Why Is AMC Charging People More to See 'The Batman'?

You might not have noticed while buying your tickets, but if you're seeing The Batman at an AMC theater, you're paying extra.

While AMC didn't release numbers for the entire world, a quick Google of prices in different areas showed me that on average, people were paying only a dollar more per ticket to that movie. But as we've talked about on this website, that's basically AMC testing whether or not they should be doing variable pricing.

Under that model, people would pay more for a movie that's new, and less for one that's been out for a while. 

AMC's CEO, Adam Aron confirmed that's what they're testing in a quarterly earnings webcast.

He said, “Currently, our prices for The Batman are slightly higher than the prices we are charging for other movies playing in the same theaters at the same time. This is all quite novel in the United States, but actually, AMC has been doing it for years in our European theaters. Indeed, in Europe we charge a premium for the best seats in the house—as do just about all sellers of tickets in other industries—take sports events, concerts, and live theater, for example.” 

There's certainly a lot of upside to this idea, and it might be a great way for theaters and studios to capitalize on bigger audience hits, while still releasing smaller movies that may gather fewer crowds—more people might watch them at lower prices. 

As we see audiences flock to The Batman, we're going to learn a lot about how tentpoles could actually be used to stabilize the industry.

If you think this is all new, think again. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were actually on a panel years ago where they predicted this very thing. 

The Verge reported Lucas saying, “What you’re going to end up with is fewer theaters. Bigger theaters, with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies is going to cost you 50 bucks, maybe 100. Maybe 150. And that’s going to be what we call ‘the movie business.’ But everything else is going to look more like cable television on TiVo.”

Spielberg added, “There’s going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even half a dozen of these mega-budgeted movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that’s going to change the paradigm again. There’s going to be eventually day and date with movies, and eventually, there’s going to be a price variance. You’re going to have to pay $25 to see the next Iron Man. And you’re probably only going to have to pay $7 to see Lincoln.”

Looks like we've seen this coming for a bit. 

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.