Movie business and billionaire

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August 17th, 2013 at 4:44:51 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: Pacomartin


That point is very true. There are a ridiculous number of seats in movie theaters today. Some of us of a certain age


HEY!

Quote:
can remember ticket lines going around the block for Jaws and Star Wars. Frankly theater operators should charge a $1 premium for the first three days a film is released. It won't scare people away, but it would probably make the difference in their survival.


This will not help much based on the way movies are paid for by the theater. The studio would take most of that $1. So the incentive is actually negative as every extra $1 is $1 less people may spend on concessions.

When I was a kid there was one place close by with 4 screens, and it was one of the bigger ones in the city. "The Empire Strikes Back" had lines around the place at opening and was there for 6 months. 25% of the screens for SIX MONTHS. Today it would be in the Red Box by six months.

What the studios have done is classic B-School thinking. Expand your market but forget that the expanding market slits the throat of one of your most important links in your supply chain. It is as if Ford would start selling cars at kiosks in Wal-Mart. More sales would happen, but the dealers who build the brand would suffer and die.

Long Theater runs like TESB mentioned above built buzz and fed off themselves. Or a limited release could "build" and make a surprise hit as was the case with "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." No more.

What will happen is Netflix will be where you see that quirky movie.
The President is a fink.
August 17th, 2013 at 7:11:57 AM permalink
zippyboy
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 2
Posts: 665
Quote: Evenbob
He told me the concession
is the entire profit for a theatre. The admission
pays for the movie rental and the candy and
popcorn pay for everything else.

They'd probably make more money if they lowered their prices to a reasonable level. Do they even know how much a Kit Kat is in every other store? $5.50 for a small popcorn? My local hardware store gives that same size away for free when you buy something, and my local thriftstore charges 25 cents. I bring a piece of gum to the theater in my pocket and I'm good, but I wouldn't be opposed to buy a snack if it were normally priced. Seeing they want $3.50 for a candy bar just makes me resentful.

And speaking of prices, I've always felt movie prices shouldn't be a flat rate. We pay the same $10 for any movie, any time, regardless whether it's a three-hour Oscar winner like Titanic, or an 80-minute teen loser like Catholic High School Girls in Trouble. Same $10 for opening weekend, or 6 weeks later when no one's in the audience anymore. Pricing like that occurs nowhere else I know of. We pay more for a Ferrari than a Ford; more for behind-home-plate Yankee seats than bleacher White Sox seats. That's normal everywhere but in the theater. Which is okay with me of course...I just laugh at the studios for something I think is an obvious oversight.
August 17th, 2013 at 8:44:58 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: zippyboy
They'd probably make more money if they lowered their prices to a reasonable level. Do they even know how much a Kit Kat is in every other store? $5.50 for a small popcorn? My local hardware store gives that same size away for free when you buy something, and my local thriftstore charges 25 cents. I bring a piece of gum to the theater in my pocket and I'm good, but I wouldn't be opposed to buy a snack if it were normally priced. Seeing they want $3.50 for a candy bar just makes me resentful.


They must walk a fine line. Some people will not buy concessions no matter the price, some will buy with little price sensitivity, and some will consider the price. The problem is will the third group's greater purchases make up for the lost revenue of the second group?

"Normal" pricing will not happen nor should we expect it to. Same as stadium pricing, when you go to any event you are not going to get nor do you deserve "street pricing." While I agree theater pricing is insane, I do not expect what I get at Wal-Mart.
The President is a fink.
August 17th, 2013 at 11:39:49 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: zippyboy
And speaking of prices, I've always felt movie prices shouldn't be a flat rate ...I just laugh at the studios for something I think is an obvious oversight.


Well it isn't really an oversight. They have debated the issue for decades. They are basically afraid to open the can of worms, and have decided it was easier to essentially way overbuild the number of theaters. So bottom line it is only on opening night for some massive hit movies that you can't find a seat.

Of course the business model completely breaks down for dense urban cores where land is way too expensive to build massive theaters that sit empty most of the time. In a market where demand exceeds supply, you need variable pricing. I assume they control this market mostly with coupons.

A CRT TV with a 40 inch screen weighed 750 pounds and only a few were made. I just disposed of three CRT televisions that were between 120-160 lbs apiece.

A 32" 720p TV is now pretty much a discount item costing less than $200. Best Buy sells their house brand 50" TV for $450.

The Oscar contender movies will soon be released in theaters for one week in major markets to qualify for the awards, and then sold in pay per view starting on day 8. It doesn't make sense for them to run a second advertising campaign 90 days later.
August 18th, 2013 at 6:29:30 PM permalink
TheCesspit
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 23
Posts: 1929
EasyCinema in the UK tried to do a demand based pricing system. They didn't hang around too long, but for about three years, you could get very cheap tickets to movies if booking well in advance (like under a dollar), paying more for the last few tickets. They didn't for a while sell concessions and had a very low-budget set up.

