The attention and interest generated by the article I put up the other day on Why Commercials Before Movies Is Worse Than Piracy continues to generate a lot of discussion (and so the topic should). One of the recurring emails I’ve been getting from a lot of people is the question about why it costs so much to go to the movie theater(in light of the commercials and ad revenue the industry is making for itself), where does the money go and how do we make this stop?
Much of what I’m writing here now is a lot of paraphrasing from a chapter in my abandoned book project from a few years ago. But here’s the gist:
1) Who Gets What From Your $10 Ticket?
Ok, so you walk up to the box office and drop down your $10 to buy your ticket. Who gets that money? A lot of people assume (as did I at one point) that the movie theater keeps 50% of it, and the rest goes off to the studios. That’s not really true.
Most of the money that a theatre takes in from ticket sales goes back to the movie studio. The studio leases a movie to your local theater for a set period of time. In the first couple of weeks the film shows in the theatre, the theatre itself only gets to keep about 20% - 25% of the green. That means, if you showed up to watch Bridget Jones’ Diary on opening night, then of the $12 you put out for a ticket, the movie theatre only got to keep between $2.40 and $3.00 of it.
That’s not a lot of money, especially when you think about how much bigger and elaborate theatres are these days. It’s not cheap running one of these places. It can get even worse. This percentage will vary from movie to movie depending on the specifics of the individual leasing deal. For instance, 2 movie theatre managers told me that for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the studio took 100% of the box office take for the first week of release. Can you imagine that? They had to over staff and have above normal capacity flood into their theatres… and they got to keep $0.00 from the ticket sales. That almost seems criminal.
Now, as you move into the second and third weeks of release, the percentage starts to swing to anywhere from 45% - 55% that the theatre gets to keep. It gets better after the fourth week when theatres generally can keep up to 80% or better of the ticket sales. There is an obvious inherent problem with this arrangement. I don’t know about you, but when I finally get around to seeing a film that’s already been in the theatres for 4 or 5 weeks, I’m usually one of the only people in the place. It doesn’t do the establishment a lot of good to keep 80% of the ticket sales when only 14 tickets are sold per show. And with more and more and more movies getting released every week, the length of time that a movie stays in theaters is shrinking. Bad news for the movie theaters.
Movie theaters are then forced to really make their money off concessions. One theater manager said “We’re not in the movie business… we’re in the candy business”. Very true. So if you ever wondered why a $0.15 bag of popcorn is costing you $5, and a $0.08 cup of Coke is running you another $4… it’s because the economics of the industry system is so screwed up that the concession stand is where theaters have to make most of their money.
2) The Cost Of Making The Movies
With the cost of today’s movies getting higher and higher, the studios leverage their position with the theaters to squeeze more and more out of the arrangement mentioned in point #1. 10 years ago they weren’t paying Chris Tucker $25 million dollars for one movie… for 3 months work… a hack… CHRIS TUCKER… $25 million. Superman Returns did NOT need to cost $200 million to make. Spider-Man 3 did NOT need to cost $250 million to make. These numbers are astounding when you consider that just 7 years ago they would have called you mad. The pace of costs is far outpacing the requisite inflation… and there is really no excuse for it.
This is directly tied to how much you and I pay at the box office, and thus tied to why popcorn has to cost so much, and thus tied to why we see commercials. The higher the costs go for for making films, the higher my costs will be to enjoy a night at the theater. Sure, Transformers made tons of money… but the studios have to squeeze us for everything they can get to make up for their flops… their films that DON’T make money.
And people always wonder why I get so pissed off whenever I think about Chris Tucker getting $25 million. Because ultimately that money (at least in part) is coming out of my wallet.
3) The Organism of the Studio/Theater Relationship
To really make sense of all this, you have to step back and look at the Studios and the Theaters as one industry entity and view it from the perspective of how the parts work together to truly get a grasp on how big and out of control the problem is. You can’t just try to blame the Studios… nor can you just blame the Theaters. You have to look at them both (in this situation anyway) as one industry… how it functions… and ultimately how it affords its mistakes and inefficiencies at our expense.
