Newsweek has a big article this week about the high cost of entertainment, which contains some comparisons of what things cost ON THE AVERAGE in the early '90s and in 2000. Here are the figures:

Theme park tickets: (family of 4): $116 in '93, $163 in 2000 (29% increase)
Concert tickets: $21 in '91, $45 in 2000 (54% increase)
NBA game tickets: $23 in '91, $51 in 2000 (55% increase)
Broadway show tickets: $40 in '91, $56 in 2000 (29% increase)
Movie ticket: $4 in '91, $5 in 2000 (20% increase)

I think it's quite great that we as an industry have held the line so much better than these other entertainments. (BTW the New York $10 price is mentioned in the article, but so are $250 Madonna tickets and $100 seats at "The Producers" on Broadway.)

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The new Boxoffice has the Moviefone ? of the month: Which of the following aspects of the theatre experience is most important to you?

Large seats and plenty of legroom: 36%
Stadium seats: 21%
High quality picture: 17%
Large screens: 11%
High quality sound: 9%
Large auditoriums: 6%

Geez, if these statistics are correct, we should stop wasting money on digital sound and improved projection and just rip out every other row of seats!

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In the same issue, an article about future theatre architectures says this about multi/mega plexes:

...fewer people are willing to travel the necessary distances, walk across a football field of a parking lot, and enter a cavernous lobby for the sole purpose of seeing a movie. "This 'singular experience' kind of destination is something that is fading, (Francisco) Behr (president of a Calif. architectural firm) says. ..."To drive anywhere, park in a 10,000 car parking lot and go into a 5,000 seat movie complex is pretty much something that is not going to perpetuate itself. It's not a high quality experience. It's very mechanical..."

Ticket price data is on the NATO website:
http://www.natoonline.org/statisticstickets.htm

The AVERAGE US ticket price is actually slightly higher than five dollars, probably close to $5.50 for 2001.

Many theatres have lower prices for matinees or for senior citizens.
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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Here in low-priced Montana, the highest priced tickets are at the Carmikes in the larger cities. ($6.75) Most places are $6 or less. Here at Forsyth, it's $5.25 for adults, but we are planning an increase to $5.75 at the moment.

quote:

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fewer people are willing to travel the necessary distances, walk across a football field of a parking lot, and enter a cavernous lobby for the sole purpose of seeing a movie. "This 'singular experience' kind of destination is something that is fading, (Francisco) Behr (president of a Calif. architectural firm) says. ..."To drive anywhere, park in a 10,000 car parking lot and go into a 5,000 seat movie complex is pretty much something that is not going to perpetuate itself. It's not a high quality experience. It's very mechanical..."

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They're pretty much describing post WWII neighborhood houses!

It sort of indirectly supports the perception that folks like the smaller, local houses, & the monsterplexes located out in halfway-to-east-fudgemonkey are being offered by corporations for *their* enjoyment, not the moviegoers'.