It may not come to a surprise to many, but the good old days of catching a movie at the theaters are slowing coming to an end. Sadly, there are numerous factors that have contributed to the theater's demise. With streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, HBOGo, and Amazon Prime, it can be extremely difficult to compete. With all of these different ways to view movies on the internet, the movie theater industry is constantly struggling with ways to keep people coming. Sure, they have deals like $5 Tuesdays, or student discounts, but that just doesn't cut it. In surveys, people were asked how often they go to an actual theater to see a movie, and the highest percentage (29%) said almost never. Of course there are the loyal fans who purely love the experience of the theaters (3%) who said they go once a week or more, but in the grand scheme of things 3% is looking pretty grim.
Another problem is streaming services aren't the only factor hurting the theaters. Ticket prices have been slowly on the rise ever since movies came out, but now people are starting to question if it's truly worth the money just to have the experience. In 2000 the average ticket price was 5 dollars, but now prices have spiked all the way to 9 dollars. Without even adding in the cost of your popcorn and refreshments, this can be a pretty penny for a simple movie you could just wait to come out on one of your streaming services. So the question is, how can the theaters be proactive in getting customers through their doors? By looking at current data, they know that as the higher their ticket prices rise, the less people are coming to see a movie. Of course they can't altogether just drop their prices, but I believe they're on the right track with their $5 deals.
By Easton Fielding
Comments
Post a Comment