The studios spend too much money making movies (and make too many movies), they squeeze as much box office revenue as they can from the Theaters thus forcing the theaters to charge us high ticket prices to make what little they can from each ticket, gouge us at the concession stand to make ends meet and show commercial after commercial after bloody commercial to pad some profit.
Do you see what happens? Look over #3 again. Ultimately, the studios don’t have to learn from their mistakes, theaters don’t have to manage themselves smarter… because as costs and losses and expenditure add up… they just keep passing off the bill to us. We pay for their mismanagement and spiraling costs. Why should they change anything or fix anything when they know that we’ll just pay more to make up for their mistakes.
We pay for their mismanagement with our high ticket prices.
We pay for their mad decisions with $6 bags of popcorn
We pay for Chris Tucker’s $25 million paycheck with our time watching in-theater commercials.
All the while the industry continues happily along its downward spiral feeling no ill effects of their stupidity… because they’ve taken those ill effects and shoved them up our rectums for US to deal with.
4) The Solution Has To Start With The Theaters
If this insanity is ever going to stop… if change in the economics of going to the movies is going to ever happen, I’m convinced it will have to first start with the theaters. Movie theaters have to better organizes themselves and collectively stand up the the Studio system and REFUSE to let 80% of the box office dollar for a films first week of release go flying out the door to Hollywood. By not standing up collectively, the movie theaters act as complicit enablers to the studios behavior.
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEATER OWNER ASSOCIATIONS REFUSED TO GIVE ANY MORE THAN 50% OF OPENING WEEK BOX OFFICE MONEY TO THE STUDIOS? I’ll tell you what would happen:
a - Studios would be forced to SERIOUSLY look at their own economics and financial responsibility. There would be no more $25 million dollar pay days for B string actors
b - Theaters would actually start making some money on… you know… MOVIES
c - With added revenue from the actual box office, the pressure on theaters to add more ads, to raise ticket prices, to jack up popcorn costs… would be at least a little bit alleviated.
It has to be a collective effort by the theater owners or else the studios will just refuse to give their movies to the stubborn theaters and give all the business to others. If the Theater Owner associations collectively said “no”, the studios would have no choice but to start to fix their leaky boat
5) Why Not Going To The Theaters Won’t Fix The Problem
Some people will say “Well then let’s not go to the movie theaters until we force them to change”. That will NEVER work, because as I’ve demonstrated above, when there are financial losses, the current industry system just takes back those loses from those who are buying the tickets. They’ll blame piracy for the dip in thater attendance and raise prices even more. It’s a systemic problem.
And if you think you’re safe from these rises and gouges because you just watch movies at home on DVD…. guess where the systemic problem will strike next once they’ve bleed the theater goers as much as they possibly can? DVDs and HD discs will suddenly start costing $60 a shot and Hollywood will pressure Washington to pass tax laws on Big TVs to pay a fee to the studios for each unit sold, thus raising prices there too.
You see… the answer to all the current systems problems is to take more from us. Thus, the system itself has to change, the the theaters are the ones who have to start it.
Just some late night ramblings. Take it as you will.
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52 Comments, Comment or Ping
ethernz
Having the movie theaters stand up to the production company is a great idea in theory. In practice if they did demand 50% of ticket prices back they’d probably just view it as a 50% increase in profit. It’s hard to get corporations to let go of their money (which is why the theaters would struggle to get anywhere) and I’d doubt that the movie-going public would get much of that back in their pockets. That being said if the theaters only dropped the price of tickets by 10% I’d be happy.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Time Waster
That is fascinating. But I think theaters need to take more responsibility for the noisy, obnoxious crowds that ruin the experience.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Jimmy
Wow. NICE POST, John! It’s a shame that you aren’t in charge of the National Association of Theater Owners. Your editorial has a lot of merit, showing yet another reason why I visit the Movie Blog every day.
To ethernz - I also wouldn’t mind seeing the theaters loosen up their prices for a change. But I fear that you may be right in your opinion that the theaters’ mentality will probably be as you described. Still, it’s something to hope for.
