One of the best selling points of a night out at the movies has long been how cheap it was for two hours-plus of entertainment. Not so much when it costs $50 per ticket.
That’s how much Regal Cinemas recently charged for opening night seats in the best theaters to see December’s “Dune: Part Three.”
Eye-popping prices for the most in-demand movies on the best screens are becoming increasingly common as the cinema industry copies the audience-segmentation playbooks of airlines and hotels. Theaters are getting people who love movies and have discretionary income to pay substantially more.
Some 17% of film tickets sold last year were for premium format theaters with bigger screens and better sound, compared with 13% in 2021. They cost an average of $18 nationally, according to research firm EntTelligence, and as much as $30 in big cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
Welcome to the new box office reality. Die-hards are paying top dollar while the rest of the country rarely goes to the theater and gets most of their entertainment from Netflix, YouTube and TikTok. Despite recent hits such as “Michael,” “Project Hail Mary” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” the annual number of tickets sold is down more than one-third from before the pandemic.
“The good news is we’re making more money per patron than we made prior to Covid,” said Adam Aron, chief executive of AMC Theatres. But “it’s not a good thing that patronage is down as much as it’s been.”
Regal sold its inventory of $50 “Dune” tickets projected in 70 millimeter IMAX film in a matter of minutes. Since premium auditoriums regularly sell out fastest, exhibitors are racing to build more of them. AMC, the biggest chain in the U.S., had 517 at the end of last year, 30% more than in 2021.
In addition, AMC adds a surcharge of up to $2 per ticket for popular films on their opening weekends.
Adults seeing a movie on a regular screen are paying an average of $12.75 per ticket according to EntTelligence, a figure that has long risen roughly in line with inflation. Discount screenings abound on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
But spending on popcorn, drinks and merchandise has grown 220% over the past 20 years, far above inflation, said Greg Marcus, chief executive of Midwest chain Marcus Theatres.
The average AMC customer now spends $9 on concessions per visit compared with $5 prepandemic—a figure that includes the 20% to 30% of people who buy nothing but a ticket.
Some Hollywood executives worry the growing cost of a night at the cinema and increased reliance on premium screens are turning moviegoing into a pricey special occasion rather than an inexpensive regular habit.
“Going to the movies must be more affordable again,” Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures’ motion picture group, told a crowd of exhibitors at the recent CinemaCon industry convention in Las Vegas.
Studios and theaters have long operated in an uneasy symbiosis. Both need each other to prosper and resent self-interested decisions their counterparts make that impact them. Studios have long complained that exhibitors don’t keep their multiplexes in good enough condition. Their newest complaint is rising prices along with expanding preshow advertising that, combined with as many as nine trailers, means movies frequently start close to half an hour after their official showtime.
Exhibitors at CinemaCon said the industry’s biggest problem is that studios are releasing about 25% fewer films annually than before the pandemic. Since they can’t increase the product supply on their own, theater operators said they are forced to find profits where they can.
“Give us enough films,” Marcus asserted. “If you’re not going to let us earn a decent return, don’t ask me to invest more or cut my prices.”
Paramount CEO David Ellison promised theater operators at CinemaCon that if his company’s purchase of Warner closes, the two studios will release at least 30 movies a year, compared with a combined 19 in 2025. Amazon MGM Studios is expanding from a handful of nationwide theatrical releases annually to 15.
Premium screens have become another point of tension between theaters, which want to promote their own brands to compete with market leader IMAX, and studios that want to market them together. Disney at CinemaCon announced a brand called Infinity Vision to promote premium screens for December’s “Avengers: Doomsday,” which won’t play on IMAX screens because they are committed to “Dune: Part Three,” which opens the same day.
Some theater operators said they were uncertain about adding a phrase such as “certified in Infinity Vision” to their premium brands like Cinemark XD and Regal RPX, because of the leverage it could give Disney over their businesses.
Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com
