This past weekend I journeyed up to Levis Commons, in Perrysburg, to see Disney’s “John Carter” with my cousin.
As always, I couldn’t wait to take my seat and start the movie-going experience.
When I arrived at the theater I purchased my ticket for $9.75, handed my ticket to the ticket taker and proceeded to purchase my refreshments. I ordered two pieces of Sbarro pizza and a large Coke. I paid the man and took a seat in the lobby, waiting for my cousin to arrive. As I bit into the delicious pepperoni pizza a thought occurred to me, “I just paid $15 for my refreshments. I never spend $15 for refreshments, even when I splurge and purchase two pieces of pizza.”
I calculated the math in my head. It was $4.50 a piece for pizza, which meant I had just paid $6 for a large pop.
Are you kidding me, $6? Normally, a large pop costs only about $4 — why had it just jumped $2?!
A trip to the movies usually cost me $20 for myself. Now I’d have to dish out an additional two to three dollars just for food. I couldn’t believe it.
If you know me, then you know that I’ve always stood confidently behind film companies and theater chains and their prices at theaters.
I see no harm in ticket prices being just under $10, considering how much it costs to produce films. I understand that theaters only make money from their concessions while the production companies take all the profits from ticket sales.
But when you steadily increase the price of food at any event, whether it be the movies or a baseball game, solely because it is a convenience, I begin to question the company’s motives.
Yes, prices on everything will eventually rise due to inflation and even to compensate for the increased minimum wage Ohio enacted this past January. However, with the film industry still hurting to attract new audiences and bring back the viewers they’ve lost, I don’t see how increasing concession prices will persuade those people to come to the movies.
I’ve always believed that when you make something reasonably priced you’ll attract more customers; it’s as simple as that. But it seems companies these days are merely looking to make the largest sum of money as quickly as possible.
With services such as Netflix, which offer hundreds of titles to anyone for an entire month at the low cost of $7.99, why would any reasonable person dish out nearly a hundred dollars for a family of four to see one movie.
I’ve always supported the movies, and I always will. However, I don’t understand why the theaters insist on increasing prices in a poor economy and with attendance still below what it was nearly ten years ago. If the theaters want to survive and still provide a good service to customers, they need to realize people already consider the movies to be far too expensive and that raising that price will eventually hurt their business.