To Time Waster - Short of kicking the “obnoxious crowds” out of the theater, there’s not much else the theater can do, but I propose a solution: If a person (or persons) becomes too rowdy, the theater should stop the film immediately at the end of the reel, and refuse to continue onto the next one unless the offending parties leave the theater, receiving no refund for their ticket. The remaining patrons who have behaved themselves will not only continue watching the film, but they, upon exiting, will receive a voucher/coupon off their next visit to the theater (maybe a small discount in ticket prices and/or snacks.)
I know that sounds stupid, but it’s the only thing I can think of to punish people who ruin the experience for everyone else.
Oct 22nd, 2007
T-Jax
I’ve done a little research about the situation in Europe.
Ticket price structure in France:
Theater revenue: ~41%
Producer and distributor revenue: ~41%
VAT (value-added tax): ~5%
TSA (special tax that goes to the French film fund): ~12%
SACEM (tax that goes to composers, music editors etc): ~1%
The ad revenue constitutes around half of the theater revenue (~20%).
These percentages seem to vary little from one year to the other.
Sources:
http://cinetribulations.blogs.com/tribulations/2004/11/composition_du_.html
http://www.linternaute.com/sortir/cinema/business/dossier/cinema-trop-cher/ou-va-votre-argent/3.shtml
http://cinepays.free.fr/adamr/adamr.html
Some average ticket prices in Europe:
Spain: 4.8 Euro (6.8$)
Germany, 2006: 6 Euro (8.5$)
France, 2006: 6 Euro (8.5$)
Luxembourg, 2004: 6.6 Euro (9.4$)
Sweden, 2005(?): 8.3 Euro (11.8$)
Switzerland: 9.6 Euro (13.7$)
Sources:
http://www.ffa.de/start/download.php?file=marktdaten/3_Besucher_Umsatz_Preise/3.4_Entwicklung/eintrittspreise_02bis06.pdf
http://www.cna.public.lu/1_FILM/1_5_Les_salles/index.html
http://www.sweden.se/upload/Sweden_se/french/factsheets/SI/Le_cinema_suedois_FD112d.pdf
http://www.cnc.fr/CNC_GALLERY_CONTENT/DOCUMENTS/publications/dossiers_et_bilan/304/01_chapitre.pdf
I’m from Romania; the normal ticket price in the capital city is ~4$, not including malls/movieplexes where the price is usually 5-6$ during the week and 7-8$ in weekends.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Tom
Very nice article.
I myself have not thought about this before really. I never really thought past handing my money over the counter.
So i guess all this time when people talk about how much films have grossed each week etc and how much money they make… does that mean all those figures are based on the percentage the studios take from the total addmission or is that just on ticket sales in general?
I had always thought wow this movie made $100m, and my $10 is in there too… should i be thinking that my $3-5 is in there?
That does suck for theatres and it does make me sympathise for them having to hike their prices continually. Never the less i’m sure i’m still going to go regularly no matter how much they increase so there isn’t much point in me saying otherwise.
Bloody great post though!
Oct 22nd, 2007
T-Jax
John, would you please moderate my post, so it can appear in the comments? Thanks in advance.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Brian Bircham
Wow talk about eye opening.
I love the way that this post followed my thought process, as untill I saw point 5, I would have been in that catogry.
But if this is the case my sympathy goes to us, as we pick up the bill. Its ashame that companies in hollywood and cinemas in genral remain so nieve about certian issues, when all they need to do it open their ears to people who know the way. People like John Campia :P
Brian
Oct 22nd, 2007
stumpy
to Jimmy: to stop the movie at the end of a reel these days is impossible in most theaters because they use platter systems in projection. also to stop the movie would be much more of an annoyance and disturbance then some rowdy dick in the theatre. if you have a problem tell and usher and they should be able to sort it out ( ushers generally check a movie three times during the feature, but they are checking for cell phones, cameras etc they cant wait around for quiet moments in the movie to hear people talking.) if im every in a movie and they stop it because someone is talking to much, that person has won.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Brooks
This issue is so complicated. I hear what you guys are saying, but there are many sides to this.
First of all, the dollar figures that studios put out there are inflated to give the impression that this is a movie worth seeing because it cost so much. Want to see what a 250 million dollar movie looks like? Go see Superman Returns…it’s a marketing ploy. The actual movie cost is not even close to that. But it’s impossible to say for sure since all of Hollywood accounting is shrouded in complete darkness (hence the impending WGA strike, and SAG and DGA soon to follow).
