Why the Movie Theater Industry is Collapsing and How They Can Come Back

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. My interests would have us taking in the warm weather and enjoying one of many local scenic vistas. The little lady, on the other hand, wanted to go see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie which had been playing at the local theater for a few weeks.

It was the forth in the series titled "On Stranger Tides" and since my Mrs. has a thing for Johnny Depp you know how we spent the remainder of our day.

Everyone knows the concession counter at the movies charge high prices for everything. To thwart their effort to lighten my wallet beyond the cost of admission we stopped and picked up some cheap candy and a 20 oz Pepsi to be hidden in my ladies purse and smuggled past the ticket taker.

Honestly I had full intention on buying a small popcorn to satisfy my taste for salt, I was even looking forward to having a good load of buttery goodness poured all over it.

The parking lot was almost empty, only two other cars had arrived. We had 20 minutes before the show started but with the mandatory before hand restroom stop, the previews should be playing in no time.
My first surprise came at the ticket window, the price has gone up again. At $7 apiece, this afternoon matinee was going to cost us $14. The last time I was here it was $10, that's a jump of about 40%.

While the wife was inspecting the restroom, she can't seem to walk past one, I approached the concession counter. Reaching for my wallet, I did an immediate halt when I saw the small size popcorn was priced at $5.35. Of course you could buy the large with free refills but that will cost you just pennies less than the price of admission. Thank goodness we bought that bottle of pop out in the real world, pop was priced in the same range. You could get nachos for well over $5 and the same sized boxes of candy that we paid a dollar for at a local store sold here for $3.50. So ended my craving for popcorn, I wasn't ready to mortgage the house.

We entered the theater and had yet another surprise. This was one of the lesser and much smaller theaters in the complex. The screen was about half the size of what we had enjoyed just across the lobby on our last visit. The seat backs were higher than normal and our first concern was if anyone sat in front of us our vision would be severely compromised.

As it turned out this concern never materialized. There was a total of seven people at this viewing, including the two of us.
The movie was ok, nothing special in my mind. I think it's time to put this series to rest as the story line seemed quite lame and even my wife wasn't all that impressed. I don't know, maybe Johnny Depp is losing some his appeal.
The people working the theater did their job well, greeting us with a "Thank you, come again". they all looked neat, well dressed and friendly. Going back to the parking lot I noticed only about a dozen cars in the lot. Being this is a multiplex with a number of movies running at the same time I was convinced no one movie had any better attendance than the one we were in.

The movie theater industry has a problem. Competition is killing them, and the need to make a profit has them pricing their product well beyond its worth. It's just not economically worth it to take in a movie at a theater anymore.
Netflix, Red Box, and Pay Per View has dealt them a death blow. It makes no sense to layout this kind of money just to see a movie on a large screen. Sure we considered it a treat, but the prices have gone way beyond the level of occasional treat.

In an effort to conserve our money and avoid some of the outlandish prices we stopped before hand.

McDonald's dollar menu for 2 burgers and small fries. $3.30
Store for $2 in candy and $1.49 Pepsi. $3.75
Admission for 2 at the movie. $14.00
Afterwards, McDonald's after for ice cream cones $2.20

That all adds up to $23.25. No, it's not going to break me but in this Midwestern city I could go to a half dozen restaurants and enjoy an excellent quality meal for a $20 bill. The additional $3.25 would cover the tip. The movie, popcorn and pop at the theater would have run us about $27. For that kind of money I could have upgraded the meal to include linen napkins and probably a desert I didn't really need.

If the theater system looks to survive much longer they need to realize that gouging the few customers they have will shut their doors forever. Lowering prices considerably will increase the traffic flow and bring movies at the theater back to the public. The theater industry seems to have forgotten who their target customer is.