Pricing Structure

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Matinee

This designates a discount on early showtimes. The Phoenix area has bargain matinees for all shows before 6PM. This varies by city and theater chain.

Adult

General admission tickets represent the standard price of watching a movie. New York and Los Angeles lead in cost. These cities also enjoy priority status on receiving movies in the event of limited distribution.

Child

Most theaters have child discounts. The exceptions are some high end and specialized movie theaters.

Senior

These discounts are designed for senior citizens. Please be sure to specifically ask for this. Most box office attendants shy away from assuming age. There have been incidents where a patron's been insulted by getting a senior admission ticket.

Twi-lite Discount

The AMC movie chain offers an extra discount for the matinee showtimes just before 6PM.
Wehrenberg Theatres have a Rush Hour Show (RHS) which offers an extra discount during the same time period.

Midnight

These movies play shortly after 12AM. Shows that play after midnight are matinees, so most movie theaters offer matinee discounts. Due to agreements with movie distributors, certain movies have to be charged at full price.

Student Discount

Somewhat rare, these discounts are designed for students.

Free

This designates a free movie ticket. These are used on free admission passes, prepurchased discount tickets, and 2 for 1's. The free admissions passes are released by theater management and movie distributors.

Ever wonder how theaters decide on which movies to play?

Movie theaters are grouped by geographic location. All theaters within a certain area must bid for any movies being released. Usually only one theater in a given zone can play a newly released movie. The quality of the specific movie theater, type of people who generally visit that theater, and projected revenues from each screen contribute to the deciding factors.
For example, art films generally do better downtown than in suburbs. A movie distributor may accept a lower bid from a theater with a proven track record for that type of film. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Star Wars movies push the special effects envelope. Therefore, a distributor may refuse releasing it to a theater equipped with substandard sound systems. It would be disappointing to watch a special effects, action, adventure movie in a Kintec stereo auditorium.
Movie distributors agree on taking a certain percentage of box office sales plus an up front fee to ship prints. The percentage goes down over time. Due to these agreements, box office sales generate weak revenues for the theater. Some movies flop while other films become blockbuster hits. Therefore, concession stands generate most of the revenue at a theater.

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