Pricing Movies To Demand?
from the will-it-work? dept
I remember when I was growing up that a small theater one town over showed "second run" movies (movies that had been out in the regular theaters a few months earlier, but weren't yet on videotape) for a $1 a shot. It was a good deal when you were a kid without too much disposable income, and also a good way to catch some films that you had missed in their first run through the theaters. It sounds like Stelios Haji-Ioannou (the UK's answer to Jay Walker) may have just accidentally created those same theaters in the UK. He's trying to take the same idea he did with airlines and internet cafés - charging prices based on actual demand - and moving it to the movie business. He's opened his first Easycinema in the UK, which tries to make viewing movies as cheap as possible by cutting out as many expenses as possible. You buy your tickets on the web (the earlier you buy tickets, the cheaper they are), you bring your own food, and you check yourself in. All in all, the plan is to run a 10 screen cinema with just seven employees. The problem? Hollywood isn't happy. The early reviewers of the Easycinema experience aren't thrilled because they're only seeing second run movies. Hollywood is boycotting Easycinema and refusing to show their first run films, which, as the article suggests, might constitute a case of price-fixing. In the meantime, it doesn't sound all that different than the $1 theaters I used to visit years ago.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Price discrimination
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Price discrimination
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Price discrimination
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Price discrimination
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No concessions = no profits
He still has to hire somebody to clean the theatres after a show because people will bring in food.
So no profit center and fixed costs remain - good thinking.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No concessions = no profits
[ link to this | view in chronology ]