What the hell! A little real world ranting about movie tickets...

Ok, enough is enough. Read this!

What corporations have to understand is that it is not they who set the ticket prices. It is us. I have been out of the loop for a few months with the baby, the last movie I saw was District 9. But I paid 12 bucks for me and my wife then, which almost made me blow an O-ring, and now? This is just CRAZY! Theaters in New York City are now charging almost 20 bucks a ticket! The problem is that we let them do it! They raise the price, and we reward them for it by paying any way. Avatar sets huge records, and CEO's see dollar signs. So the prices go up even further. Here is a little secret. The prices will continue to go up so long as we continue to pay them. If they charge 40 bucks a head and we still go, they smile all the way to the bank. But what most of us don't even consider is that all we have to do is NOT PAY THEM and the prices will go down. If enough of us just don't go to the movies, they will feel the impact in their pockets.

I didn't see Avatar, and I for one was excited about movies like Iron Man 2 coming up... but when the time comes, I will have to pay 40 bucks plus a baby sitter to go see it with my wife. Throw in popcorn and a drink and my wifes red slushy and I am now paying upwards of 140 bucks to go watch a 2 hour movie. I don't care what movie it is... it is just not worth it. A movie is a movie. 3-D or not, they are selling us the same thing they were selling us for 6 bucks ten years ago. Lets put this into perspective. 13 or so years ago in New York City I paid 7 bucks each to take my girlfriend to see Titanic. Now they are charging 19.00 for Avatar. Almost three times as much!

Sure inflation happens, now things cost more to make... but think about this. If I paid 10 grand for a car 13 years ago, and prices went up the way movies have, I would be paying about 27,000.00 for the same car.

But that is not the case. In 1997 a new car cost about 21,000 dollars. (I removed any specific maker to avoid dumb comments.) Now, it actually costs LESS! Why? Because that is the price the market bears. The car company knows that if they double the cost of their car, they will not sell it. So why are we letting the movie industry double the cost of movie tickets, then add ANOTHER 50%?

Hey, you want to go see Iron Man 2 for 20 bucks? I got a 2007 Toyota Matrix I will sell you for the bargain price of 50,000 dollars. That is what the movie industry is telling us.

I will be the first to get in the "I'm not paying!" line. I have a sweet 40" HDTV at home. I can wait 6 months and watch Iron Man 2 on Netflix.

What do you guys think? This summer, just say no. Stay in, watch Netflix with the wife, play with the kids, or go out and play 40k. Whatever you do, do NOT go pay 20 bucks a head to watch a movie.

Jawaballs

I didn't even get into how the movie experience is starting to really suck. Last time I saw a movie, I counted no less then 27 cell phones out in hands in front of me while people were texting. Or browsing the web on their Iphone. Some of those things were bright! Nothing like trying to enjoy a movie with kids shining little flashlights in my eyes. Add to that the fact that it seems to me at least that theaters are taking a step back in design by trying to pack back in the seats they removed in the late 90s, and is it really worth it? What am I going to do, go wait in line to complain to a manager about cell phones just to have him shrug and say so what?