{"id":16058,"date":"2012-01-04T14:11:23","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T12:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=16058"},"modified":"2012-01-04T14:11:23","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T12:11:23","slug":"why-do-all-movie-tickets-cost-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/04\/why-do-all-movie-tickets-cost-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do All Movie Tickets Cost the Same?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Slashdot thread<\/a> raises an interesting question:<\/p>\n

Like tens of millions of Americans, I have paid money to see Mission: Impossible, which made $130 million in the last two weeks, and I have not paid any money to see Young Adult, which has made less than $10 million over the same span. Nobody is surprised or impressed by the discrepancy. The real question is: If demand is supposed to move prices, why isn’t seeing Young Adult much cheaper than seeing Mission: Impossible?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those of us not too versed in economics, the question does sound reasonable. \u00a0I am not too good with demand and supply nuances, but I do know that the costs for the movie theater are pretty much the same no matter how many people show up for the show. \u00a0This comment<\/a> confirms that and also touches on the economics bit of the question:<\/p>\n

If demand is supposed to move prices…<\/em><\/p>\n

What a bad place to start your argument. In classical economics, demand shifts affect pricing if supply is a factor. When it comes to movie distribution, supply usually isn’t an issue.<\/p>\n

Also, profits of Mission Impossible to to cover the losses of the gamble on Young Adult. Essentially, movie ticket prices are aggregated and normalized across movies to mitigate risk. Do you really want to spend $40\/ticket on Mission Impossible so that Young Adult would cost only $3?<\/p>\n

The actually hard-costs to the theaters (staff, electricity, rent, etc.) is pretty much the same regardless if 5 people are in the theater or 500, and is relatively minor in their overall operations. They pay back to the studios based on how many watchers they have, which where most of their expenses actually lie. They have to pay back the same amount to the studios regardless how how many tickets they sell, so why would they implement variable pricing?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

This Slashdot thread raises an interesting question: Like tens of millions of Americans, I have paid money to see Mission: Impossible, which made $130 million in the last two weeks, and I have not paid any money to see Young Adult, which has made less than $10 million over the same span. Nobody is surprised … Continue reading Why Do All Movie Tickets Cost the Same?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,24],"tags":[1968,1593,1177],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-16058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-movies","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-finance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7409,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2004\/04\/04\/scary-movie-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":16058,"position":0},"title":"Scary Movie 2","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"April 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Watched \"Scary Movie 2\" on the DVD. 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And enjoying it... # The question of the day is - will I get sued or merely not paid? # Twitter for groups sounds cool! http:\/\/www.jazzychad.net\/twgroups\/ # With this group thing, I wish more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8310,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2004\/12\/07\/kill-bill-question\/","url_meta":{"origin":16058,"position":4},"title":"Kill Bill question","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"December 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I decided that enough time has passed since I've watched both \"Kill Bill: Vol.1\" and \"Kill Bill: Vol.2\", so I rented both DVDs. I did that for three reasons. Firstly, I started to miss them a lot and it was about time I watched them. So I did. 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