Steven Deal wrote to ask…
Hi, Just curious if you have given any thought to the recent announcement from AMC theaters regarding tiered pricing?
No. Not really. My moviegoing is very rare these days and I almost never go to AMC theaters. What I have thought about is how the current trend in American business seems to be to see how much they can raise prices before it becomes cost-ineffective. Las Vegas is currently a good example of this. I'm sure the price increases there on hotel rooms, restaurants, shows, tourist attractions (etc.) are driving some tourists away but apparently not in sufficient number to cause them to stop. The shows still sell out. The buffets still have long lines. And so on.
Every large business these days seems to have a division that is in charge of determining how much more money they can charge for what they offer…and who can blame them? If you could make more money by charging more for whatever you sell or do, why wouldn't you charge more? Someone at AMC obviously decided this was worth a try.
They probably said, "Hey, people will pay more for good seats at concerts, plays and other live shows. Maybe they'll pay it for movies." If it doesn't work, it should be a small matter to roll back prices or, more likely, keep those prices higher but make discount coupons more available. That's what Vegas does. They don't lower prices. They just offer discounts judiciously. Some people would be happier getting a 50% off ticket to a show than to have that show cost half as much in the first place.
I see two potential problems to the AMC plan. One is that people don't all agree on the ideal place to sit in a movie theater. At a live show, as close to the stage as possible is usually best unless it's an act that smashes watermelons or something. At a movie, some people like to be farther back. Some like dead center. I used to go out with a lady who didn't care where we sat as long as there was no one in front of us and no stranger next to her. I like an aisle seat where my right leg can extend out when it doesn't inconvenience anyone else.
The other possible problem: At a showing where the theater is half-empty, what's to stop people in the cheapest seats from just moving down to the expensive ones once the movie starts? Is the theater really going to have an employee watching for this and send someone out to make someone move? Sounds disruptive to the other patrons. My guess is that many of the theater's staffers would just look the other way.
But hey, who knows? Maybe AMC can make this work. I doubt though they'll be getting much of my money either way.