Marketing cost. STUDIOS not the theaters pay the marketing costs. The studios make the movies, put all the risk and money into them, and then pay the marketing costs that drive people to the theaters. It is damn hard to produce a film. Look what some of these filmmakers have to go through for a single project, often many years in the making. The theaters just wait for people to show up and collect. The amount of work is trivial, overhead in comparison is minimal, and the risk is also very low. This is why I think the studios should get as much of the money upfront as possible. Even with a high percentage take, the STUDIOS will not even recoup marketing costs from their BO take, let alone their production costs. And I am pretty sure that Studios don’t see a dime on all the concession business and advertising revenue. So all that more than makes up for their reduction in percentage take.
With that said, I agree that the Studios should stop paying jackasses huge amounts of money and they need to reduce their production costs. I don’t understand how this even happens when it is so difficult to get a project through the studio system in the first place. The Studios are so risk averse and fiscally conservative most of the time and have thousands of projects competing for very few spots. Some project spend years and years in development before getting the greenlight. You would think a system like this would prevent the kind of excess that we see every year. It’s like someone on a strict diet and exercise program all year long, and then from Thanksgiving through New Year they decide to stop exercising and eat as much crap as possible. They go from being in “300″ shape to being fat and lazy almost overnight. Then the cycle repeats in various forms.
Ticket prices. I don’t understand why anyone would pay $12 for a ticket, at least on a regular basis. I can see a matinee during the day for $5.50, it’s not crowded and I can pick any seat I want. Especially if I don’t go opening weekend. Why not wait a week or two?
Oct 22nd, 2007
John
Hey Brooks,
You said:
“Marketing cost. STUDIOS not the theaters pay the marketing costs. The studios make the movies, put all the risk and money into them, and then pay the marketing costs that drive people to the theaters.”
But that is all part of the whole systemic problem. Yes studios pay marketing costs…. but that only adds to their incitement to squeeze higher percentages out of the theaters…. which in turn force theaters to jack prices, show commercials… ect. ect. ect.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Grave
Yea know this sounds like the same problem as with the high prices for gas in the US. The companies want to make more money so they raise prices to make a bigger profit. Whats sad is that we as a nation or as human beings will take this price increse with bad language but do noting about it. Sorry guys and gals but this problem will never get fixed. So sit back and watch the industry implode on itself.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Brooks
Actually gas companies are not largely responsible for the higher costs of gas. It has to do with the market value of oil which constantly fluctuates based on supply and demand. There’s probably some manipulation there, but it has more to do with the people who control the oil wells. The demand for oil mounts as emerging economies in the world suck up more and more everyday, namely India and China. The difference with the entertainment business is that consumers DO NOT NEED entertainment, while the world NEEDS oil.
So with respect to entertainment, the consumer really has all the control. If people pay for something, then they are doing so on their own free will. If you think ticket prices are too high, or you dislike the advertising, or whatever, then boycott. Your wallet is your vote. I know people who pay extra to see their movie in IMAX. But I also know people who wait 1-2 months and watch their movies in the dollar theater. Yeah, the quality of the picture and sound is not great but you get what you pay for.
With marketing costs, the studios have no choice but to market like hell. Audiences are so fickle and getting them in on opening weekend is absolutely critical. Fifty percent dropoffs the next week are the norm. But this is crazy because no one has seen a movie before opening weekend! The reason people see a movie on opening weekend is because of marketing which explains why great movies often make little BO and some of the crappy blockbusters make a ton. Once you’ve bought your ticket, you can’t get your money back if the movie sucks.
John, I think your point of cutting back on the crazy costs is the one thing that must happen. Any single person making more than 10 million for a movie is insane. Even that much is absolutely crazy. Most people will work their entire life and never accumulate as much as a million (not to mention inflation). It’s a crime how much some of these people get paid.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Frank
Very interesting article. I’ve always wondered where the money went when you bought a movie ticket. Any chance you could enlighten us on the rental industry? It would be interesting to know where our five bucks go when we rent a movie at Blockbuster, or where our fifteen bucks a month go for Netflix.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Meiran
I’ve been saying for a while that the only thing that will happen if people “boycott” the theatres is that the quality of movies will go down steadily.
