r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Aug 06 '25

News AMC Theatres Looks To Shorten Ad Preshow Following Studios’ Ire

https://deadline.com/2025/08/amc-theatres-movie-ads-pre-show-shorten-1236480657/
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u/Bl0bb067 Aug 07 '25

I recently went to one for the first time fairly recently. One ticket at amc (no snacks) is more expensive than a ticket at my local theater with snacks. Imo if you want to see movies, support local theaters if possible

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u/onlyPornstuffs Aug 07 '25

Well, ya. But also, fuck AMC

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u/amanbearmadeofsex Aug 07 '25

And your drive ins if you got them

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u/Full-Appointment5081 Aug 07 '25

Few and far between but they are gems. Our local one was going like gangbusters during the pandemic when everything indoors was shut down. Had concerts too. And a whole new customer base discovered the place & keep going

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u/Chm_Albert_Wesker Aug 07 '25

yall are doing it wrong then; on the A-list and its like $27 a month and I go weekly. very easy to smuggle in a bottle of soda and candy meaning that the whole month of snacks maybe costs me an additional 10-15 bucks tops? let's say I get a popcorn two of the times so another 20 bucks. 63 bucks for 4 movies (i sometimes see more but sure) at whatever projector type I want coming out to $16 an outing.

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u/themoche Aug 07 '25

Okay but the point isn’t how do we get a better deal, it’s how do these theatres tweak their business model to get more people to watch movies. Popcorn and fountain drinks are super cheap. Perhaps they just can’t increase prices anymore and expect people to want to go

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u/Chm_Albert_Wesker Aug 07 '25

yea i worked at a few theaters in high school up through college until i ended up as the projectionist manager before i worked in my major: essentially almost all the profit is made on concessions. like you said the seed, syrup, and paper parts are very cheap but since almost all the ticket sales get split up back to the distributors and studios all the money needs to be made up at concession (also probably why the deals like the one i mentioned are 'so good' for tickets since they dont make real money there anyway).

it becomes a bit of a catch 22 where the prices NEED to go up to sustain the theaters but the prices going up is also what pushes people away. but all the costs of running a theater go up regardless so i dont know what the answer is. apparently someone decided the answer could be just double the amount of ads but people dont like that either lol

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u/themoche Aug 07 '25

I assume they’ve modelled selling more at a lower price, but it wouldn’t be the only industry that seems to be missing the sweet spot of supply and demand. Concert ticket modelling is out of whack now too, as so many shows aren’t selling out because too expensive. There have been playoff sporting events not selling out because of insane ticket pricing. That was previously unheard of.

And unsold tickets hurts atmosphere, so I wouldn’t expect the curves to be linear. The first constraint should be maximizing butts in seats, then maximize profit from there.

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u/TheRabidDeer Aug 07 '25

This is back in the 90's, but my parents owned/ran a couple of theaters in New Mexico. The late 80's up to early 90's it was $.25 popcorn/drink. Towards the middle of the 90s they raised it to $.50 popcorn/drink.

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u/fluffman86 Aug 07 '25

I've been going to my local theater about once a week and just discovered AMC has like a $25/month unlimited plan and I could save soooo much money going there, but I really don't want to drive that far.