4 ms·

Most if not all the ticket price goes directly into the studio's pockets. So the theatres stay alive by selling concessions. I'd wager everyone here complaini

Most if not all the ticket price goes directly into the studio's pockets. So the theatres stay alive by selling concessions. I'd wager everyone here complaining about prices would also wax poetic about how theatres don't "pay a living wage" to the kids scooping popcorn and would immediately drive home in their $100k Rivians or Teslas so they can give a one star review on Yelp or complain on Reddit about the bathrooms or floors being dirty or sticky. These same people wouldn't bat an eye at paying $14 for a food truck grilled cheese and leave a tip. You can't have it both ways.

socalgal2 7mo ago
Correct, you can't give customers a horrible experience at the theater and expect the theater to do well.
- longislandguido 7mo ago
  Years ago I was in one of those old kitschy theatres. The seat was wet. I prayed it wasn't urine.
  - tombert 7mo ago
    When my wife and I first started dating, we went to one of those cheap second-run theaters. I liked that theater because it was super cheap (like seriously $1.50 for a ticket because it showed out of date movies). One time when she and I were watching The Purge, I hear this kind of squishy noise from right behind me. I turn around, and a guy is getting a handjob. I motion to my wife that we need to move a few seats over. You know, The Purge isn't the worst movie ever but I gotta admit that it's not a movie that ever really turned me on either. To each their own, I suppose. From that point forward we always called that the Handjob Theater.
    - bacchusracine 7mo ago
      >I turn around, and a guy is getting a handjob. I motion to my wife that we need to move a few seats over. To get a better view, right?
      - tombert 7mo ago
        We were mostly afraid of substances landing anywhere near us.
    - aaronbrethorst 7mo ago
      You don’t happen to live in exurban Denver do you?
      - tombert 7mo ago
        Nope, this was in Dallas. Well, Garland actually. I don't live there anymore and haven't for about eleven years.
        geoduck14 7mo ago
        I know exactly the theater you are talking about. My family and I have been there tons of time growing up. I've never had an experience like you described, but I totally believe it.
        tombert 7mo ago
        Yeah, no shade at all towards the theater, not their fault that one of their customers got really turned on watching The Purge. If I lived in Dallas still I'd probably still go there all the time.
wat10000 7mo ago
Why can’t I have it both ways? If all of those things are true, then the conclusion is that theaters can’t operate in a way that wins my business. That would be unfortunate, but it’s not contradictory. It also seems to be that pretty much true, as I see a movie in a theater maybe once a year.
- longislandguido 7mo ago
  Extending this logic, Netflix should be able to lower prices to $1.99 if they stopped paying staff $800k/year... After all, they move 1s and 0s at the end of the day. No screens or customer-facing capital equipment to maintain outside of DCs.
  - lotsofpulp 7mo ago
    That is not the logic used by wat10000. I believe they wrote that it is consistent to find sufficient utility from a $14 grilled cheese sandwich and also find insufficient utility from a whatever price movie theater experience. It isn’t written out, but when people complain about the price of anything, they are complaining the price to utility ratio. Not exactly profound stuff, but that is basically what it is, most people don’t get a sufficiently better experience in theaters in today’s world.
  - wat10000 7mo ago
    What? The extension of my logic to Netflix would be, if I think their prices are too high and that causes me not to subscribe, and their prices are so high because they need to pay very high salaries, then there’s just no way that Netflix can exist in a form that I would subscribe to.
  - robcohen 7mo ago
    Actually, yes, I do think that netflix could do their job much cheaper. I use putflix, which uses put.io for $0.99 per month. Better quality streaming than netflix, no forced ads, and they can make it work for $1. Maybe it's the model where my monthly subscription pays for their entire catalog that's broken. Maybe it should just be a la carte licensing. Either way, until the industry lets me pay directly to the org that literally made the movie, I'll just pirate. I do want to pay the artists that make the films. I think the most viable way to do this is via cryptocurrency associated with social media accounts, and then validate ownership by having owners post a magic validation link. This way I can send artists money and it's on them to go get it if they want it.
datsci_est_2015 7mo ago
> These same people wouldn't bat an eye at paying $14 for a food truck grilled cheese and leave a tip. This seems weirdly condescending, especially since I think these two things are very related. There are two types of $14 food truck grilled cheese in my experience: The first type is usually found at farmer’s markets or free city events where the cheese will be local and artisan, and the bread will be local and artisan, and it’ll be pretty freaking good, and remind you that you can make incredible food with simple ingredients. The second type is where there’s a captive audience, like a music festival or a brewery patio. This is no free market: you are hungry, and you’re about to be exploited. I find American society increasingly reflected in the second type of $14 grilled cheese. Movie theaters, sporting events, music events, video games, tipping culture, hidden fees, etc. etc. Exploitative business practices to extract profit at the expense of the customer. It’s like walking around being shown the middle finger at all times. And people complain about the breakdown of the social contract…
