08 February 2023

AMC Theaters and Graduated Pricing-

My family went to see "Elvis" during a matinee showtime at an AMC theater about a month ago.
Great movie. Recommended, even if you are not an Elvis Presley fan.
There was one other person in the theater other than my bride, son, and myself. We obviously had our pick of any seat we wanted from which to watch the movie.

Now the powers-that-be at AMC are discussing applying "graduated pricing" at their theaters...
Seats in the middle of the auditorium will be priced higher than seats in the front rows, and maybe seats way back in the back?

Questions-
-Will you pay a premium price to sit in the middle of the theater?
-If you enter an empty theater having paid the lower price for "undesirable" seats, will you sit anywhere you darn well please?
-Will ushers become "enforcement personnel" and demand you prove you are sitting in the seat you paid for even if the room is virtually empty?
-Is this idea more or less likely to make you want to watch a movie in an AMC theater?

If AMC management is trying to increase profitability, I'm not sure this will play out as they imagine.

5 comments:

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Total non starter with me. The last time I was in a movie theater was around 2000. Further, given AMC is anit gun anti 2nd Amendment they won't see a penny of my money.

Old NFO said...

I haven't been in a theater in over 10 years. Once they went anti-gun, I quit going.

Greybeard said...

As a Concealed Carry licensee, I carry ever time I enter the theater, ready to save stupid people's lives as necessary.

Ralphd00d said...

As a general rule, our family doesn't go to AMC, but to a more local version here in AZ called Harkins - which are better priced anyways. But no way would I go to AMC if they introduced this way of pricing on seats. Bad enough you are almost forced to HAVE to purchase online via phone or computer.

Joe said...

We go to a regional chain, it is already cheaper than AMC. I think the idea stinks.

AMC’s marketing people are idiots. Instead of announcing they are charging a premium for the good seats, they should have announced a discount for the bad ones. That is far more palatable.

They then quietly raise prices and get the same results with far less bad PR.

This stuff isn’t hard, I thought of it.