit edges towards being average and then drop prices, start feeding the marketplace again and pull back the profits.
Am I as cynical as John? Don’t answer that one. Instead of debating whether they are right or wrong to do this, let’s try something else. What can the movie industry do to change? If you were sitting in front of a board table of all the Studio Execs and they were looking to you for a way forward, what would you do?
I went to the theater for the first time in years only because POLAR EXPRESS was in 3-D ($60 with popcorn) and I wanted the kids to see it that way. It is a law of business that price and volume are directly related. The theater owners are proving it to be an absolute. The trend (attendance loss with DVD increase)started some time ago. The events of 9/11 “burped” it. The theater owners are dedicated to making money not improving presentation (digital projection/sound). Their greed will accelerate this trend especially when the HD-DVD starts getting some market share.
For my part I continue to make improvments to my home theater and patiently await each new DVD release. The popcorn cost much less and the presentation is far superior.
The main problem is over inflated ticket prices. I used to go to the movies a lot but haven’t in a long time. Spider-Man, Troy, Mean Girls, all seen at the theatre. Lately, I have the urge to see Blade: Trinity and Alexander (2 equally “event” films) but the pricing would repel such a motivation.
There is a theatre that shows a great deal of movies for matinee $7.50 but none of them are popular films I want to watch. The more mainstream films are shown at the theatre chain, which holds a monopoly over the other ones and so, charge $10-12 dollars flat rate. How ludicrous is that?
And would you rather pay for a movie (vcd format), which you get to keep and less cost over a movie ticket? Would you rather wait and pay double for a dvd which you get to keep after watching? That’s what I’ve been doing for THE alternative and it’s great. Like yesterday, Shaolin Soccer vcd for $6 bucks >>> $11 to go see Blade: Trinity.
Lastly, I don’t go to opening screenings anymore cause there’s always a disturbance, which ruins the entire movie experience. Concession item prices are high because that’s one means of movie theatres supporting themselves.
I truly hope that studio execs get their collective teeth kicked in by the videogaming industry and downward ticket sales. Only then will they recognize how inept it is to keep bleeding the cow dry. And piracy an issue? Sh–, not a lot of people have that much patience.
BTW to the webmaster and staff of this website, keep up the great work!
IA
Cut prices, its that simple. People are tired of shelling out $10 a ticket for the movie and $8 for popcorn and $3 for a drink. When they can just go to the video store, pick up a movie for $3 bucks take it home, sit in their underwear and eat Wendy’s.
Yeah, it’s annoying having to pay as much for a soda as I’d pay for a beer at a restaurant. At least part of the reason for high concession prices is the profit structure of ticket sales with the bulk of the profit going to the studio early on and the theater’s percentage increasing over time.
The problem with this is that a lot of people want to see “event” movies in the first week or two of release, when most of the cash goes to the studio and little to the theaters hosting the movie. Another thing that hurts theaters is when an over-hyped piece of crap movie gets a semi-decent opening weekend, but word of mouth kills it, so the theaters see hardly any money from it.
Vic
What can be done?
For one, they can stop the seemingly unending parade of ads before the movie actually starts. Previews are okay (in moderation, considering that awful Mask2 preview has been playing for a year now), but the ads are unrelenting.
They can also stop trying to get us to buy overpriced pop and popcorn. Look, sometimes all I want is a Snickers and a can of Diet Coke. Give it to me for $US1.50, and I’d weep with joy.
I’ll 2nd the comment to stop trying to throw the latest “hit song” at us in hopes that the Teen Girl Squad will race out to get the CD. We don’t all need to have our ears bleeding by the end of the movie.
Movie execs may also want to look at those Top Movies. Many of those movies have a a major thing in common besides huge budgets – They are all named after people. Even the Cartoon characters on that list had more personality than the people in most movies. Catch-phrases and annoying music montages won’t make a movie worth watching.
Make better movies at a lower cost to the consumer. Lower snack prices from the theaters. Create a more enjoyable viewing experience (e.g. block cell phones, somehow shut rude people’s pie holes, mop the sticky soda residue from the floor occasionally, etc.), and make a trip to the movies more of an event like it used to be.
The problem with all this is that the studios are beginning to make more money from the DVD sales than the actual theater releases. Movies (note I don’t use the word film) themselves are becoming a huge commercial for the DVD that will follow in 4-6 months. This really leaves little incentive for the studios to improve on the theater experience for the consumer that will begrudgingly brave the theater as it is today. Unless there is some mass exodus from the theater, change is unlikely.
What would I say? stop all this pg-13 crap. Stop toning down movies so a younger audience can get in. stp trying to make all your movies super fast paced and try developing a little of the story and Characters instead of just trying to go on cheap jokes and a new flashy rap sound track alone.
I’d be interested to know what the figures are on total movie revenues: Theater and DVDs. Perhaps the calm reaction is due to the fact that overall the studios are actually taking in more revenue than they were a few years ago.
Overly loud soundtracks, pre-movie TV commercials, idiots talking at conversational levels behind you, overpriced snacks… Home Theater is looking better and better, baby. :-)
Vic