# $50 for a movie ticket? Maybe $100? Maybe more?



## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

> "There's going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen mega-budgeted movies go crashing into the ground, and that's going to change the paradigm again," Spielberg said.
> 
> Lucas predicted that the movie-going experience would become more of a luxury.
> 
> ...


 *Steven Spielberg: Film Industry Implosion Lies Ahead: *http://www.cnbc.com/id/100813557


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

All I will saw is lets hope not. First off who wants to pay those prices and secondly, I love getting out of the house and going to see a movie. I will probably go see Superman this weekend.


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## tsmacro (Apr 28, 2005)

For that much, forget 3-D, it better be a holodeck!


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Isn't that how much one spends on either live concert tickets? Or a show in Vegas or on Broadway? Say, don't most new release games cost $50-$60 no matter what the platform? 

And, I haven't even been to a live concert or a show in Vegas, nor have I been in New York City.


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

Could it happen? Perhaps. Will it happen, not likely. 

What we're seeing are examples of a full date experience with dinner and movie in the theater for $25, but I don't see that leading to $100 per ticket without the dinner. Not in the near future. 

We'll see technology reduce the costs of movie making, we'll see better storytelling with fewer special effects, etc. Production values won't have to drop, just production costs. 

The need to go out on date night won't change. Especially for teenagers trying to get away.  

And so long as Mayer Cuomo doesn't ban movie popcorn, we'll still have that to go out to. 

Peace,
Tom


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

I hardly ever go to concerts anymore. When they were $8-$17 (1980s), I went - frequently - as many as 4 or 5 a month. Now with prices STARTING at $75 or so - no way. ANd check any inflation calculator to see how much that outstrips normal price increases.

I've been to a handful of Broadway performances in my life. Those still qualify as special events since I live 250 miles from Times Square..

I rarely go to major league sports anymore because of the cost. I'll go to AA baseball and AHL hockey.

For movies I'l pay a LITTLE extra for a nice theater or less for the ticket and throw in dinner to go to the local CInema-Pub (Chunkys). I'll *rarely* do the Imax thing but it's not totally off the menu.


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## Phil T (Mar 25, 2002)

Check out what is happening to movie theaters. Most of the major chains now are installing full service bars. Some even have reclining seats and serve food at your seat. Ticket prices in the newer/remodeled theaters is more then the old ones, even if you don't buy food or drink. Most have gone digital but the cost of the digital projectors is very high. They make up for it by employing less people to run them. It used to be a movie came on 5 rolls of 35 mm film that had to be spliced together. Trailers and ads had to be added. Now the movie is ingested from a hard drive and controlled by computers. One part time person may be responsible for programming a 24 plex.


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## tsmacro (Apr 28, 2005)

djlong said:


> I hardly ever go to concerts anymore. When they were $8-$17 (1980s), I went - frequently - as many as 4 or 5 a month. Now with prices STARTING at $75 or so - no way. ANd check any inflation calculator to see how much that outstrips normal price increases.


The reason for the ticket price increase for concerts is due to the fundamental shift in economics in the music industry that happened when the majority of music acquired (some actually bought, others stole) was via digital files as opposed to buying an actual physical product like a record, tape or CD. It used to be that performers could afford to make next to nothing on their tours so long as it drove people to the record stores to buy their latest album and they'd make their money there. With the actual music being so cheap and/or free now, depending on how you acquire it, the artists are basically making next to nothing on the music so they are now using that as their loss leader (not by choice it just worked out that way) and making their money by touring. That's why you see so many older bands on the road these days, that's how they earn a living any more, plus a lot of the older bands have older fans that have the money to afford to go the shows.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

tsmacro said:


> The reason for the ticket price increase for concerts is due to the fundamental shift in economics in the music industry that happened when the majority of music acquired (some actually bought, others stole) was via digital files as opposed to buying an actual physical product like a record, tape or CD. It used to be that performers could afford to make next to nothing on their tours so long as it drove people to the record stores to buy their latest album and they'd make their money there. With the actual music being so cheap and/or free now, depending on how you acquire it, the artists are basically making next to nothing on the music so they are now using that as their loss leader (not by choice it just worked out that way) and making their money by touring. That's why you see so many older bands on the road these days, that's how they earn a living any more, plus a lot of the older bands have older fans that have the money to afford to go the shows.


