How many ticket sales to break even at the movies?

[cbrunny]

Currently sitting in hunger games at the movies. There are two people here. Me and my wife. Are they making any money off tonight's screening? Theatre that is, not JLaw.

 

[Ns1]

breakeven for who? the theater owner?

 

[cbrunny]

Yea

 

[JSt0rm]

You probably need to look at daily per theater not each showing.

 

[Ken g6]

I think once the theater has the movie they can show it as many times as they want at no extra cost. Beyond lights.

 

[Ns1]

I think once the theater has the movie they can show it as many times as they want at no extra cost. Beyond lights.

 

[JSt0rm]

theaters are like giant torrent sites.

 

[jpiniero]

The studios get a cut of the proceeds. It's not a fixed cost type thing. They might even be contractually obligated to show it a certain amount of times per week.

 

[Schfifty Five]

When I worked at a theater many many many years ago, I was always told by management that majority of ticket sales/proceeds go directly back to the film company.

Thus, 99% of the revenue and profits came from concessions. So not sure if ticket sales would be the right unit of measure to determine break even for a theater. It highly depends on the concession sales.

 

[OverVolt]

There is a reason its like $20+ for weekend evening tickets.

I've had the same experience and wondered the same thing.

Also they should have ended it with Mocking Jay Part I.

That ending...

 

[Homerboy]

They make next to nothing off the ticket sales, it's all about the concessions.
Think of it like gas at a gas station -- They want.. NEED you to come in and buy that slushy to stay in business.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

When I worked at a theater many many many years ago, I was always told by management that majority of ticket sales/proceeds go directly back to the film company.

Thus, 99% of the revenue and profits came from concessions. So not sure if ticket sales would be the right unit of measure to determine break even for a theater. It highly depends on the concession sales.

Ticket sales go something like 75/25 or 70/30 with the studio/distributor getting the bigger share and the theater getting the smaller share. But that doesn't keep the theater in business, on a $10-$12 admission the theater is only keeping a couple of bucks. The concessions are almost pure profit, a coke and large popcorn going for $10 is probably less than a dollar to them, so they're making $9. No matter what the percentage is and no matter how huge the markup on snacks, they're clearly not making money with only two people in a given movie at a given time. But they were probably showing 6 other movies during that period and selling tickets and popcorn to a hell of a lot more people than the ones on that single showing.

And that being said, I still don't understand how theaters stay in business. The economics clearly works for them as long as they can draw decent crowds, I just don't know why people go to the movies anymore. It's a fairly crappy experience, watching a movie at home is a hell of a lot better for the customer.

 

[OverVolt]

Ticket sales go something like 75/25 or 70/30 with the studio/distributor getting the bigger share and the theater getting the smaller share. But that doesn't keep the theater in business, on a $10-$12 admission the theater is only keeping a couple of bucks. The concessions are almost pure profit, a coke and large popcorn going for $10 is probably less than a dollar to them, so they're making $9. No matter what the percentage is and no matter how huge the markup on snacks, they're clearly not making money with only two people in a given movie at a given time. But they were probably showing 6 other movies during that period and selling tickets and popcorn to a hell of a lot more people than the ones on that single showing.

And that being said, I still don't understand how theaters stay in business. The economics clearly works for them as long as they can draw decent crowds, I just don't know why people go to the movies anymore. It's a fairly crappy experience, watching a movie at home is a hell of a lot better for the customer.

Women, and their going out to the movies, sheesh.

I've noticed way fewer families/friends and way more couples/dates at the movies when I go.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Women, and their going out to the movies, sheesh.

I've noticed way fewer families/friends and way more couples/dates at the movies when I go.

The economics probably prices most families out of the theater. Ticket plus snacks for a single person, $20, for a family you're talking $80-$100 for 90 minutes of entertainment. That's a pretty serious hit.

And the bigger the family, the better the return on investment for buying it on blu-ray or paying to stream it. Cost is the same, but if 5 people watch instead of 2 it's much less per person. Back in my dating days movies were a decent option. Now they're far less so. Home theaters and high def DVDs are great and there are no idiots on cell phones.

 

[ElFenix]

on new releases theaters make almost no money from ticket sales. as the movie ages from its release there's a scale at which the theater starts making more of the gate, iirc.

