Originally posted by: dullard
Originally posted by: Metron
Declining Attendance and Revenues documented here...
The industry is in severe trouble, I'm just making a suggestion. No need to be a jerk about it Dullard.
Unfortunately, that has nothing to do with what I asked. I wasn't intending to be a jerk. But I see this argument everyday. "If company X only lowered prices, they'd be so much better off." Well, the fact is in half the region that argument is true. In half, it is false. Small companies may have no clue what region they are in even though it is simple to test. Big companies, like the movie studios, pay people big bucks to make certain they are near the optimial point. I have no reason to assume otherwise unless you give real proof. So I was just snapping at the vastly overstated logic that is not backed up with data.
Unlike most people here, I don't make contentions without evidence to support them.
From
previously cited website(which you obviously failed to read):
After a period of continuous growth, domestic box office receipts are expected to
decline significantly in 2005 for the first time in a decade. While theaters boast high figures for admissions and concessions revenue per patron,
increasing prices can no longer prop up the pronounced decline in admissions. The only sign of growth in the theatrical exhibition industry comes from the new market for digital cinema advertising.
The
three-year negative trend in movie attendance can be attributed to both a saturation of celebrity-based marketing in mass media and an increased level of competition from home entertainment alternatives. As consumer attentions are splintered among myriad cable and internet offerings, marketers find it more difficult to convince consumers of a new release?s significance. Combined with home theater systems achieving ever higher standards of visual and audio quality, consumers are more apt to stay at home with a DVD or cable offering rather than chancing a trip to the theaters.
A mere 14% of survey respondents agree that going to the movies is still a good value for the price.
Having emerged from the bankruptcies of the late 1990s with healthy financials, theaters now face the challenge of persuading consumers to return to the movie going tradition. Ever increasing entertainment alternatives, along with a projected demographic shift toward older age groups,
will force theaters to rethink pricing practices and grow the market by recapturing older consumers. If the theatrical exhibition industry is to advance, the movie going experience must evolve to offer a stronger value proposition beyond the content of the movie itself. If the experience is limited to viewing of the movie on a large screen, growth will be impeded by the increased quality and choice in home based entertainment.
For the purposes of this report, Mintel concentrates on commercial cinema venues. Festivals, army bases, schools, museums, libraries, prisons, airlines, restaurants, cafés and other venues which license film prints and videos for profit are not included; only sites whose primary day-to-day function is the commercial display of cinema are considered.
Companies who own, lease, manage, or operate facilities for the day-to-day commercial display of films are the subject of this report, and will be referred to as theaters, exhibitors, or cinema operators. Companies that distribute and/or produce films are not the subject of this report, and will be referred to as ?film distributors.?
The above source is MarketResearch.com... the full report of their data points is $3,000. Given that they are a professional market research firm, I'm sure they have all the data points you need.
Cliff's:
A mere 14% of survey respondents agree that going to the movies is still a good value for the price.
increasing prices can no longer prop up the pronounced decline in admissions
will force theaters to rethink pricing practices
So if increasing prices won't sustain their revenue, and the report suggests they need to rethink pricing practices... it would seem the only alternative is to LOWER prices.