Orlando Ayala Cant Read said:
They gotta make things cheaper to even have HOPE of bringing viewers back into theaters.
The world has just changed so much now after covid and going to the movies just isn't a priority anymore or even a thing anymore for lotsa people. I kinda hate that from a cultural standpoint but I myself have gone from going to the movies 4-5 times a year to once every 12-18 months or so now probably. I still love going but I know when I go I gotta shell out lotsa $$$ at concessions for my family of 4.
Obviously the drafthouse/restaurant in a theater concept is different but still.
The primary culprit seems to be fewer movies in theaters post-pandemic, due of course to Covid followed by the double strikes. Combined with ridiculously astronomical budgets, ticket prices inevitably rose.
Fewer movies makes it
feel like people are going to the theater less - and they are - but the good news is attendance post-pandemic has been proportional to the amount of movies being released. In other words,
attendance-per-movie hasn't dropped, but the lower volume of movies, the budget of those movies, and of course inflation, is what has caused ticket prices to rise. Thus, because not enough movies - and
good ones at that - are being released, the
habit of going to the movies as frequently has dropped as well.
That said, 2025 boasts a ridiculously robust movie slate, and will be the first year since 2019 to feel "normal" again in terms of volume and choice. Couple that return with the already-in-motion mandate of lower budgets all around, and hopefully lower ticket prices eventually return, and attendance grows. We'll of course never return to pre-pandemic levels of attendance, but I do think we'll reach a nice, healthy equilibrium again here over the next couple of years.
