Friday, January 02, 2015

Stumbling at the Movies

Young movie goers shied away from the theaters this year, an overall drop in 15% for movie goers 12-24. That's quite a few. The analysts have not quite determined whether it is a content problem, or if younger audiences prefer to stay home and watch the movie on the television, computer, iPad, phone etc.

More than likely it is a combination of both, with a heavy dose of price of movie thrown in. I took one of my youngins to the movies the other day and we spent $40.00 before we even sat down. That's a chunk of money for that. You can rent the movie on any number of platforms for half that, if you wait a few months, you can rent it for 5.00.

Of course I'm not sure how all that pricing would match with tickets 20 years ago. 5.00 was a lot of money in those days . . .  but heck. Its still a lot of money.

4 comments:

dither said...

Pbbbbbt. 2014 was a crappy year in movies. I think I went to the movies TWICE last year, both times on a whim and on someone else's dollar.

--Dither

Unknown said...

Going to the movies is a luxury I can no longer afford.

Tony Bro001 said...

Lots of reasons why the cinema industry is killing itself slowly, mostly by pricing itself into irrelevance (ticket sales are down but revenues are up)

Last movie I went to see at Cinema was John Carter (3D) with my GF and didn't see much change out of £40 (that's close to $60). It was a great movie, but 6 months later I could buy the DVD for £10!!!

Most cinemas are now out of town/mall multiplex affairs which you need to navigate the awful online booking systems which has killed any impromptu cinema trips.

The high availability of Netflix and other cheaper streaming alternatives.

Plethora of ill advised remakes and franchise sequels - Robocop (aargh) Total Recall (urgh!)

Anonymous said...

I was just stumbling around your web-site and was surprised to see the photo for the Highland Town Theater. I grew up in Highland, IN. At first I assumed it was just another theater that looked like it but doing some research found that that really is it. Nostalgia what a wonderful thing. I agree that ticket prices are ridiculous, but also understand they have to pay their employees and make a profit too, so I don't criticize them, even though I believe I only saw two movies in the theater last year that I paid for.

Plywood Memories from Gencon to Vegas

  Out trip to Gencon took us up through the Arkansas Delta country, and into the boot of Missouri, across the Big Muddy and on into the spra...