AMC Theatres is charging more for The Batman tickets as a little experiment
Tickets will be "slightly higher" for the Robert Pattinson-led superhero film says AMC CEO
Aux News AMC
Holy price surge, Batman! Get ready to plan ways to sneak in your movie snacks because tickets to The Batman are expected to be pricier than usual. Deadline reports that AMC Theaters will be testing out a variable pricing model with the release of Robert Pattinson-led film.
“Currently, our prices for The Batman are slightly higher than the prices we are charging for other movies playing in the same theaters at the same time,” said AMC CEO Adam Aron during an earnings webcast. This comes after the theater chain found success a few years back with raising its weekend showtime prices above the lower traffic of weekday showings.
“This is all quite novel in the United States, but actually AMC has been doing it for years in our European theaters. Indeed, in Europe we charge a premium for the best seats in the house — as do just about all sellers of tickets in other industries — take sports events, concerts and live theater, for example.”
AMC has had a rough time the last few years due to the pandemic keeping away moviegoers, so them testing out a way to make more money to help their previous situation isn’t that surprising. With Spider-Man: No Way Home swinging its way to being Sony’s biggest movie ever despite a new surge of COVID-19, blockbusters appear to be a safe way for theater chains to test out those increased prices.
And billionaire Bruce Wayne may be the man for job, since, according to Variety, The Batman is projected to kick open its opening weekend with an estimated $100 to $125 million at the domestic box office. This would make The Batman the second pandemic-era film to cross over the $100 million mark in a single weekend, with Spider-Man: No Way Home being the first.
With moviegoers already having it up to here with high movie prices, time can only tell if AMC’s plan will keep masses coming to cinema or have them repeating, “That’s a utility belt, not a money belt,” like a certain bird sidekick.
The Batman swoops into theaters March 4, 2022.
25 Comments
Holy _____ ____, Batman!
Ah, the writers joke that just won’t die.
Cool story. Still not going to the movies yet. Charge whatever makes you happy AMC, ‘cause I ain’t payin! There isn’t a thing studios are putting out I’m willing to risk illness to see when I can just catch it streaming a few months later.
Strong underboob game on Kravitz’s part there.
We’re not so different, you and I! We’re both love money!
I’m pretty sure both “experiments” and “tests” require control groups for comparison. How would they expect to figure out if this is beneficial to them or not?
🎶 We’ll feature lots of moviesAll that you can find (lalala)You’ll have to pay more to watch them allAnd we’ll monitor your mind! (lalala) 🎶
an experiment: Can the people hate us even more than they do now?
Let’s find out.
A trial run of raising movie ticket prices? It all makes sense now. How long has this been going on for, 80 years?
The beginning of an experiment where patrons tell AMC to eat a bag of _____!
AMC: “No one is going to the theater anymore due to Covid. HOLY FUUUUUU!”Covid: “I’m weakening!!!!”AMC: “People are starting to venture back outside, but profits are still down while inflation rages. Time to start raising ticket and concession prices to recoup lost revenue from previous years. That’ll surely get the asses back in the seats after most of our clientele have already discovered the convenience and cost savings by watching new releases on demand/waiting for them to release on streaming networks. Great job, guys! Everyone gets a raise, except the staff working in the theaters. Zero way this experiment backfires.”
Can’t wait for the pretentious TV ad with Nicole Kidman assuring us that this is all part of the premium entertainment experience.
I’ve seen every Batman movie in the theaters because – god help me I’m a Batman fan and a gluten for punishment. I was on the fence to going to see this one in the theater because my go to movie theater was the ArcLight and is no longer in business. That means in my area, AMC is just about the only game in town. Congrats AMC, you made my decision easier for me by charging me more money. Waiting to watch it at home it is then.
“Gluten for punishment” makes me laugh. Suck it up, toasty!
“Gluten for punishment” makes me laugh. Suck it up, toasty!DOH! or should I say, “DOUGH!”.
Serves me right for not proofreading before posting.
Currently my AMC ticket for The Batman tomorrow at 3pm is a little over 6 bucks. Im sure a matinee will be somewhere between $10-$12? I ain’t crying about $6. Seems fair to me? I also live in a city of 5 Million.
Aren’t US adult ticket prices around $10?
In Australia a standard adult ticket is about $20, so a typical family of four will pay around $100 for tickets and snacks/drinks.
Add that to a night out with dinner and seems kinda expensive for just a suburban cinema experience.
Ticket prices vary so much depending on things that I think they could’ve just raised prices on these tickets and not said a word. Most people wouldn’t even have noticed. Or they’d maybe think to themselves, “was it this much last time I came here?” Or just advertise that the non-Batman movie tickets are cheaper because they’re “on sale.” A discount, neat. What a bargain.
My mid-sized American city has currently has weekday tickets for normal screens at $11.99, and weekend tickets at $12.99. IMAX and Dolby both have ~$5 premium charges. Batman looks like it’s $1 more than those prices across the board, which means that a weekend Dolby ticket is now about $20.It wouldn’t surprise me if this is designed not specifically to fleece Batman fans, but to drive more people into subscribing to A-List. I try to keep my own subscription working at less than $5 per movie each month, but I see everything I can on a premium screen, which I wouldn’t bother doing if it wasn’t the same price either way. If people realize that one premium blockbuster ticket is nearly the same price as a single monthly charge, it’ll probably convince more people to subscribe. Which will probably end with subscription fees going up by the end of the year too.
I paid… 18 bucks, I think? Not including whatever bullshit fee was included for buying the ticket online— to see The Tragedy Of Macbeth, about a month and a half ago in Manhattan NYC. (A Monday afternoon showing.)A different theater nearby had the ticket priced at 16.50 or so, for around the same time, but was further enough away that the extra dollar didn’t matter.
Yep, the best plan to get people back into the theaters is to raise prices. That always works!
“This is all quite novel in the United States, but actually AMC has been
doing it for years in our European theaters. Indeed, in Europe we
charge a premium for the best seats in the house — as do just about all
sellers of tickets in other industries — take sports events, concerts
and live theater, for example.”
Those other industries all have real people involved. A movie theater is basically a room where someone left the TV on.
Movie tickets are already way overpriced. Theaters are not disneyland. They are not overbooked, unable to contain more paying customers. They are dying from a lack of customers. Raising prices doesnt seem like the best answer to that.
Last time I saw a movie in the theater there was no apps, no reserved seating
Does this mean less popular movies or popular movies running during less popular times will be less expensive?
“Total revenues for the three months ended December 31, 2021 to be approximately $1,171.6 million compared to $162.5 million for the three months ended December 31, 2020″ So profits are way up at the end of 2021 (when the pandemic was worse than it is now) compared to the year before. This is corporate greed, plain and simple, just like most of the rest of “inflation” going on right now. They know they can get away with it, here we are. It’s all Biden’s fault though, right?
The article didn’t state what the actual price would be but I imagine that movies are still one of the cheapest options for a night out. Going out for dinner to some place better than fast food or going to see live music or going to a pro sports event, or even going out for a few drinks will probably still cost more.