Comment by beezlebroxxxxxx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by beezlebroxxxxxx | Hacker News Reader

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beezlebroxxxxxx

> I don’t think movie tickets for $20 can compete with concerts ($20-infinity), major league sports ($15-200), plays, and other activities.

Compared to those other things, sure. But if you consider that a lot of people go out to eat once a week and regularly spend far more than $20, then that $20 price tag is not so crazy. Part of the problem has been that a lot of movies released lately barely feel worth paying that much to see. The movies are just mediocre. When I see a good movie, though, I don't even think about how much it cost me to see it.

(Also, seeing a major league sports game for $15 is incredible. In my market, even at $20 movies are usually way cheaper than tickets to a sports game.)

> But if you consider that a lot of people go out to eat once a week and regularly spend far more than $20, then that $20 price tag is not so crazy.

It’s not that $20 is a crazy amount of money. It’s that it is crazy for what you get. I think restaurants would be in a tough spot too if you could get unlimited McDonalds spit out from a box in your kitchen for $18/month. People would still eat out, but much less given the substitutes.

My MLB team regularly does $15 nosebleed tickets. My MLS team does $25 nosebleed tickets a few times a seasons and the food is much cheaper. But it’s also super easy to pay $100/ticket. With movies, everyone pays the same price.

I don’t think movies are worse as I went to the movies pretty consistently over the past 30 years and there were ups and downs.

The price of movie tickets has kept up with inflation for the most part, just doubling in the past 25 years [0] so I think it’s just that the price of digital goods has dropped so much (mp3 in 2000 was $1, still $1 today) because the price of bits gets cheaper. And this is bad for physical goods with clear substitutes.

Interestingly, movie theaters should have benefits from digitalization as digital projectors are much cheaper as film costs a lot to produce and distribute and projectionists used to be the highest paid employee.

[0] https://247wallst.com/media/2021/03/29/this-is-the-price-of-...

> With movies, everyone pays the same price.

It doesn't have to be that way; in a lot of Asia your ticket is for a specific seat and is priced based on that (both the view and the amenities e.g. the more expensive ones have a full table and table service for the food).

AMC (one of the biggest theater chains in the USA) announced seat pricing model earlier this year.

Something tells me they won't do the premium service you get in India or Bangladesh, though :(

The price has kept up with inflation - but now the average person who can afford regular movie tickets can have a better viewing experience at home.

It's fun to go to the theater for the 1 or 2 blockbusters per year that I actually want to see - and be around the excitement / see it on the big screen.

For anything else, I'd MUCH rather stay at home. Even if it was free to see it in the theater, I wouldn't go.

I think restaurants would be in a tough spot too if you could get unlimited McDonalds spit out from a box in your kitchen for $18/month

Don't take this the wrong way, but: maybe try some better restaurants.

You're unlucky enough to live in a town with a good baseball team I guess. My city's team is so awful you can basically just roll up and get a sub $20 ticket for like any game

Or anywhere in Canada where the hockey teams don’t have to perform well but demand still well exceeds supply.

Btw, I looked up prices for Indianapolis, a city I used to live north of.

The Indianapolis Indians, a minor league team that gets a lot of folks moving to major league, starts at $15 per ticket. The Indianapolis Colts, a major league American Football team, $24. The Indy Fuel tickets, a minor league hockey team, $11. The Indy Eleven, a 'professional' soccer team, $11. The Indiana Pacers, a major league basketball team, $8.

And Just for some fun: Chicago White Sox: $11 Chicago Bulls: $12

Of course, some of these are minor league and your choice of sports and local sports team might be different. Chicago Bears tickets start at $49. The Bengals are considerably more than that.

But that's per person and if you have a family it's easy to get over $100 for a theater trip.

That's a major problem. Parents love to take their kids to a movie. But today, you have to make the choice "go to a movie with the kids, or pay the power bill."

It's kind of a no-brainer to just pick up a Scooby-Doo DVD or whatever for $5.99 from the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. Popcorn is cheap to make at home.

I understand the theaters' problem, but it's their problem. I've got my own.

>But today, you have to make the choice "go to a movie with the kids, or pay the power bill."

How is this different from any other decade where people went to movies? People who can’t afford their bills have never been the demographic that frequented the movies with their kids.

I think he might have been joking about paying essential bills. In the US, the mean entertainment budget is a few thousand dollars a year. Perhaps it's several thousand dollars a year for people who would even consider spending $200 at a theater. That's still only around $500/mo for entertainment to allocate, and so even though a family in that situation poor, they still are incentivized to spend the money so they can be entertained as often as they'd like to be throughout the month. Spending a third of the money in one night is probably an easy yes as a one-time event, but harder to justify regularly.

It's more of a comparison between costs and benefits. If you have to literally choose between taking the family to the movies or paying the power bill, that's not exactly a tough question.

Going to a 2-hour movie at the cost of $80-100 or more is quite the splurge.

Recently saw "Air" in the theater, and it was an amazon studios movie. Although it starred matt damon, it just didn't have the production values I expected from a movie theater experience.

I wonder if this is what we're looking forward to in the future? the whole pipeline will break down and the quality will lower to a "watch on amazon prime at home" level.

> Also, seeing a major league sports game for $15 is incredible. In my market, even at $20 movies are usually way cheaper than tickets to a sports game.

When I lived in Brooklyn we'd go see the Nets for low 30s in the cheap seats both before and after Kyrie came back from his vaccine vacation. Pretty competitive with movie prices in NYC.

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