Great and innovative science fiction will be gone. Difficult to understand dramas? Gone.
We will have nothing but a newly revived series of Kangaroo Jack films, because teenagers with nothing to do but pay ticket prices will determine what gets made, because what gets made is what makes money.
Support your favorite films by seeing them in the theatre, it’s the only way to talk to the studios. Vote with your wallet. You can complain and gripe about the system, but the only people you hurt are the artists that deserve to be helped.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Phil Gee
Brillaint article John; and i wish that the theater owners would band together. Of course, as with many problems in this world, the idea of an entire industry taking a united stand seems too complicated for them to grasp. At the very least, it will require a lot of courage.
Let’s ask ourselves a ‘what if’ here. What if one of the major chains (let’s say Loews - it’s the only one i know) did demand a new deal with the studios, but none of the other chains did? The studios say ‘no deal’ because there are plenty of other chains that haven’t asked for any change, and those chains would see it as a way of killing their competition. Would the studios just stop giving their films to Loews?
Oct 22nd, 2007
B A T M A N
excellent article!
Oct 22nd, 2007
David Thorne
Wow. Fantastic article. Really.
Thank you so much for putting this up. We will be linking to you shortly!
http://www.mediamorgue.blogspot.com
Oct 22nd, 2007
Kurt
I’m not 100% sure on this, but didn’t that scaling frontloaded model between the studios and the theatres (20/50/80) end about 2-3 years ago. Have you checked with anyone lately (you mention Attack of the Clones, well that was 5 years ago at this point, I honestly do think this has changed.
David Poland talks abuot this stuff all the time, i bet a quick email may clear things up for you. I don’t have references, and I don’t know I’m right on this, but I do think things have changed, thereby labelling your points #1 and #3 slightly mis-informative if I’m right.
Oct 22nd, 2007
alfie
i think you are right in that it has changed kurt.
the 20/50/80 thing was good for its time but due to the way films are so front loaded now i believe most of the major chains have renegotiated the balance of who gets what when.
Oct 23rd, 2007
probitionate
In a way, discussion about theatrical releases is kindasorta moot. Currently cinema revenues account for less than 13% of worldwide studio receipts.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m an avid cinema-goer and don’t even watch movies on ‘the small screen’. So I’m not cheering for the continual diminution of the ’silver screen’. But as Dylan sang, the times, they sure are a changin’.
Mostly the studios see theatres as a means to get the word out. Break the ice. That’s it.
And it’s only going to get worse when downloadable movies at initial release becomes a reality. And believe me…it’s gonna happen.
Oct 23rd, 2007
HandnHalfSword
John:
I agree with you that the theaters are getting a raping from the studios.
I’d love to help them out by buying more snack bar items, but there’s nothing there I can eat.
Theater managers…how about stocking some Caffeine Free Diet Coke and some Atkins bars. I want to help you out…but work with me here.
Oct 24th, 2007
paul
It is sad that it cost $6 for a bag of popcorn, but as you and others say the machine is rolling and therefore hard to stop. I would say let the studios take over the theaters, but alas they would just raise prices across the board and spend more and more millions on bad movies. I go to the movies 2 to 3 times a month and more if I have to check out a movie before taking the youngsters and all there friends. I can only see it getting worse.
Jun 23rd, 2008
Sean
You guys are forgetting a major concept known as supply and demand. Things very rarely are priced based cost, rather they are priced based on supply and demand.
You determine if for each additional raise in price if it knocks enough people out of the market to not make the move worthwhile.
In a roundabout way the high costs imposed by the studios may result in higher prices, but not in the way you describe it. By the studios making it expensive to run a theater, they end up limiting the supplies of theaters. (There is not one on every corner.) So, the supply is low, the demand is still the same, the price goes up.
The Studios and the Theaters though have done a lot of marketing and upgrading to increase the Demand for going to a movie, thus allowing them to charge a higher rate.