- stogot 7mo ago
  I was going to say the same thing the artisan grilled cheese is better than a hotdog that’s been overheated for six hours with a stale bun, and stale popcorn with fake flavoring
- dyauspitr 7mo ago
  > the cheese will be local and artisan, and the bread will be local and artisan, and it’ll be pretty freaking good, and remind you that you can make incredible food with simple ingredients. Simple ingredients should be cheap. It’s fucking cheese and bread, stop trying to normalize $15 for it. The raw ingredients are milk and wheat, both of which are incredible cheap.
  - datsci_est_2015 7mo ago
    You’re disregarding training, labor, and the intangibles of culture and tradition. Those things should be cheaper, but in America we’ve basically all but destroyed bakery artisanship at the altar of capitalist efficiency, so its rarity has now made its products more expensive. Cheese is in a slightly better position, but only barely, and very regionally-dependent (Wisconsin and Oregon, for example). So yeah, I don’t disagree, it should be about half the price if we had better artisan programs in the US. But I don’t think wonder bread and Kraft singles should set the bar for grilled cheese pricing.
tombert 7mo ago
The reasoning doesn't particularly matter to me, honestly. Whether or not it they need to charge a second mortgage to cover the cost of the theater isn't really my problem; these are for-profit companies, I don't need to do them any favor. Popcorn cost basically nothing to make at home, especially if you buy the raw kernels and pop them yourself, and I can rent a 4k version of a movie for like three dollars on Amazon. My 85" 8k TV cost me $1200 (refurbished, but still). For the cost of going to the theater with my wife 15 times, I can buy that TV to watch movies but also use that same TV for many other things. Even cheap shitty TVs are pretty ok nowadays, certainly better than the stuff when I was a kid, and after I have to question the point of going to an expensive physical theater where there's a risk of some teenagers talking over the movie and I can't pause if I need to use the bathroom. The theaters might not like it, but regardless of whether its fair, they are competing with TVs now.
- pipes 7mo ago
  Everyone I know with an Espresso machine still goes to coffee shops. Beer is cheaper from a super market but everyone I know prefers pubs. For some reason this does not hold with cinemas. I way prefer the escapism of the cinema to sitting in my house surrounded by my usual ambient domestic Todo list. Sure I have a very good oled, amazing surround sound, but I'd take the cinema every time. But I can't due to kids. However, I'm the outlier, none of my friends prefer the cinema. No idea why.
  - telotortium 7mo ago
    > Beer is cheaper from a super market but everyone I know prefers pubs. It's a pretty frequent complaint that drinks at pubs, bars, and restaurants have become extortionately expensive, to the point that a lot of younger people are drinking less for that reason.
    - dylan604 7mo ago
      I avoid "bars" where the bar tenders only pour beers. I much prefer the higher end places where every drink is hand made in front of you where the quality of the bartender is everything. I recognize the skill and accept that the price of the cocktail will be set accordingly. There are places that make cocktails with the same ice they use for soft drinks from premade cocktails charging the same price. I do not go back to those ever again after I slog down the one drink. Luckily, I'm a freak where I didn't actually start drinking until I was in my 30s so I didn't have to suffer being broke at a bar.
coderjames 7mo ago
And you'd lose that wager. I complain about movie costs while I watch movies at home, drive a VW that was under $40k new, live in a state with a minimum wage over $17 an hour, and refuse to pay $14 plus tip to a food truck that doesn't provide seating when I can pay $12 and no tip at a fast food restaurant that does provide dine-in eating. Some of us live our principles, we're not all just whinging hypocrites.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
jbm 7mo ago
Side note - My 2019 Tesla Model 3 is worth 8000$. Canadian. A rich person does not drive a Tesla.
- someguynamedq 7mo ago
  Prices have come down but that's not a real price unless there's something seriously wrong with your car. i'm seeing ~15 at the lowest
remarkEon 7mo ago
There's way more middlemen then when people went to the movies in the 1950s, it's not that complicated. Back then, the theater got the film roll in a USPS delivery, and the people that manned the popcorn were high schoolers. Over the years we have injected lots of lawyers at every level of this and, alas, everything about "watching a movie" is more expensive.
g947o 7mo ago
Well, the system either needs to change, or it will die. As simple as that. Probably the latter.

