He’s gonna lose. You have options. But the theaters really ought to consider lowering prices. I know they’re in a hard spot because most of the ticket money goes to Hollywood and so they have to make the money on concessions but I think they’re gilding the lily. If they went to convenience store prices people would stop smuggling stuff (bought at the convenience stores) in, revenue would go up. Heck for convenience store prices they’d probably get impulse shoppers. Our local arthouse keeps prices low and they turned a profit this year, not a big profit but it’s a 2 screen arthouse in a time when most theaters are losing money fast.
The first week can see up to 90% of the gross going straight to the studio. There's no way that the remaining 10% can pay the rent, staff, electricity, etc.
many, many, many, many years ago I worked in a local movie theatre, they make their money from candy and the most from popcorn sales....Haven’t been the the movies since ET. Won’t pay the price....
Lowering prices would result in selling more candy, but it wouldn’t result in more profit. Look at it this way (using big round numbers to exaggerate the effect).
Scenario 1:
Sell 100 candy bars at $10.00 each.
Theater’s cost of each candy bar = $1.00.
Gross income - cost = profit: $1,000 - 100 = $900 profit
Scenario 2:
Sell 500 candy bars at $2.00 each.
Theater’s cost of each candy bar = $1.00.
Gross income - cost = profit: $1,000 - $500 = $500
Selling more product does not always mean more profits. In this case, the theater made $400 more profit by selling a few high priced candy bars than it would have by selling a lot of low priced candy bars.
This is another reason food is so expensive at theaters. It’s more profitable to sell a few expensive items, than to sell a lot of cheap items.
Your “arthouse” probably has volunteers working in it, and doesn’t have to pay 98% of the ticket revenue to Hollyweird. IIRC, in the first week of a release, that is how much of ticket sales has to be remitted to the movie owners. Most “art movies” can be rented for a flat price.
I understand perfectly why the concession prices in theaters are so high. On the other hand, I don’t actually buy much in the way of concessions.
All things considered, Hollyweird should reduce what the theaters have to send back, so that they can make a decent profit. (Or theaters should get together with organized crime to help ‘em launder money - after all who can really say how many tickets or concessions were sold...)
Your “arthouse” probably has volunteers working in it, and doesn’t have to pay 98% of the ticket revenue to Hollyweird. IIRC, in the first week of a release, that is how much of ticket sales has to be remitted to the movie owners. Most “art movies” can be rented for a flat price.
I understand perfectly why the concession prices in theaters are so high. On the other hand, I don’t actually buy much in the way of concessions.
All things considered, Hollyweird should reduce what the theaters have to send back, so that they can make a decent profit. (Or theaters should get together with organized crime to help ‘em launder money - after all who can really say how many tickets or concessions were sold...)