Cinema Verite (Part II): If Movie-Going Were Like Shopping

The concept of individually pricing movies occurred to me during a conversation between me and my boyfriend; we were discussing what movie we would go to on Friday night (here's just a snippet of the conversation, as it dragged on almost as long as a movie itself).

HIM: “Want to see Alexander? I saw the commercial. It looks really good.” Translation: there are a lot of battle scenes with heavy weaponry. There should be some great fight scenes.”

ME: “Yeah, well the Times seemed less than enchanted with it. They think it’s Oliver Stone’s worst in 20 years.” Translation: Maybe by throwing in some allusion to the Times I can appeal to his ego and he won’t argue with me about it being bad.

“We could go see Bridget Jones.”

HIM: “That supposed to be any good?” Translation: You better give me documentation before I ante up $10 to see a chick flick. Is there any screwing or farting or gross things for men to laugh at?

ME: “Don’t know. I haven’t read anything.” Translation: Everyone I’ve talked to says it isn’t as good as the first Bridget, but I’m a woman, I should get SOMETHING out of it.

HIM: “Well I’ll need more than that if I’m going to shell out $10 for it.” Translation: I want to see National Treasure.

In the end, we took the high road and saw Ray (an aside: this wasn’t settling, we LOVED it). How did we make this decision? We opted to see what we thought would be worth paying for, even if it wasn’t on either of our individual wish lists. Some movies never get placed in this category for the reasons I mentioned in the first installment of this series. Yet studios don’t seem to make that determination, and they release ALL films at the same price.

I’m not suggesting that studios release fewer films, choices—even bad ones—are good. But considering how people decide to go to movies, maybe they should adjust their pricing.

I understand that pricing is different everywhere. You pay over $10 to see a movie in New York City, matinee or not, while you pay $8.50 or a $5 matinee price somewhere else. But by adjusting pricing I mean taking an honest look at who is attracted to the film and what they are willing to pay, and then charging that much. Are you creating the next slasher flick? You are likely going to attract teens with an irreverence for 80s horror-film-camp. Some will pay $10 to see your film, but many more will go, even those who are just along for the ride, if you charge $8.

If you just spent $150 million to create effects rivaling the Lord of the Rings trilogy, you are attracting people interested—and willing to pay—for the opportunity to see top-of-the-line effects. Charge $10. If you’ve created a perennial, low-budget drama with action that can be best described as “internal,” know that your audience would be fine waiting for the video—charge them $6 to draw them out earlier. If the actress in your film was nominated for an Oscar, charge $8.

Of course having an individual pricing model for movies would be difficult. I brought up this idea with my boyfriend and we immediately started to debate the perceived worth of every new release. It’s a subjective business, further complicated by geography. Lines wrapped around the theaters here in Northern California the first weekend that Fahrenheit 911 came out, while I’m told tumbleweed blew through theaters where it played in the Bible Belt. I’ll bet that wasn’t the case in those same theaters when The Passion was showing. But maybe you’d generate a curious few moviegoers who would want to see that rabble rouser Michael Moore if you charged your Bush-lovin’ audience half-price.

Think about it: You go to the shoe department at Nordstrom, and none of the shoes are the same price. Some pairs may look similar to others in terms of style, but they are made of different qualities of material, by different designers. Likewise, some movies might be in the same genre, but they feature different actors (some more skilled, some less), use lower or higher budget sets, and are released by different studios. And yet, in the movie industry, they are all the same price.

There is one similarity: If no one buys a line of shoes, they end up on the clearance rack; in the case of movies, they go straight to video. But in cases where movies are pulling in low ticket sales, why pull the movie, never to be seen until it’s out on DVD? Consider pricing that film for the audience that may go see it for a few dollars less and maybe that film will get a second life.

And if those people are still disappointed with the movie? At least there are no returns.

Comments

[Robert]

Hmmm, very interesting thinking but complicated. If the actress in your film was just arrested for (choose any of below: stuffing entire Gucci collection from Saks into her handbag, beating the actor in the film with a large stick, driving under influence, or indeed all of above) do you charge less for her film because we're not supposed to condone that kind of stuff, or more, because the actress is suddenly more cool and buzzworthy? Plus the JuJuBee factor. In many film houses, most of the revenues come from tickets, but the profits come from the food stand -- so the psuedo artsy-type like me, who might pay $12 for a foreign film but refuses to pay the same for a Snickers bar, is less profitable than the $6 ticket-buyer who buys popcorn by the pound. (And yes, in addition to being cheap, I realize that according to your recent posts, as I like foreign films, I am now officially a woman.) :-) Anyway, if the movie folks really want to make money, find the people most likely to inhale a wheelbarrow full of Coke and Snow Caps*, and let 'em in for free. (*="not that there's anything wrong with that!")

[Don The Idea Guy]

Jory ~ I think this is a GREAT idea. Charging "on a curve" -- supply and demand, baaay-beee!

Think about the (additional) bucks George Lucas could squeeze out of the Star Wars fanatics, and the audiences that could be convinced to try something "new" because the price was less threatening. Sleeper hits wouldn't be sleepers for long if word of mouth could build buzz by bargain-hunting movie watchers.

It'd be nice to see a little price war erupt between theaters, too! ;)

[Steven]

Jory -
Some movies just deserve to go straight to DVD. Other movies like "What the bleep do we know" gather momentum by word of mouth even though in limited release and gain so much grass roots support plans for re-release emerges. Then there's always the matinee price point to consider to serve as a "clearance" movie.

sjf