AMC Considering Charging More For Tentpole Movies

AMC Entertainment is toying with the idea of charging more for tentpole movies early on during a film’s theatrical release.

The company recently acquired European exhibitor Odeon & UCI Cinemas in a $1.2 billion deal. Odeon & UDI has experimented with flexible ticket prices in the past in the same way airlines and hotels already do, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Craig Ramsey, the CFO for AMC Entertainment, recently dished on the idea of variable ticket pricing while talking at the MKM Partners Entertainment, Leisure and Consumer Technology Conference.

“They [Odeon & UCI] are further advanced in variable pricing, where tentpole movies are priced up on release,” Ramsey said. “That’s something we’ve talked about in the U.S. We expect to learn a lot with what they’ve done. We think it will position us to start having those conversations about pricing opportunities in the U.S.,” said Ramsey.

In order to explore the variable ticket pricing feasibility, AMC has just hired its first vice president of pricing.

AMC’s rival companies have been going in a different route in the quest to increase revenues.

IMAX is planning to expand to the small screen with an investment in Marvel’s Inhumans series set to debut on ABC in the fall of 2017.

“We’re not betting the farm,” Imax CEO Richard Gelfond said. But it’s real money. And if the series works, we’re going to make a lot of money.”

In addition to the foray into television, Imax has already raised $50 million for a VR fund to create at least 25 interactive VR content “experiences.”

“It’s still early, and that’s one reason I’m not racing into it,” Gelfond said. “I’m completely convinced that it will be a profitable and big space to be in. But whether our timing is right, we’re about to find out.”

Also at the MKM partners conference was Regal Entertainment CFO David Ownby, who explained that his company was planning on installing luxury seats and reserved seating for its theaters.

“As we turn on reserved seating, and a customer has come to the theater and bought their ticket and they know they have a seat, and don’t have to rush in to avoid sitting in the front row, they feel much freer to stop at the concession stand,” David Ownby said.

Do you think it will be a profitable decision in the long run for movie theater chains to turn to variable pricing for the tentpole films?

[H/T The Hollywood Reporter]