This weekend I took my daughter and I to see Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. It cost us $20 to see the film. That’s the matinee price (before 4 p.m.) at a Regal movie theater in Nashville, TN. Prices are higher elsewhere.
The average price of a movie ticket in the U.S, including less expensive matinee prices, for 2017 is $8.84. For comparison’s sake, the average price was $5.39 in 2000, $4.22 in 1990, $2.78 in 1980 — and .36 in 1948.
Okay, let’s do the math. It’s going to cost me about $20 (not counting overpriced concessions) to see a movie in the theater these days. I can buy two new movies (Passengers and Hidden Figures, which were both on sale for $9.99 at iTunes when I wrote this) for the same price and watch them as often as I want.
Ignoring the issues of passing along digital purchased movies to your heirs, it makes more sense to wait and buy a movie at iTunes rather than going to the theater. Especially if you were to spend money for a 60-inch (or bigger) HDTV and a good speaker system.
Don’t get me wrong. I go see at least one movie a week. But if ticket prices keep going up, it’s possible that movie theaters might be another casuality of Apple’s success.
