AMC’s ‘Fix’ For Declining Movie Theater Attendance? Charging You More Money To Sit In The Same Seats
from the problem-solved! dept
You might recall that during pandemic lockdowns, AMC executives threw a massive temper tantrum because companies like Comcast/NBC began experimenting with slightly more innovative release windows. AMC was mad because the pandemic highlighted how the 90-day gap between the time a movie appears in theaters and its streaming or DVD release was exposed as both dated and stupid.
Comcast (successfully) experimented with not only shortening the window, but eliminating it entirely. At the time, AMC Theatre CEO Adam Aron pouted like a child, insisting that Comcast films would never again appear in AMC theaters, before ultimately having to retract the silly threat.
AMC and Aron have since had plenty of time to contemplate new ways to shore up attendance in traditional brick and mortar movie theaters. And what have they come up with? AMC executives say they’ll soon start charging consumers more money for better seats, a move that doesn’t meaningfully improve the product, but does involve charging existing customers more money for the same service.
The justification for the idea is framed in the most corporate-speak way possible:
“Sightline at AMC more closely aligns AMC’s seat pricing approach to that of many other entertainment venues, offering experienced-based pricing and another way for moviegoers to find value at the movies,” said Eliot Hamlisch, executive VP and CMO at AMC Theatres. “While every seat at AMC delivers an amazing moviegoing experience, we know there are some moviegoers who prioritize their specific seat and others who prioritize value moviegoing. Sightline at AMC accommodates both sentiments to help ensure that our guests have more control over their experience, so that every trip to an AMC is a great one.”
One problem is AMC is pretending it’s competing with professional live theater and other businesses where nosebleed and priority seating has long been standard. But AMC isn’t competing with those business models, it’s competing with the convenience of home entertainment, and the simplicity and ease of being able to watch movies, at home, uninterrupted on the couch using modern high-end gear.
AMC had several years during the pandemic to contemplate how to make the traditional movie theater experience more enticing, and the very best they could apparently come up with was charging some people significantly more money for the same seats they’ve always used. Super innovative! Surely streaming competitors will have to rethink their entire home entertainment business model.
Filed Under: amc, assigned seats, competition, hollywood, movie theaters, movies, price discrimination
Companies: amc
Comments on “AMC’s ‘Fix’ For Declining Movie Theater Attendance? Charging You More Money To Sit In The Same Seats”
I have been waiting all morning for this post to go live.
I want to contrast AMC with Cinemark. I am a membver of the Cinemark rewards program (movie club or something like that). I pay $9.99/mo ($8.99 before the pandemic). I get a free regular ticket, discounts on more regular tickets, and discounts on food. I have platinum status, because i wnet to the theater 26 or so times in 2022. So, bigger discounts, better perks.
This wasn’t the case in 2017. I rarely went to a movie in theaters, even as I enjoy going to the cinema. Cinemark changed things for me.
Movie club itself started things. 9.99 for a ticket? I can buy another 9.99 ticket for a guest? Movie club encouraged me to go to more movies by discounting tickets even for prime choice viewings.
Then it ripped out the stadium seating, for more luxrious reclining seats and leg room. Fucking amazing experience.
Then it offered delivery to my seat (for $2). I use a cane. I have to limit my snack purchases. But now? I can get the popcorn and the soda and the water and the hot dog and not worry about juggling in one hand. I literally pay them a fee so I can buy more product.
It lowered the barriers to purchase, and I purchased. The very lesson Techdirt here tries to teach. Service can compete with free. I can buy supplies at safeway, pop popcorn with a variety of flavor options, and watch a movie on my 55″ TV. But I wanted that experience, and Cinemark’s financials (https://ir.cinemark.com/financial-information/income-statement) show significant recovery from the pandemic, with likelyhood of returning to profitability, impling a lot of people still agree. But since before the pandemic, AMC has been doubling down on “enshittification” of the consumer experience. AMC stubs is more confusing. @0% off concessions? No. if you want a large popcorn you only pay for a medium. And if I wanted a medium at 20% off? nope. You get to upgrade. Free tickets? nope. You get the waived ticketing fees, and you can reserve your ticket, but you still pay full price. They aren’t encouraging patrons back and the value proposition is in sharp contrast.
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I’ve probably got some fanboy in that post, I admit. My local AMC might just be shitty and affecting my perspective. I definitely have some older cinemark theaters still like that in the area. but for me the contrast has been night and day.
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Exactly. I stream all at home from now on. If I ever were to go to a movie theater, it would be an Alamo Drafthouse one (there are two close by–one within walking distance in Brooklyn and one which is a short subway ride in lower Manhattan–which I can go to). If I were to go to an AMC theater, it’s to be at a Fathom Event, and I am going to one to see Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey (because I love my public domain remixes!).