I guarantee you that if tomorrow the Studios dropped their percentage to 25% across the board, you would see almost no difference in movie prices. Why would they. If they could sell 10,000 tickets at $10 apiece, why would they drop the price to sell 15,000 tickets at $7.50 apiece… to be nice? What about the shareholders of AMC who expect to be rewarded for their investment? SHould the board be giving away its shareholders money to make movie goers happier?
Eventually you would see more theaters being built because all of the sudden you could make a killing on running a theater, and then prices would drop.
However, with all of these theaters there would be a lot of demand for the Studios movies, and thus the Studios would charge more, Theaters would go out of business and prices would return to what they are.
The laws of supply and demand are pretty much always going to work.
So you can rail about costs all you like, and if you choose not to be $10 for a movie, that is your right as a consumer, but trust me that the cost of making the movie has no direct effect on the end price charged to the consumer. It is a common misconception about how markets work.
Jun 26th, 2008
donperd
congrats, one of best movie article ever read
Jun 27th, 2008
jonson roth
Exactly who is the effing moron who agreed to first give a idiot, talentless hack like Chris Tucker $25M? Gotta be some political machinations going on, eh? We need to blog about this kind of idiocy and start naming names.
So, sounds like we the moviegoers get screwed no matter what. But if we spend more time watching web video instead, they’ll not get our eyeballs. In other words, what if we can organize, by way of blogging, a moratorium on all new movies for a year, in theater, DVD and any rental formats. If we succeed and make our concerns clear, maybe with a 100 movie bloggers helping out, we might at least slap Studios/ Theater Owners in the face a bit. A wake up call that we’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. At least not $25M for Chris Tucker.
Jun 27th, 2008
george
jonson roth could be on to something.
i mean we’ve all seen the power of viral marketing and the blogosphere.
someone should make a blog called
christuckerdoesntdeserve25million.blogspot.com
Jun 28th, 2008
theprojectionist
hi guys,
I am a cinema projectionist of 12 years now and love to read the legendary “myth’s” people have about how much cinemas/theatre make in revenue from customers.
the facts are simple:
the only time advertisers are interested in is shows at 6pm friday to last show sunday as that is where the most amount of cash is generated.
cinemas/theatre pay very low rental for the buidings they use.
very few of them actually own the builsing they trade in.
cinema movie are mass produced on polyester stock whic his cheap to produce, easy to run and can be processed to be reused in future.
out of 45 shows per week only 10 are money making performances.
cinemas waste 25% of daily stock through not being trained properly in portion sizes.
cinemas use projectors that are of “dinosaur” age. alot of the machinery is oloder then the projections or the age of the building.
cinemas waste 30% of electricity per month through opening to early and running to empty screens for 6 hours per day.
auditoriums on average only run air conditioning twice per week. not every day
there is more bacteria on the seats then in the bathrooms
big industrial popcorn bags are purchased for £1 each and a 10th of the bag is charged for £5 to customers.
cinema staff are paid less per hour then someone working in a coffee shop.
if you report a picture or sound problem with the movie you watch 80% of projectionist dont do anything
you can use a mobile in the auditorium and even next to the projector without any technical problems.
cinemas say “dont use your phone” in screens due to customer complaints NOT technical problems.
piracy in cinema is decreasing.
internet downloading is forcing cinemas to go digital 5 years before they planned to.
my advice to you is simple:
buy your own food from a supermarket to save 80% of your cinema bill.
call the theatre 30 minutes before you arrive and ask for priority sitting. its free and you will be given the best seats by the manager.
when the cinema states its sold out its a lie (they hold 30 seats spare in case vip turn up)
if you experience a sound/picture problem in a screen ask to speak to a projectionist and ask them what sound proccessor/projector they are using and the volume level. guarentee he or she will check the problem asap.
dont dont dont waste time ordering tickets over the phone, cinemas make £1.30 extra from ticket sales. only pay cash
make friends with the projectionist, he will run the movie to rehearse it early one morning and you’ll get to see it for free.
if your not happy with your visit, keep your tickets and write into the cinema with your concerns. 99% of the time you’ll either get a refund or a pair of tickets free
Jun 29th, 2008
the dude
It’s ridiculous how much some of these film stars are paid. Something needs to be done!
