Like almost any consumable product, movie theaters should change their pricing policy to something more akin to an early adopters with gradual decline strategy. With this idea, a person who really wants to see a movie will play a premium price (e.g. $10, nothing too expensive), then, after two weeks (would say longer, but films don't last as long in theaters), the price drops to $5. It would be this way for every film. While this is a pipe dream, below are some of the benefits and disadvantages of this strategy:
Advantage 1: More money for the theaters. With lower prices, comes more people. With more people, comes more money/spending, meaning more seats will be full over a longer period of time, and more concessions will be bought.
Advantage 2: Better value for the consumer. If a person really wants to see a film and be able to talk about it with their friends, they have the option to see it at a higher price. However, if they're patient and don't care as much, they wait a few weeks for the price to go down. They may even see multiple movies since it's so cheap. On the other hand, if a person did go see the movie right away and would like to see it again, they now have the option to see it a second time for a much more reasonable price/value.
Disadvantage 1: Less money for the studios. I'll be honest, I have no idea about the details for pricing strategies between studios and theaters (I'm guessing it's all the studio for the first week or two, then a split for a few weeks, and eventually all the theater). This would hurt the sales for the studio, as they wouldn't make as much money. But at the same time, a lower price would increase people's incentives to go, so the money may possibly even out.
Bottom line: Movie theaters should not be a way to milk the most of the few (aka 90-10, where 90% of business comes from 10% of the market). Movie theaters should be all about mass consumerism, where getting more people is the goal, not necessarily getting the most money out of the few people that do come. If you look at trends, where ticket prices become higher and attendance becomes lower, you would think that studios and theaters would see a connection, but they don't. I pretty much guarantee you that were a theater to drop it's prices while still providing a nice environment (stadium seating, good sound, nice neighborhood), it would be one of the most popular places.
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