You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
$100 movie prices.
That’s jarring to my thought process. It’s disturbing like a mini skirt and halter top on Rosie O’Donnell.
It’s unfortunate like drinking Budweiser at a coronation for the Queen.
$100 movie tickets?
Americans love movies like dogs like an open car window, but get real!
Sure it’s 2 hours of escape from your tired, confusing, persecuting world. Sure it’s a temporized experience in a darkened, air conditioned theater, in a big comfy chair. I get all that. And it’s worth what I pay now.
but $25 or $100 or Dare I say it -$150?
That’s like hiring a high priced call girl when you can just hit yourself in the head with a hammer.
While horrible to think about, the reality is plausible.
Baseball, the American Pastime, now costs a kidney to take a family of four to the ball game.
We live in a world where we pay $4 for coffee, $2 for water and $2.99 to download an app where birds stretch a rubber band and fire other birds at boulders made of colorful binary code.
Are we imbeciles?
In a single syllable? Yes.
And just when you thought you and your hard earned dollar couldn’t be more insulted, I bring you the Cinema symposium at USC.
That’s where 2 movie titans; Steven Spielberg and George Lucas predicted that ticket prices will rise faster than a teenager on Viagra.
In a recent panel discussion at world renowned USC film school, Star Wars creator George Lucas said “Going to the movies will cost you 50 bucks, maybe 100 bucks maybe 150 bucks. “
OUCH! Help me Obi Wan. You are our only hope.
And Steven Spielberg followed up by saying “You will pay 25 dollars to see the next Iron Man and only 7 dollars to see Lincoln.”
Steve you need to phone home.
As the reporter quipped, “not all movies are created equal”
According to the celluloid titans, a period piece like Lincoln doesn’t cost nearly as much to produce as a sci fi block buster like Super Man. By and large, along those same lines, the box office potential is relative, meaning Super Man has a chance for super box office receipts while Lincoln might break even and win an Academy Award.
So Spielberg and Lucas predict fewer movies will be in theaters longer and movie tickets for some movies will cost as much as some Broadway shows.
Supply and demand right?
What’s next, charging us for air? In China that might not be too far off.
David Cohen, a tech columnist says: “someone will break that barrier and charge more for the movie and say it costs more to make it and to see if someone will put up with that”
Have you seen a movie this summer that is worth $150 to see?
I can’t think of one.
I can’t think of many things that I thought were worth $150 off the top of my head.
My dental visit? The new battery in my car? Iron Man movie tickets?
Get freaking real.
I believe we will eventually see higher ticket prices, but in the end I think it will all balance out.
Charge higher prices for fewer movies and you bank that fewer movies will generate more box office. But I would wager that higher prices will reduce movie patronage and that will generate less dollars or perhaps the same amount.
The question is, less boots on the carpet means less raping and pillaging at the candy counter. Less people buying million dollar cokes and billion dollar boxes of Twizzlers.
You think the Thoroughbred Theaters of the world are going to put up with that for very long.
So you can talk about higher prices for Hangover III like it’s Pippin or the Lion King, but in the end Steve and George, let me remind you, It’s not.
It’s a movie. It’s for the average man. It’s an escape from the real world for a few hours. If going to the movies is going to remind me for two hours that I just blew the light bill on Iron Man III then I’ll just hit myself in the head with a hammer and pay the light bill and wait for HBO to get the rights a year from now.
At the end of the day; having power and food in the refrigerator is better than watching Robert Downey Jr. charm the iron pants off Gwynth Paltrow.
Life’s Crazy