 

[JulesMaximus]

They don't make next to nothing off the ticket sales, it's all about the concessions.
Think of it like gas at a gas station -- They want.. NEED you to come in and buy that slushy to stay in business.

:thumbsup:

The biggest money maker is soda and popcorn. Those cost pennies and the markup is huge. Here's 15 cents worth of water, gas and sweetener/coloring... that'll be $7.50 please. Here is 20 cents worth of popped corn kernels with artificial butter flavoring and salt... that'll be $9.50 please.

 

[Jeff7]

When I worked at a theater many many many years ago, I was always told by management that majority of ticket sales/proceeds go directly back to the film company.

Thus, 99% of the revenue and profits came from concessions. So not sure if ticket sales would be the right unit of measure to determine break even for a theater. It highly depends on the concession sales.

:hmm: So you're saying that theaters wouldn't really care if I stop going to them? Interesting.


Movie theater vs home theater system:
Decent seats. (Theater seats aren't as godawful painful as airline seats, but they're not a huge step up.)
Better company (hopefully).
Cheaper snacks.
Pause button.
No public restroom.



With that business model, it sounds like a theater is more like an expensive snack stand with entertainment as the lure.

 

[ElFenix]

:thumbsup:

The biggest money maker is soda and popcorn. Those cost pennies and the markup is huge. Here's 15 cents worth of water, gas and sweetener/coloring... that'll be $7.50 please. Here is 20 cents worth of popped corn kernels with artificial butter flavoring and salt... that'll be $9.50 please.

this is why i get beer at the movies.

 

[K1052]

I'm still sort of amazed how little understanding people have of an over century old business since most of it is publicly held and the figures are posted in the annual reports for all to see.

For example Regal's film rental cost is about 53% of box office via a glance at their, quite available, annual report financials. Though films like SW will command higher specific terms and there can be credits/rebates things they do for distributors.

 

[cbrunny]

Sheesh I'm glad our local theatre is independent. It isn't very nice. At all. It's actually kinda nasty. The seats are oldschool, but does have stadium seating.

but cost us $11 pp plus 1 large popcorn & 1 med drink - we don't have cooties so we share - combined for $8.75. So $30.75 is what it cost last night. When we saw Creed it was a bit cheaper since we only got a medium popcorn.

Still, we have a projector at home and obviously vastly prefer watching movies there, even if they are rentals. But we do go to the theatre once in a while to see something that looks really good. She went with me to see Creed, so I went with her to see Mockingjay 2. Going together to see SW7.

 

[Schfifty Five]

:hmm: So you're saying that theaters wouldn't really care if I stop going to them? Interesting.


Movie theater vs home theater system:
Decent seats. (Theater seats aren't as godawful painful as airline seats, but they're not a huge step up.)
Better company (hopefully).
Cheaper snacks.
Pause button.
No public restroom.



With that business model, it sounds like a theater is more like an expensive snack stand with entertainment as the lure.

You just figured this out???

 

[Ns1]

:hmm: So you're saying that theaters wouldn't really care if I stop going to them? Interesting.


Movie theater vs home theater system:
Decent seats. (Theater seats aren't as godawful painful as airline seats, but they're not a huge step up.)
Better company (hopefully).
Cheaper snacks.
Pause button.
No public restroom.



With that business model, it sounds like a theater is more like an expensive snack stand with entertainment as the lure.

You forgot to mention the 100 foot screen and 20k watt sound system in your house.


oh wait, you don't have that.

 

[K1052]

It's a fairly crappy experience, watching a movie at home is a hell of a lot better for the customer.

Patronize better movie theaters.

 

[MongGrel]

I usually avoid theaters these days, have been wanting to get a projector myself awhile now, but things have been a bit rocky here to justify that.

The wife has been pushing to get SW tickets, but I'm not interested in going on opening weekend myself on that one.

I really do not see how some theaters stay functioning in some cases.

The only place that does beer near the house has a pretty horrible screens to begin with also.

 

[cbrunny]

You forgot to mention the 100 foot screen and 20k watt sound system in your house.


oh wait, you don't have that.

Ours is 104 inches, but we sit about 6 feet away. no 20k watt sound system, ours is nothing amazing but it is a decent midrange 5.1 that sounds good enough when you crank it up.