socalgal2 7mo ago

Correct, you can't give customers a horrible experience at the theater and expect the theater to do well.

longislandguido 7mo ago
Years ago I was in one of those old kitschy theatres. The seat was wet. I prayed it wasn't urine.
- tombert 7mo ago
  When my wife and I first started dating, we went to one of those cheap second-run theaters. I liked that theater because it was super cheap (like seriously $1.50 for a ticket because it showed out of date movies). One time when she and I were watching The Purge, I hear this kind of squishy noise from right behind me. I turn around, and a guy is getting a handjob. I motion to my wife that we need to move a few seats over. You know, The Purge isn't the worst movie ever but I gotta admit that it's not a movie that ever really turned me on either. To each their own, I suppose. From that point forward we always called that the Handjob Theater.
  - bacchusracine 7mo ago
    >I turn around, and a guy is getting a handjob. I motion to my wife that we need to move a few seats over. To get a better view, right?
    - tombert 7mo ago
      We were mostly afraid of substances landing anywhere near us.
  - aaronbrethorst 7mo ago
    You don’t happen to live in exurban Denver do you?
    - tombert 7mo ago
      Nope, this was in Dallas. Well, Garland actually. I don't live there anymore and haven't for about eleven years.
      - geoduck14 7mo ago
        I know exactly the theater you are talking about. My family and I have been there tons of time growing up. I've never had an experience like you described, but I totally believe it.
        tombert 7mo ago
        Yeah, no shade at all towards the theater, not their fault that one of their customers got really turned on watching The Purge. If I lived in Dallas still I'd probably still go there all the time.

wat10000 7mo ago

Why can’t I have it both ways? If all of those things are true, then the conclusion is that theaters can’t operate in a way that wins my business. That would be unfortunate, but it’s not contradictory. It also seems to be that pretty much true, as I see a movie in a theater maybe once a year.

longislandguido 7mo ago
Extending this logic, Netflix should be able to lower prices to $1.99 if they stopped paying staff $800k/year... After all, they move 1s and 0s at the end of the day. No screens or customer-facing capital equipment to maintain outside of DCs.
- lotsofpulp 7mo ago
  That is not the logic used by wat10000. I believe they wrote that it is consistent to find sufficient utility from a $14 grilled cheese sandwich and also find insufficient utility from a whatever price movie theater experience. It isn’t written out, but when people complain about the price of anything, they are complaining the price to utility ratio. Not exactly profound stuff, but that is basically what it is, most people don’t get a sufficiently better experience in theaters in today’s world.
- wat10000 7mo ago
  What? The extension of my logic to Netflix would be, if I think their prices are too high and that causes me not to subscribe, and their prices are so high because they need to pay very high salaries, then there’s just no way that Netflix can exist in a form that I would subscribe to.
- robcohen 7mo ago
  Actually, yes, I do think that netflix could do their job much cheaper. I use putflix, which uses put.io for $0.99 per month. Better quality streaming than netflix, no forced ads, and they can make it work for $1. Maybe it's the model where my monthly subscription pays for their entire catalog that's broken. Maybe it should just be a la carte licensing. Either way, until the industry lets me pay directly to the org that literally made the movie, I'll just pirate. I do want to pay the artists that make the films. I think the most viable way to do this is via cryptocurrency associated with social media accounts, and then validate ownership by having owners post a magic validation link. This way I can send artists money and it's on them to go get it if they want it.

datsci_est_2015 7mo ago

> These same people wouldn't bat an eye at paying $14 for a food truck grilled cheese and leave a tip. This seems weirdly condescending, especially since I think these two things are very related. There are two types of $14 food truck grilled cheese in my experience: The first type is usually found at farmer’s markets or free city events where the cheese will be local and artisan, and the bread will be local and artisan, and it’ll be pretty freaking good, and remind you that you can make incredible food with simple ingredients. The second type is where there’s a captive audience, like a music festival or a brewery patio. This is no free market: you are hungry, and you’re about to be exploited. I find American society increasingly reflected in the second type of $14 grilled cheese. Movie theaters, sporting events, music events, video games, tipping culture, hidden fees, etc. etc. Exploitative business practices to extract profit at the expense of the customer. It’s like walking around being shown the middle finger at all times. And people complain about the breakdown of the social contract…

