This is an idea a commentor on the site gave about a year ago, and I thought I’d explore it a little bit. I’ve often complained on The Movie Blog about the price of going to see the movies these days… it’s just too damn expensive for most people to go to three or more movies a month (with a date and popcorn that would run you about $100).
The other day I was watching Wedding Crashers. I usually arrive a little early for no reason really. But as we approached show time, the theater was filling up pretty quickly. With still about 5 minutes to go, I saw a group of people walk in and realize they were going to have to sit in one of the front 2 rows. As you know, in most theaters the front couple of rows are HORRIBLE for watching a movie from.
Sitting up there, your neck bent back almost as far as it can go… and having to turn your head from left to right just to follow what’s happening on the screen. It sucks.
I felt bad for these people who walked in. after all… they paid just as much for a ticket as the person sitting just in front of me… but that person was going to enjoy the film a whole lot more because of where they were sitting.
That got me thinking a little again about the notion of different prices for different areas of seats. I don’t mean that each ticket would be for one specific seat (this ticket is for seat 5G). But designate a certain area of seats (bad seats) as discount seats (say… 25% cheaper than the regular seats).
Now, I know some people would abuse this. They’d buy the discount seats and then just go in and sit in the better seats. So only make the “Cheap Seats” available once 75% of the seats for a show have been sold. So if someone buys their tickets when there are tons of seats left… they have to buy the regular priced tickets. But… if someone shows up and most of the seats are already sold, they can buy the discounted tickets since they’ll have to sit in terrible seats.
I don’t know… I think it sound like a good idea. Your thoughts?