I have to say that I disagree with your comments. If you ever watch behind the scenes shows of bands they almost always tell you they didnt make much off their album sales and that was before we had pirating and definitely before we had the ability to by individual songs right from our computers. The concert business has always been where artists make their money. Not only have the concert tickets went up but T-Shirts are no longer reasonably priced at most shows either. I agree that concert tickets prices are out of hand but do not agree that artists used to make most money from the album sales. Where you could be right is maybe because the album sales are that good maybe the producers of the albums are pushing them to tour more at higher prices and get a piece of that pie. Who knows.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

I don't know how far back you go, but concert tours used to be under a record company's advertising budget.

Now, you have groups like Styx coming out and saying that all their personal income is from the annual tours because the model for new music just doesn't work anymore. No radio station, not even a 'classic rock' station will play a new piece from even a "classic rock" group like Styx.


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## tsmacro (Apr 28, 2005)

joshjr said:


> I have to say that I disagree with your comments. If you ever watch behind the scenes shows of bands they almost always tell you they didnt make much off their album sales and that was before we had pirating and definitely before we had the ability to by individual songs right from our computers. The concert business has always been where artists make their money. Not only have the concert tickets went up but T-Shirts are no longer reasonably priced at most shows either. I agree that concert tickets prices are out of hand but do not agree that artists used to make most money from the album sales. Where you could be right is maybe because the album sales are that good maybe the producers of the albums are pushing them to tour more at higher prices and get a piece of that pie. Who knows.


Trust me back in the days when I was paying anywhere from $7.50 to $12.00 per ticket for a show in a smaller hockey arena I can tell you they weren't making hardly any money off of that. And as djlong mentions above record companies used to pay for tours out the promotional budget for the album. I suppose they made some money off of t-shirts as even back then they were what seemed like more expensive than necessary. Believe it or not there was lots of money to be made back in the day off of album sales, now it's possible that maybe the artist didn't always get what they considered their fair share of it but it was big business. Touring for money is relatively new development for most artists, (And by relatively I mean w/in the last 10 -15 years) it always used to be about promotion. There were probably a handful of artists back then who were so huge they were selling out stadiums that were making good money touring but they were the exception.


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## Volatility (May 22, 2010)

joshjr said:


> I have to say that I disagree with your comments. If you ever watch behind the scenes shows of bands they almost always tell you* they didnt make much off their album sales *and that was before we had pirating and definitely before we had the ability to by individual songs right from our computers. The concert business has always been where artists make their money. Not only have the concert tickets went up but T-Shirts are no longer reasonably priced at most shows either. I agree that concert tickets prices are out of hand but do not agree that artists used to make most money from the album sales. Where you could be right is maybe because the album sales are that good maybe the producers of the albums are pushing them to tour more at higher prices and get a piece of that pie. Who knows.


That is definitely true. Artist do not make much money off of album sales, they get paid mostly from touring. When an artist releases album it takes a year or more to get money back from it. There are upfront royalties they pay out and from that other fees are taken out. Artists are paid royalties usually somewhere between 8% and 25% of the suggested retail price of the recording. Where it falls exactly mostly depends on the popularity of the artist as a brand new artist might receive less than a well-known artist. From this percentage, a 25% deduction for packaging is taken out. Money also needs to be paid back to the producers and any other parties involved in the recording process. Once the timeframe surpasses to get the money from the album sales, other fees are taken out of that. Like return privileges. Recordings in the form of CDs have a 100% return privilege so that record stores don't have to worry about being stuck with albums they can't sell. Most other businesses don't work this way, but the music industry has to be more flexible and timed to demand as an artist that is hot today may not be tomorrow. The recording company also may hold back a portion of the artist's royalties for reserves that are returned from record stores which is usually about 35% being held back. Also there are promotion costs, music video costs, touring costs, and management costs that the artist pays back from the upfront royalties. Even back in the days of cassettes or vinyls artist didn't make much money off of album sales. It is even harder today to make money of album sales with song sales being mostly digital as a lot of people do not even use stores like ITunes and just pirate the songs off the internet. And for people using stores like ITunes, ITunes Match pays .0033053ish per stream. Meaning one would have to have over 3 plays for any song to get them a cent of revenue from a song on ITunes Match which basically isn't a lot of money as much of that doesn't go to the artist anyways as mentioned earlier.


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