Jul 4th, 2008
boxer1dog
(Type your comment here. Make sure you’ve read the commenting rules before doing so)
I UNDERSTAND THE THE MOVIE COMPANIES FORK OUT ALOT OF MONEY ON MAKING AND ADVERTISING THE MOVIE. I ALSO THINK THAT IT IS TOTALLY REDICULOUS THAT THESE CELEBRITIES ARE MAKING MULTI MILLION DOLLARS FOR EACH MOVIE. I DONT THINK THERE IS A MOVIE STAR OUT THERE WORTH WHAT THEY GET PAID. WE BUY GOING TO THE MOVIE ARE FUNDING THERE FAT SALARIES. I THINK THEY SHOULD PAY THEM LESS AND PASS TRE SAVINGS TO US. I THINK THE SOLUTION IN REAL SIMPLE..
Jul 6th, 2008
DIDOMAN.COM
Question to the theprojectionist, If the cinema is empty do you still run the movie. Wouldn’t you see that no tickets where sold so about 10 minutes into the film, just turn it off and save the planet.
I know where I live the 10 Cinema Megaplex never has anybody in it during the day and mid week, except for Tight Ass Tuesday…
I must admit nothing beats a good cinema experience once a week and for the amount of money that these guys spend on making the movies, sort of makes me guilty by not going….
Tom Cruise - $25 Million Dollars
Projectionist - $10/hr
Got a love it……
Jul 8th, 2008
theprojectionist
for didoman.com
yes personally if I see that a auditorium is empty after the last trailer in the program I do switch off the projector.
sometimes a stray customer will wonder in a few minutes before the movie is about to start and then your stuck running it !!!!!
occasionally the movie buyers randomly visit sites to check the progress of customer numbers but on the whole I dont like to run movies to empty screens, it also means at the end of the night I have one less screen to close down so helps me and save energy for planet earth, everyones a winner.!!!!
Jul 8th, 2008
[email protected]
Maybe they should just make cheaper movies like Casablanca. Less special effects and more real acting! There are tons of good movies that were produced with small budgets. But people want more and more action…
Producers and theaters need to realize that the more movies become expensive the more piracy will increase.
Jul 9th, 2008
Joe Blow
Um, I don’t know where you get your information wrong, but maybe do some more research. It has way more to do with inflation and theatre overhead than anything. Studios NEVER get 100% of a films first or second or any weeks gross. Ever. Over the course of a year, a studio MIGHT get upwards of 55% of the theatres gross for their titles, and that’s about it. Theatres don’t share ANY of their revenue from concessions, so why shouldn’t the studio see at least half of the rental for the movies they made.
Shoulda known the fact that you call your site the “The Official Home of Correct Movie Opinions” that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Jul 10th, 2008
Daniel
This is why I have taken my own popcorn, candy and drinks to the theater for the last 15 years IF i were to go. This is also why I bought magic DVD program. 450 movies and counting!
Jul 13th, 2008
Jon
We may be paying $10 for a movie ticket, and $5 for popcorn, but that money pays the wages of employees. The studios employ thousands of people, and even when they make a flop they are employing thousands more. Plus they are distributing money throughout the country, to buy costumes, vehicles, SFX, fees to cities to film, etc. An unintended consequence of reducing costs would mean less wealth for someone else. Entertainment is basically a value created out of nothing or very little. If you can convince someone to pay money to sit there and be entertained, and only come out with memories, not an asset you can resell, then that is generating product, which makes the economy go round.
Im not saying movies and popcorn arent overprice, but just that making a simple change isnt so simple. ALSO, how many movie theatres are owned by the studios?
Jul 15th, 2008
vikrant
what i believe is…these high rates are only to balance the economic status of every individual living in the country…(or rather it should be..)and this can be achieved through cinemas only because it is not a daily-basic need of a human..!! so only those who can afford it spent their money..(or rather donate…in return of entertainment)…according 2 me money earned/collected from such means should be used by the the governing body of the country……
Jul 17th, 2008
Lee Bosch
OMG!!! An unemployed comedy writer.
