Let’s face it, movie-going has become an expensive affair, not only for college students, but for America as a whole.
As Emma Buchanan, a sophomore in animal science, put it, current ticket prices are “way too expensive.”
Buchanan is waiting to see Memoirs of a Geisha at N.C. State’s Witherspoon Auditorium, where movies are shown for the nominal fee of $1.50. Witherspoon is home to many films only a few months after their initial, more expensive releases.
Many students don’t see the need to pay full price when all they have to do is wait a little longer for a less expensive movie.
“Who would pay $8 in a theater when you could wait a few weeks and pay $1.50?” Jason Brown, a sophomore in fisheries and wildlife science, said.
A simple step back from the average theater reveals half-empty parking lots on opening day and shorter lines for bigger hits that aren’t even sold out. Even as the once majestic silver screen rolls down, you’ll continue to hear the familiar sound of children crying, cell phones ringing and commercials best left for television.
Prices alone don’t appear to be the culprits either — some films just aren’t that appealing. A weekend where one has to choose between Aeon Flux and Casanova is a weekend better spent balancing one’s checkbook.
Finally, don’t forget the rise of the affordable home entertainment system and its celestial herald, the DVD, which has redefined convenience with speedy, high-quality releases of favorites. With the ability to be rented, bootlegged, downloaded or sold, their potential to change with a growing society is almost limitless.
America has certainly delivered the financial equivalent of a tap on the shoulder to Hollywood. For 2005, the National Association of Theatre Owners recorded a decline of 113 million admissions, resulting in an overall loss of $540 million for the industry between 2004 and 2005.
Even Standard & Poor’s, a respected financial research organization, is telling investors that they “deem caution is warranted on the implications of these business trends for the [movie] industry.”
Couple all of this with an average yearly increase of 20 cents in the price of admission, and it comes as no surprise that the industry is trying new methods to bring people back to the theater.
The national implications of this can already be felt locally, as the Raleigh Grande, one of the city’s most popular cinemas, has recently dropped its Monday through Thursday night prices from $7.75 to $4.50. This is allegedly a result of Consolidated Theatres CEO Herman Stone speaking with several NCSU students at Starbucks, according to David Ranii of The News & Observer.
Ranii goes on to mention the potential for a more catered movie-going experience, such as a wider array of food at competitive prices, even so far as popcorn delivered to your seat.
However, one theater manager declined to comment on the local industry without first speaking to his home office, leaving a question as to whether the changing face of Hollywood is out of love for the attendees, or out of desperation in the face of changing times.
Either way the dice roll, it comes up aces for a suddenly relevant consumer base, who now find themselves the focus of an all-out entertainment war for the almighty dollar.
Welcome to the silver age of consumerism.