Re: Streaming isn't making money.
The author says “the pandemic highlighted how the 90-day gap between the time a movie appears in theaters and its streaming or DVD release was exposed as both dated and stupid.”
The financial reports show that Disney lost $4 BILLION on direct-to-consumer offerings in 2022 and aspires to potentially make its first dollar of profit on Disney+ in 2025 — specifically on Disney+, because Disney’s CEO is openly discussing the sale of the company’s stake in Hulu, which has no value proposition. HBO Max? Losing money. Paramount+? Losing money. Peacock? You guessed right: losing money.
What’s “dated and stupid” is the idea of producing new movies at massive expense every month and then giving them away to people who probably won’t watch them and don’t give a dollar more if they do. Studios dangled this threat over the heads of cinema executives for more than a decade before the pandemic gave them their big chance to ‘cut out the middleman,’ and what did we learn? The middleman delivers a return on investment. A movie that doesn’t get any viewers in cinema might draw the attention of any number of existing subscribers on a streaming service, but not a dollar more comes from those people watching the movie, and if it didn’t draw attention at the cinema, it also won’t draw new subscribers. It’s as obvious as it is overlooked by the zealots of streaming.
OF COURSE you like getting first-run movies handed to you for free; it’s a consumer bonanza! But it’s a terrible business model, one Netflix has barely managed to make profitable solely because it still has rights to show a lot of things it didn’t have to make. Disney+ will probably end up profitable, but only because Disney has always successfully guarded its own intellectual property in an ecosystem that includes theme parks and resorts. The “disruption” of the business model has certainly affected theaters, but they never made money on film screenings anyway; studios calibrated the rents to take almost every dollar beyond bare subsistence, which is why cinemas “make their money on concessions.” In cutting out the release window, cinemas harmed their own profit streams in favor of chasing subscriber counts that deliver huge losses.
Now, I realize some of you just want to spend your lives at home and others live in places where they apparently wash the floors of cinemas with sticky soda. I’m not sure just where these horrible places are, but if I lived where you do, maybe I’d also want to sit at home behind my security cameras and watch a big-screen television to avoid being mugged when I went outside. Fortunately, I don’t, and many people don’t. You can spend your time at home, streaming movies that will soon be coming to you with commercials, and good for you. But the idea that you represent the norm, and that cinemas are dying? Nope. Companies are rediscovering the importance of profitability, and streaming can’t deliver it in most cases as a primary channel. That’s why the studios are recalibrating to prioritize theatrical releases.
If you haven’t been to the movies in years, you’re not in a position to discuss the merits of going.
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No one will ever read this, but I need to say it.
I literally watched more than 1 film every two weeks in theaters in 2022. This is in reply to my highlighting how Cinemark has made a successful value-add over streaming (And its finacnials agree). How I watch more films in theaters now than ever before.
So why are you attacking me for saying AMC’s business practices aren’t as good a value as Cinemark on the basis that streaming sucks?
Hello, huge TV in my living room without any annoyance such as idiots talking and making noise or using their phones during the movie, volume set to too high or temperature too cold/hot. Hello piracy.
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We at LG applaud your purchase!
We might suggest you subscribe to another streaming service, as one of the ones you currently subscribe to you are not watching.
And you might be interested in some of our new features for adaptive subtitles, given the foreign films you have been watching, and the volume you’ve set your home theater to for certain news shows.
We at LG strive to continue improving your viewing experience and our data analytics. Thank you once again!
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So, you don’t have to put up with morons talking and browsing through the movie, who might get violent if you tell them to STFU, and pay less for the opportunity? Cool.
Even if you’re too stupid to disconnect the smart TV from the internet and use a separate device to watch things if you’re so afraid of the company you chose to buy your TV from, it’s still an advantage.
Buggy whip manufacturers responding to people not buying their products by adding a tassel and raising the price.
The only attraction of a theater over home viewing to is screen size and sound quality so the more pleasant the buying is,the better.
blue seats!
They could put a verified sticker on the expensive seats
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That’s probably what Musk would do if he bought AMC.
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Actually, the screenshot I saw of a layout in a test location indicates that there are blue seats – the ones at the rear that give you a $2 discount.
The only thing that got me back in a movie theater many years ago was the plush fake leather reclining big boy chair and the adult beverages.
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Ditto. The only theater I go to is a “luxury” one where the seats recline, and they serve real drinks and food. Best of all, no one under 21 can get in!
But even then, watching stuff in my home theater is superior to going to the movies in every possible way.