Jul 20th, 2008
Xeno
The problem with this is that there are still cheap, first-run theaters.
For example, my wife and I saw The Dark Knight Saturday night.
We paid $2.50 apiece for our tickets; that was the regular general admission price.
If this article is 100% accurate, how does that theater stay in business?
Jul 20th, 2008
Lee Bosch
In any statistical model, the existence of “outliers” 3 and 4 standard deviations from the mean does not disprove the model. If it is a good screen and has decent popcorn you are a lucky guy and should be careful about who you let in on this gem of a place.
Jul 21st, 2008
Efrain Colon
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Jul 21st, 2008
sanjoy alexander
well written and well researched…was hunting for a good write-up on the economics of the box-office…thanks mate
Jul 22nd, 2008
Sabrina
WOW! I thought this write-up is excellent information. I am one of those who complain about the drinks, popcorn, and candy being sooo expensive. It is a shame how the society is. I believe actors and actress are well over paid considering the so called middle class doesn’t even exsit any more. Nice Work on the article. :-)
Jul 25th, 2008
not-whining
Overpriced is when people stop buying. Until then, sounds like most of it is priced right.
Jul 28th, 2008
shadopup
good article although I wonder where you got all the info…any references?
Aug 6th, 2008
Anders
Ticket prices in Sweden varies between 16-18 $. As in other European countries, there is a tax included in the price which sends a small percentage to the Swedish Film Institute, which then finances crappy Swedish films. So basically, movies like Indy IV and the Dark Knight finances the entire Swedish film output.
Aug 12th, 2008
Morgul
the only problem with the theatres standing up to the studios and demanding more of the profit is the obvious:
We say, sorry, $0.50 (I’m in New Zealand, that’s our average take, in NZ$, per ticket) profit for us isn’t good enough and we’re not raising ticket prices anymore just so you can get more money and they say: OK, fine. We won’t send you any more reels. Sucks to be you.
This happened in a cinema near where I live, I had friends who worked there. It closed down 8 months ago.
Aug 17th, 2008
Johnny Boy
The studios won’t be able to afford its mistakes and inefficiencies at our expense for very long. At a certain point consumers will get fed up to the point where they will simply stop watching films at the theater. There are many other forms of entertainment and consumers will skip out on a night at the theater and wait for the dvd. okay, so the Studios decide to raise dvd prices, people will pirate the dvds. When people get cheated they will cheat back. Lots of people do it already by paying for one show and then staying in the theater for other films also.
Aug 20th, 2008
Culmastadm
More Drive-ins!!! We have one here in Michgan that I go to all the time.
Though, I agree, the actors are over paid.
Aug 28th, 2008
Eadgils
one thing i would like to add is that distributors can also ask for dollar amounts instead of just percentages.. For The Flags of our Fathers, the theatre I was running the Projectors for was asked to charge 10 dollars a ticket.. and that is intended to ALL go to teh film company, so if the theatre wanted to make any money off that, they would have to up it even more. but they refused not to do that high, and the film company, (paramount was the one) stopped giving us movies. even to this day. (they stopped giving the entire theatre chain films). so having theatres refuse to pay that much will not always solve the problem. unfortunatelly.. its ultimately due to the actors.. blame the actors.. lol send them a letter requesting the 10 dollars back for the movie.
Aug 29th, 2008
Watch Full Free Legal Movies Here
I’ve always known that the theatre money making was in the concessions. I doubt that the theatres will ever beo able to change the system. We’re geting good movies so why change it.
Sep 7th, 2008
David Lopan
In my city, people don’t complain about the ticket prices as much as they do about the morons who ruin the theater experience for everyone else…that’s more of a bigger issue. As for the 25 mill that Chris Tucker got? I could care less because I didn’t see that movie in theaters and thank god because I saw it for free on “on demand” and still felt robbed. It is a shame he got that much for such a lousy movie, which was clearly a money-maker and nothing else. The spirit and fun from the first 2 Rush Hour(s) was gone.
Sep 9th, 2008
Scott
Does anyone know how much the big movie theater chains pay for their movies? Would it be worth it to start a independent movie theater?
Sep 26th, 2008
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