Didn't work out, but not all of the Easy group ideas do. If you ever need a cheap bed before a flight out of Heathrow, I can suggest easyHotel, though. The room is a bed, a shower cubicle and floor space to connect the two. But it was 25 quid, warm, quiet and comfortable for a night's stay.
It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die.... it's called Life
August 18th, 2013 at 7:25:40 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: TheCesspit
EasyCinema in the UK tried to do a demand based pricing system. They didn't hang around too long, but for about three years, you could get very cheap tickets to movies if booking well in advance (like under a dollar), paying more for the last few tickets. They didn't for a while sell concessions and had a very low-budget set up.


Unlike hotel rooms, the extra seats in a cinema don't represent much capital investment. I think the problem with a demand based movie ticket system is that you would want to charge more money for the big budget films. But sometimes the big budget films really suck. Unlike most live performances where when you pay a lot of money you are usually getting better entertainment.

A hotel room or an airplane seat represents a huge capital cost, and an operational cost for fuel. An empty movie seat doesn't have much opportunity cost.

I don't understand why they don't show free football games and television in exchange for an initial mandatory concession purchase. I would think that men would be happy to pay $5 for their choice of a large beer, or large soda. After the initial purchase of beer, you must buy only food concessions so as not to create a liability situtation. In my earlier example Carmike gets $11 person between movie ticket, snacks, and advertisements on the screen.
August 19th, 2013 at 3:32:37 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: Pacomartin


I don't understand why they don't show free football games and television in exchange for an initial mandatory concession purchase. I would think that men would be happy to pay $5 for their choice of a large beer, or large soda. After the initial purchase of beer, you must buy only food concessions so as not to create a liability situtation. In my earlier example Carmike gets $11 person between movie ticket, snacks, and advertisements on the screen.


I have heard of this, thought not free and no beer. The issue is appeal is more limited to special events as post-season, pay-per view alternative, maybe big-TV Series finales if we ever have one again. Things when people want to be around people.
The President is a fink.
August 23rd, 2013 at 10:57:28 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
researchers measured the likelihood of a film's financial success based on four parameters: number of total Wikipedia page views; number of total edits made; number of users editing; and the number of revisions in the article's revision history, or 'collaborative rigor.'" Slashdot quoting PLOSOne.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0071226
January 29th, 2014 at 9:27:58 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
An average patron at a Carmike cinema pays $6.85 for ticket plus $3.91 for concession. Even assuming a short 90 minute movie that comes out to 12 cents per minute. So even at the price gouging for the treats, it can still be comparable to per show downloads.


Carmike Theaters gets ($6.85+$3.91)*60 patrons= $645.60 per movie theater day. Now typically you show a movie four times per day at 1:00 4:30 7:00 9:30.

I have always wondered if you could rent an 8 seat micro theater for and average of $80 with an 85" television screen. People could rent the theater for a given time with their discretion of how many people they want to go in with. Even with some limited start and pause control by the patrons you could probably get five rentals per day. Concession sales could still be possible.

It seems like the micro theater could raise almost as money as the regular theater, and considering that you could probably put 4 micro theaters in the same square footage as a regular theater, the potential for more revenue is higher.

You would have to have a mix of regular theaters and micro theaters in the same building. Social networking sites could be encouraged to assemble groups of 8 people who want to see a particular film.
January 29th, 2014 at 10:19:28 PM permalink
beachbumbabs
Member since: Sep 3, 2013
Threads: 6
Posts: 1600
Quote: Pacomartin
An average patron at a Carmike cinema pays $6.85 for ticket plus $3.91 for concession. Even assuming a short 90 minute movie that comes out to 12 cents per minute. So even at the price gouging for the treats, it can still be comparable to per show downloads.


Carmike Theaters gets ($6.85+$3.91)*60 patrons= $645.60 per movie theater day. Now typically you show a movie four times per day at 1:00 4:30 7:00 9:30.

I have always wondered if you could rent an 8 seat micro theater for and average of $80 with an 85" television screen. People could rent the theater for a given time with their discretion of how many people they want to go in with. Even with some limited start and pause control by the patrons you could probably get five rentals per day. Concession sales could still be possible.

It seems like the micro theater could raise almost as money as the regular theater, and considering that you could probably put 4 micro theaters in the same square footage as a regular theater, the potential for more revenue is higher.

You would have to have a mix of regular theaters and micro theaters in the same building. Social networking sites could be encouraged to assemble groups of 8 people who want to see a particular film.


Really interesting concept. I don't know how they get the studios to accept $80/screening, though. Could be done.
Never doubt a small group of concerned citizens can change the world; it's the only thing ever has
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