Jordan Valinsky:
AMC Theaters is changing the way it charges for seats.
America’s largest movie chain announced that the prices of a ticket will now be based on seat location, meaning seats in the front will be cheaper while more desirable seats in the middle will now cost more. The ticket pricing initiative, called Sightline at AMC, will roll out at all of its roughly 1,000 movie theaters by the end of the year.
Three pricing tiers will soon be offered. For example, the highest-end “Preferred” tier are in the middle of the theaters and will be priced at a “slight premium” compared to its “Standard” tier, which the theater chains says will remain the most common choice and will be sold for the “traditional cost of a ticket.” The third tier is called “Value,” which are seats in the front row of theaters and will cost less than than its “Standard” tier.
I’m of a few minds here. At a high level, as a capitalist, I think this is a good thing. If demand dictates people are willing to pay more for certain seats, so be it. This has been the case for sometime in Europe. And, of course, for many other forms of entertainment all around the world, including in the US, from sports to plays. It’s weird it has taken this long for movie theaters to get on board.
On the other hand, this is very clearly a money grab — and not the first — in a moment of desperation for theaters, especially the big chains, like AMC. For years, their overall product has been awful. And instead of fixing it, they engage with arguably unethical nonsense like this. As the article notes, they’re also using this as a way to bolster their membership offering.
On top of this, rather than charging less for front-row seats where it’s hard to see the screen, why not just remove those seats? You understand it for sporting events and perhaps even theater, where as many people as possible want to be “in the room where it happened”. But for movies, which are under assault from living rooms with literally the best seats in the house — your own house — it seems like they shouldn’t try to sell crap seats anymore? Paying less for those seats probably just makes it an easier call in a way to stay home and wait for the movie to hit streaming.
At the end of the day, movie theaters need to significantly up their value proposition if they’re to stay alive. A lot of the independent theaters do this and it’s a great experience to go to a night out at the movies. AMC has a long history of doing the opposite. And all this would seem to be is an attempted money-grab by acknowledging that some of their seats suck.