stogot 7mo ago
I was going to say the same thing the artisan grilled cheese is better than a hotdog that’s been overheated for six hours with a stale bun, and stale popcorn with fake flavoring
dyauspitr 7mo ago
> the cheese will be local and artisan, and the bread will be local and artisan, and it’ll be pretty freaking good, and remind you that you can make incredible food with simple ingredients. Simple ingredients should be cheap. It’s fucking cheese and bread, stop trying to normalize $15 for it. The raw ingredients are milk and wheat, both of which are incredible cheap.
- datsci_est_2015 7mo ago
  You’re disregarding training, labor, and the intangibles of culture and tradition. Those things should be cheaper, but in America we’ve basically all but destroyed bakery artisanship at the altar of capitalist efficiency, so its rarity has now made its products more expensive. Cheese is in a slightly better position, but only barely, and very regionally-dependent (Wisconsin and Oregon, for example). So yeah, I don’t disagree, it should be about half the price if we had better artisan programs in the US. But I don’t think wonder bread and Kraft singles should set the bar for grilled cheese pricing.

tombert 7mo ago

The reasoning doesn't particularly matter to me, honestly. Whether or not it they need to charge a second mortgage to cover the cost of the theater isn't really my problem; these are for-profit companies, I don't need to do them any favor. Popcorn cost basically nothing to make at home, especially if you buy the raw kernels and pop them yourself, and I can rent a 4k version of a movie for like three dollars on Amazon. My 85" 8k TV cost me $1200 (refurbished, but still). For the cost of going to the theater with my wife 15 times, I can buy that TV to watch movies but also use that same TV for many other things. Even cheap shitty TVs are pretty ok nowadays, certainly better than the stuff when I was a kid, and after I have to question the point of going to an expensive physical theater where there's a risk of some teenagers talking over the movie and I can't pause if I need to use the bathroom. The theaters might not like it, but regardless of whether its fair, they are competing with TVs now.

pipes 7mo ago
Everyone I know with an Espresso machine still goes to coffee shops. Beer is cheaper from a super market but everyone I know prefers pubs. For some reason this does not hold with cinemas. I way prefer the escapism of the cinema to sitting in my house surrounded by my usual ambient domestic Todo list. Sure I have a very good oled, amazing surround sound, but I'd take the cinema every time. But I can't due to kids. However, I'm the outlier, none of my friends prefer the cinema. No idea why.
- telotortium 7mo ago
  > Beer is cheaper from a super market but everyone I know prefers pubs. It's a pretty frequent complaint that drinks at pubs, bars, and restaurants have become extortionately expensive, to the point that a lot of younger people are drinking less for that reason.
  - dylan604 7mo ago
    I avoid "bars" where the bar tenders only pour beers. I much prefer the higher end places where every drink is hand made in front of you where the quality of the bartender is everything. I recognize the skill and accept that the price of the cocktail will be set accordingly. There are places that make cocktails with the same ice they use for soft drinks from premade cocktails charging the same price. I do not go back to those ever again after I slog down the one drink. Luckily, I'm a freak where I didn't actually start drinking until I was in my 30s so I didn't have to suffer being broke at a bar.

coderjames 7mo ago

And you'd lose that wager. I complain about movie costs while I watch movies at home, drive a VW that was under $40k new, live in a state with a minimum wage over $17 an hour, and refuse to pay $14 plus tip to a food truck that doesn't provide seating when I can pay $12 and no tip at a fast food restaurant that does provide dine-in eating. Some of us live our principles, we're not all just whinging hypocrites.

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

jbm 7mo ago

Side note - My 2019 Tesla Model 3 is worth 8000$. Canadian. A rich person does not drive a Tesla.

someguynamedq 7mo ago
Prices have come down but that's not a real price unless there's something seriously wrong with your car. i'm seeing ~15 at the lowest

remarkEon 7mo ago

There's way more middlemen then when people went to the movies in the 1950s, it's not that complicated. Back then, the theater got the film roll in a USPS delivery, and the people that manned the popcorn were high schoolers. Over the years we have injected lots of lawyers at every level of this and, alas, everything about "watching a movie" is more expensive.

g947o 7mo ago

Well, the system either needs to change, or it will die. As simple as that. Probably the latter.