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Are you, perchance, talking about the Alamo Drafthouse?
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You mean… they gave customers what they wanted and increased the comfort of going to the cinema instead of trying to overcharge for the same inferior experience? Shocking how that might work better.
The real question: are the worse seat locations going to be cheaper than before, or are they simply charging more for the better seat locations?
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HA! And yes.
Switch seats
The theater by me is a 10 or 12 screen megaplex that is never busy. Are they going to stop me from buying a cheap front row ticket and sitting somewhere else?
I’m going out on my usual limb here to say that the market will take care of this rather nicely.
Just another incentive to Pirate the movie
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Depends on the movie. This is probably age talking (along with the fact that I live in a market that rarely gets things first), but it’s been a long time since I’ve felt the urge to just on a hype train and immediately watch a movie. I’m quite happy waiting a few months and paying or watching something on a subscription I already own, I have plenty of stuff to watch while I’m waiting. Piracy is far from the only option if you get out of the habit of only watching whatever a major studio is trying to sell at a given moment.
Or “interrupted” if one prefers to take a break for whatever reason (snacks, bathroom, etc.).
The name is the first clue
I mean, has anything good ever come from a company called AMC? Halfway through the movie the seat probably sprays oil all over everyone as it collapses into the row in front of you.
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The Walking Dead.
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Also, Dark Winds.
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Good point. Mindless zombies wrecking things seems to follow context pretty well though.
AMC A*List
The AMC AList subscription program charges $25 per month for seeing up to three movies per *week, with no surcharge for premium formats like IMAX and Dolby. They have also announced that this new Sightlines surcharge will not apply to A*List. This program is an absolutely incredible bargain; in NYC where I live, a single IMAX ticket costs more than the monthly fee. If you use it to its full extent, as I do, you are paying only $2 per movie.
Unlike MoviePass, A*List is run by AMC itself, so there isn’t that shadiness going on here. I don’t know if it’s sustainable, but I’ve been a member for over five years (suspended during the pandemic theater closures), and I’ve had no trouble at all, and I’ve seen so many movies that I would otherwise never have gone to.
I’d just like to point out in the diagram I saw the handicapped seating was in the cheap front seats & off to the side but they didn’t offer any discount on them…
F crips I guess…
Only a matter of time until they introduce surge pricing for movie tickets.
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AMC offers Discount Tuesdays, with ticket prices considerably lower. Same for early afternoon movies. So they already have surge pricing, just expressed differently.
Let the theatres collapse so sound mixing in movies can approach something normal people can handle on a normal tv.
All Seats are Equal
“While every seat at AMC delivers an amazing moviegoing experience, we know there are some moviegoers who prioritize their specific seat and others who prioritize value moviegoing.”
Is this AMC’s way of saying “All seats are equal, but some seats are more equal than others?”
Thanks for sharing. It is very helpful for me and also informative for all those users who will come to read.
Movie theatres are dead
Note to theatre staff, your platform is dead.
Even with the original movie pass service I still only went once a week. Since that service died, I haven’t gone back. I have no drive for it. My iMac with stock speakers sounds better than most theatres without the mess and crowd noise.
I have the new movie pass service… yet I haven’t used it. Nothing has come out that deserves a screen larger than my 4k HDTV. And with special service screens (iMax etc) not included… just why?
The problem is theatres were loud, dirty, and stank. Maybe post divide they’ve cleaned up. But the image is permanent for many.
Why should I spend $20 for a ticket, popcorn, and drink to sit in a theatre that smells, dodge stick seats and floors, sit with dozens of necking teens and crying baby’s.
To be interrupted further by roaming employees with night vision goggles looking like aliens as they stumble around.
No, there’s no real draw today. There are, and always will be, those who actually like that experience. The rest of us? Pay 9.99, less money, to enjoy it at home. Oh, and the 9.99 goes completely to the film company.
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My theater experience started to deteriorate at AMC when they created Stubs (their version of the fast pass line) and placed it long side the regular line so I could get ugly looks and comments every time I went. Why not a separate line on the other side of the theater? I stopped using Stubs, but then I still had to see/hear the same stuff in line towards stubs users. Unpleasant. Now they want to increase specific seat prices? No thanks. It was bad enough when I had to pick my seat before going anyway and more often then not when I got there , someone was in my seat causing another hassle. I haven’t gone to a theater since before COVID and see no reason to go back. We created a home theater system in our living room and while I do miss the theater-it’s not worth the hassle or drama to go to the theater now.
AMC increased charges for same seating
The cause of a dispute, resulting in the death of a father and husband, and the ruined life of the nineteen year old shooter. J’s, Albuquerque, NM