Just think, one day your kids are gonna ask you for money to go to the movies, and when you give them $30 they will stand there with a dumb look on their face and say, “Thanks, now can I have some money for the popcorn?”
Movie prices are getting ridiculous. When I was a youngster, Mr. Jackson could get a family and four through the door, with a buck or two left over. Want to grab a ticket in The Big Apple? Sure, just put back the gallon of milk, the dozen of eggs, and the double pack Axe deodorant and antiperspirant (let’s face it, not eating and smelling like a foot are not life threatening) . That’s just for you. What, you don’t like going to the movies alone? Well you figure out the rest of your shopping list, just make sure you have $12 more to spare.
So why are movies so expensive? Is it because the organization known as Hollywood is a force that cannot be stopped and forces you to pay these outlandish prices? Well….. yeah, that’s the point of my post here. But it’s more than that.
Why Are Movie Tickets So Expensive?
OOOOOOH THE INSANITY!!!
Movie ticket prices keep growing because of simple mathematics. The movies made today have more special effects, more explosions, more cars being thrown, than there were even a few years ago. All of these special features that the big screen brings to us costs more money with every advancement of film. The movie theaters aren’t hiking up the prices because they want a bigger bonus (this statement has not been confirmed and is still under official review). They have to raise the prices because the movie distributors are charging greater and greater amounts to purchase the movie to show. These movies are being sold for a higher price because they are becoming more expensive to make. Are you starting to see the cycle?
Now the price that the movie theater has to buy the movies for is not just the price of the movie itself. Confused? When you purchase Microsoft Office, you pay a pretty fair amount, but along with the software you also are purchasing a license to use that software. That is the price that Microsoft assumes the user will pay to get the proper amount of utility from one person. If you own a business and need Microsoft Office on numerous computers/workstations, you must purchase more accounts. Obviously the price goes up. So before the movies are sold to the movie theater, the distribution company crunches the numbers to see at what cost to the movie theater, will they make the most profit while having the movie theater feel like it paid a fair amount to show the movie. And don’t forget, that the movie theater is also trying to make a profit as well. This is how the prices are getting out of control.
So, now you only have two choices as a consumer. You can stop going to the movie theater, or you can forgetaboudit and keep on throwing bills as the teller lady. Honestly, it doesn’t matter what you do.
When the Mobil in town is charging $15/gallon of gas, but the Texaco out of town is only charging $2.50, the way to combat the high prices is to stop buying from the Mobil. Eventually Mobil will have to bring their price down if they want any business. It doesn’t work like that with movies. Every distribution company is providing the same amount of glitz, glamor, and explosions as the next. In other words, if we all stopped watching movies produced by Fox, it wouldn’t change anything. Fox’s movie production company would go out of business, but the other production companies would continue to make the same amount of blockbuster/walletbuster movies. It comes down to a competition with them. Each company wants their logo to flash before the movie that changes the way we think of entertainment.
So, if we all banned together to stop going to the movie theaters to watch the movies, then everything would be fine right? Wrong. If we stop purchasing tickets from the movie theater, three things could happen:
The second greatest box in the world.
1) The distribution companies will lower their prices, but only after the production companies lower their production budget therefore creating a decline in the amount of guns, fires, and explosions we so desperately crave.
2) The distribution companies will find other ways to make ends meet by raising prices elsewhere, thus leaving you to purchase the Rambo 12 DVD for $79.99. Or instead, when you rent it from the RedBox you will be charged $10 per night, instead of $1.
3) Both. Not only do you have to pay $50 for that stupid chick flick your wife wanted to see so bad, but the budget for the movie was so low, that when the bride-to-be fell over the balcony (providing the only entertainment in the entire movie), a life size doll replaced the stunt double, which was painfully obvious.
So basically I’m saying we are screwed and there is no need to complain about the price of movie tickets because we can’t do anything about them. Hollywood, which I’m convinced is a front for La Cosa Nostra, has found a way to legally provide a product in such a way that has it’s consumers coming back for more without any regard of the cost, think legalized crack.
Hollywood is a very powerful movement. They are very influential and have the funds to back their alternative motives. After Al Gore made An Inconvenient Truth, did you notice how many Hollywood actors and actresses were pushing the word about “going green” and how quickly it spread? Did you ever notice the people who were giving us these truths well before Al Gore’s film, but everyone just looked at them like they were weird? Hollywood controls more than people understand. They have their hands in many cookie jars, my friend. I mean seriously guys, on any other planet, in any other universe, with any other conditions, would the Terminator ever be elected into office?
