CinemaCon is going on in Las Vegas right now. What’s that, you say–something like Comic Con in San Diego? No, it’s a confab formerly known as ShoWest put on by NATO. Not the NATO that is currently taking over the reins of our mission to bomb out Moammar Kadafi and his forces in Libya.
NATO stands for National Association of Theater Owners, and boy, do those people have us by the you-know-whats.
Their latest move: standing united against a government attempt to get them to post nutritional information for all those yummy concessions, snacks for which they make about 30% of their revenue.
Yes, we’re talking about the nachos and hot dogs they make on site, but mainly those tubs of popcorn that could have going on as much as 2.000 calories a bucket. Had you known that, you probably wouldn’t have sprung for the bigger size just because it was only a quarter or 50 cents more than the size below it. And then of course, eaten the whole damn, delicious thing.
Armed with this knowledge, maybe you could sneak in some popchips, which offer a similar crunchy satisfaction at a fraction of the calories.
But we digress. These theater owners are an extremely powerful bunch. For decades, they’ve price-fixed movie tickets at their theaters. And it’s time for this practice to end. Why should moviegoers pay the same price for every movie being projected? Is it really fair to pay the same amount to see a small film like “Cedar Rapids” as it is to take in “Avatar” in 2D? No, it isn’t—and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
In these days of Hulu and Netflix eating into their livelihood, NATO needs to take lessons not just from the music business which prices CDs within a range, but from real theater—Broadway. Various shows have various prices, not all the same ticket price as they are at your local AMC, Regal or Edwards multi-plex. And look at the sports world, where there’s a big variance in the price to see, say the Sacramento Kings as opposed to the Los Angeles Lakers.
And so it should be a the movies. This could be a boon to smaller, independent films, who have trouble enough getting very many screens or much exhibition—unless it’s the rare gem that hits it big like “Slumdog Millionaire” or “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”
This situation has gone on for so long that we just assume it’s the way it should be. But with ticket prices hitting $13 in major markets—and higher at premium venues that offer a better guest experience, it’s time for a change. Groupon offering discounted tickets to “Lincoln Lawyer” was a big shift, and hopefully more fair-market pricing will make its way to the box office.
