Paying extra because of age and status
I like watching movies. Some movies are really good, while others are so bad they warrant a refund with special interest on top. I like watching movies in a theatre, so that the big screen can damage my already damaged eyes, and that the super sound system can cause my ears to suffer more pain that they already endure on a daily basis. I also watch movies like a kid, getting excited over every nice thing I see. Yet, for every movie I have watched all these years, I pay more than children who are 10 years old or younger. I also pay more than people who are 65 years old or over. Why is that? No one can explain with a logical answer.
Movie theatres these days usually charge $11 for a regular movie. They charge $9.50 for students, $6.50 for senior citizens and $5.50 for children. Each of these people occupies a single seat, and each of these buyers needs their own separate seat. Thus, it is a possibility that the entire theatre would be occupied by seniors who pay $6.50 for a ticket. It is also a possibility that the entire theatre will be occupied by a single adult and a couple of hundred well behaved kids who are on a field trip to the movies. Why would hundreds of kids have a field trip to the movies? I don’t know, and I don’t care. Just imagine them all getting ready one day and going to watch the new Simpsons movie coming out next year.
In either of these situations, the theatre will still operate and run as usual, and still make money. The theatre may have to clean up more, but the people cleaning up are already walking around and are already on a payroll. No extra money is wasted or spent anywhere, whether there is one napkin on the floor after a movie ends, or the entire movie hall is filled with popcorns and a sticky floor. Why sticky? I don’t know, and hmmm, I don’t want to know. Imagine it’s soda or something.
The cost of having one individual in a theatre or 200 is exactly the same. In fact, the more customers the theatre has, the more concession stand items it will sell. The price of getting the product to the customer is exactly the same, and the risk involved with each customer being present on the private property, which is the movie theatre, is higher with children than with adults. It is also higher with goofing students than with goofing people who work full time. So why, then, does a theatre try to charge more for normal people who aren’t children, senior citizens, or students? It’s called price discrimination, where a company knows that it can separate a single market, like the movie goers market, into different segments and charge different prices for the same, exact product. The basic logic behind such a thing doesn’t make sense, and thus it’s not logical at all if viewed from the shoes of the customer.
I think the price for all movie tickets should be brought to the same level, and at a much lower level than the regular $11 ticket. I can act like a kid, but it’s not my fault my body decided to grow. Is the cheap kid pricing an incentive to make people have more kids? How about the senior discounts: if people are seniors, aren’t they usually well off and in a much better financial situation than the new generation which is wasting money every week on iPod songs and then crying when there is no money to spend on someone’s birthday? First the theatre blames me for growing up, and then it blames me for not growing up fast enough.
How about the special student pricing? Is it someone’s fault that they graduated from a community college or a university? Is the special student pricing a small, secret campaign by educational institutes to have people fail classes unconsciously and to have them keep repeating and paying for more classes? Is that where the real chunk of money for the theatres, in the form of a percentage from colleges and universitas, comes from? How about people who couldn’t afford to get an education? They have to pay more because of that? And how about homeless people: shouldn’t they be given the biggest discount of all since they somehow managed to save some money and want to enjoy some time?
I tell all my friends to bring their old and expired student ids with them, as no one ever checks to see if they’re valid or not. I’m a working student, fortunately and unfortunately, and yet I still don’t like it when someone with me, who may not be a student, has to pay more money than me. On top of that, they usually buy over $10 of concession items, while I sometimes try to bring free food from outside. Imagine applying this whole idea to not only movie tickets, but to discounts at grocery stores, bus pases, train tickets, admission tickets at theme parks, and more.
Where’s the logic in that, yo? Hmmmmm.
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( April 13th, 2006 at 10:14 am )
Maybe it’s a incentive for students to stay in school? Or they’re trying to consider the students and senior citizens because they may not have as much money as the average person does. But you’re right - when you really come down to it - they all occupy the same amount of space! They should make obese people who take up two seats buy two tickets
That would work well, don’t you think?
( April 13th, 2006 at 10:16 am )
I hate commenting twice but sometimes it’s necessary when I forget something
I was gonna add that airports usually make obese pay for two tickets, so maybe movie theaters should too?
BTW - if you don’t mind, I’m linking to you because I find your blogs extremely interesting :]
( April 13th, 2006 at 3:09 pm )
i LOVEEE watching in theatres…but i also know it costs alot
but once in a while a treat is not that bad right 
but now..i download more on PHX moviez server which i also serv movies for others 
i have a total of more than 40movies in my CPU atm….hehehe… here try going to: http://phxmovies.com/news.php
( April 13th, 2006 at 4:14 pm )
Woah, that’s crazy, $11 for a regular movie? Hmm… I know during the day, it’s $6.50 here… I think at night, it should be a dollar or so more, and that’s it… But wow, $11? We don’t have a student price… I wonder if we have another price for seniors or not though…
( April 13th, 2006 at 6:23 pm )
in Canada is $10 for big screen or $5 for medium screen hehehe…i go for $5 n im happy :p
( April 13th, 2006 at 10:57 pm )
Chelsea — > Yeah, may be it is, lol. Hmmm, students may not have that much money, agreed, but I feel that majority of the senior citizens may have the $11 to dish out for a movie. Hmmm, it would work well, and now that I think of it, I wonder what happens currently if such a situation arises; for example, if I’m a bit overweight and I can’t fit into one seat, do they charge me for two seats just by looking at me at the box office, or do they simply assume everyone can fit unless they actually have instructions to focus on weight also? That may result in a lawsuit or something, to make the theatre create bigger seats. Many theatres don’t even have arm rests that can be pulled up. =\
Don’t worry about the double comments. : ) About the airports, I didn’t know that, I think. Wow, are the people who pay for the two tickets, ok with this? Wow, it’s amazing. Yeah, may be movie theatres will charge them also when they’re running out of ideas on how to make more money. As for linking, I’m honored to be linked by you. THANKS!
[hugs]
JeSs — > Heh, me too. I might go watch Scary Movie 4 tomorrow, I think; it’s coming out tomorrow around noon I think. Hmmm, I looked at the PHX moviez server site and couldn’t figure out if it’s a client to download or use, or something completely different. Could you enlighten me on that, please : )
Also, as for different prices for different screens, wow! We pay the same price here, whether the screen is made for 100 or 1000. =\
Chau — > Hmmm, I completely forgot to talk about matinee prices, thanks for reminding me! Over here, matinee prices are either $5.50, $6.50 or $7.50, can’t remember correctly [hmmmm]. Interesting that you don’t have student pricing around your area. It would also be interesting if you don’t have senior pricing either. In that case, I wish I could somehow fly back and forth between your area and mine so I can watch a cheap movie and come back. :p
( April 14th, 2006 at 10:33 am )
you’d rather fly?
well basically the PHX is on an MIRC based. U hv to download the program (it’s in the download tab in the web), then u open the program change nickname (it will open in a small window)and connect to it..if u see my nick name (ItzJuztMe/JeSs) u can message me, or else right click on any of the red nicknames,go to trigger n click on the title…(To Be Continued) lol
( April 14th, 2006 at 11:21 am )
Flying is good, yep. Not all the time, though.
Sorry, can you give me the exact link please? =\
Also, hmmmm, which channel should I connect to? I tried looking but can’t find any MIRC program to download on their site.