finnegan’s film blog

Anyone who goes to see movies in the theater on a semi-regular basis knows that ticket prices have been on the rise since… well, the advent of movie theaters, I suppose. But I’ve been frequenting the theater less and less over the past year or two, and carefully reading reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, because going to the theater has become too expensive.

And it’s about to become even more expensive.

Josh sent me this article from Advertising Age, which explains that the primary reason for rising ticket prices is inflation. “Adjusted for inflation, tickets today cost less than they did in 1977, according to the MPAA.” But because corn prices are skyrocketing, and theater chains make about half of their money from concession sales, ticket prices are poised to make their biggest leap in decades.

This year’s popcorn crop is down roughly 10%, said Larry Etter, chairman of the National Association of Concessionaires. In the past 18 months, the cost of coconut oil used for popping corn has risen 24%. And the price of the paper pulp to produce popcorn tubs has jumped 40% in the past 36 months, making the tub more expensive than the corn inside it.

[…] ticket prices may start to rise with demand. For example, going to see a blockbuster when it opens Friday night could run you a dollar more than going a week later.

Looks like I’ll have to become a little more stingy with the recommendation, “worth seeing in the theater.”

I’m left wondering if movie tickets are like gas: will people still pay the going rate, no matter how ridiculous; or is there a breaking point at which the majority of theater audiences will simply stop going?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 8:33 am and is filed under industry news, movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.