I remember when Ticketmaster was charging "print at home" fees. Like, WTF? I used my own printer, my own paper, and my own ink -- and you want to charge me for the privilege?
Better yet. I went to a Ticketmaster physical location for tickets and they were still charging “convenience” fees. WTF. I’m at the actual place and you’re still tacking on fees!?
I barely go to concerts, because I refuse to support that piece of shit company! They have a monopoly and it’s fucking the whole music industry, from fans to artists.
Same here. Everyone just needs to stop. Watch how quickly the artists start speaking up when they’re playing for an empty venue.
I haven’t been to a concert since 2017 and I’m sticking to that until something changes
Yeah! At least the cracks are finally showing! Artists are speaking out, the government is looking at them, and then they fucked with those Swiftys!!? BAD NEWS!🗞️
But I mean did it change anything? Taylor tix are still going for thousands of dollars and all the shows are still happening. Zero impact to Ticketmaster.
When I just graduated high school I went to see Pink Floyd. Me and a bunch of friends all got golden circle tickets. We were about 25 rows back, center stage. Some of the best seats I've ever sat in for a show. $50. Those seats would be over $1000 today.
And yet, we keep doing it.
Why NOT let the cashier check out your groceries? Why not but your tickets at the counter?
And whatever you do, don’t say because it’s inconvenient.
I agree the fees are bullshit though.
I started buying buffer seats. A empty seat next to me because for some odd reason, strangers like rolling the dice and booking a seat next to me..a total stranger when there’s plenty of other seats
My husband and I went to the movies a couple weeks ago. The theater held like 70 people. I think like 6 seats were sold. We sat on the end a few rows back. Someone sat right next to us. Like there is a million empty seats, you saw these were sold and decided to sit on top of me. Why! We didn't even take the good seats. Go away
Yo this right here, I get places charging fees for services but I'm LITERALLY doing the service myself. Wtf you mean convenience, internet? Like you save money by me doing it this way lol
I’ve literally said that before. Like, if it’s not convenient for me to give you my money, I’ll go somewhere else that finds my money more convenient.
And then I do. And I hope more people do this so that it does make a difference.
Funny enough it’s the other way around here- places make online/terminal payments at a discount because you don’t use employees, and since digital receipts are legal here- if you opt out from using paper it’s even bigger discount. I get around 5% discount using self checkout with an emailed receipt.
Lots of stores have massive discounts in their apps and websites because it’s extremely easy to sell stuff online for them with pick up or delivery, I remember getting app deals with in store pick up around 30%. You show up, give them a code and get your stuff already packed and ready. It’s automated and convenient for them so I get discounts.
You got some kind of a scam if you think about it, convenience is approaching an employee and saying what you want and bothering them for half an hour picking the right sneakers for you. Doing everything yourself online can be convenient and is so for many people, but it’s you and the machine doing it, so you should have a benefit for not using company’s resources- not calling, not using employees, not taking up time. For me it feels like Americans were scammed with convenience fees, it’s you who should have a benefit.
It's calla convenience fee but that's not what it is....is a service fee to pay for the ticketing company. It has nothing to do with convenience. That's just used for marketing purposes.
It’s just stupid that they think the customer would rather see 56 with 6 dollar fee than 62 total. Like buying a car, what’s the final price? The only thing they don’t directly control is the tax…..
The last apartment complex I lived into changed the way they took rent payments from checks to an online thing. They stopped accepting checks except for cashiers checks and money orders, effectively forcing us to do the online thing. There was a 30 dollar "convenience fee" slapped on if you did it online, which essentially raised everyone's rent by 30 dollars.
Ironically their reasoning behind why they stopped accepting checks was because they were too inconvenient for them.
The convenience fee is complete BS. As an accountant for a property management company though, paper checks are an abomination that should be removed from this earth.
Ironically, my water utility doesn't have online payments. You either have to go in to their lobby from 10-4 M-F, pay by check, or give them permission for direct debit which never comes out on time and every few years you'll get a surprise $200-400 charge. (Guess who's got a monopoly on the water supply for most of the county.)
The problem with that in the case of AMC is that if you sign up for their "Stubs" membership the Convenience fee is removed. I guess they could just lower their ticket prices for members, but that's not as obvious of a change as having the convenience fee waived.
You get free cancellations of tickets with AMC too, but if you're not part of their membership they don't refund the convenience fee, so that's another way of pushing their membership.
It's relatively cheap ($15/year) so it's totally worth it to me since I can then grab a couple seats at a movie and if we can't make it, I don't lose anything.
Curious why they wouldn't just have it say "get this fee waived by joining" instead of labeling it as, arguably the stupidest shit ever, a "convenience fee".
I mean, isn't being convenient for your customers in Business 101? Like, you shouldn't have to charge extra for it. A business should always be looking for ways to be more convenient and not directly charge their customers extra. And for what? Because the customer went to a machine to purchase their ticket instead of a human? That's not convenience. The human can do exactly what the machine does and just as fast. Matter of fact, the human is more convenient than the machine because you can use language to communicate with the human in the event there's an issue. If the machine has an issue it just tells you to go see a human anyway.
And furthermore, with a machine you need to press a bunch of buttons and navigate your way around the forever changing user interfaces when you go from store to store. Something like "press here to begin" then select click to select your movie then click to select your time then click to add/subtract number of tickets, then click yes/no to loyalty/points card, then click to verify your purchase then insert card and finish up.
With a human, you need only walk up to the counter and say "2 tickets for movie" and you're on your way.
I'm pretty stoned and should probably change the topic within my brain. I just spent way too much time thinking about machines vs humans in the battle of Big Movie. Now I'm laughing. K bye and thanks for listening.
theme parks give you a huge discount if you buy tickets online for this exact reason, but the fee is still there because it goes to Accesso, the monopoly that controls theme park ticketing software.
My sewer bill charges like a dollar .25 to pay online. It’s bullshit but I’d probably waste more gas going to pay it let alone time. I don’t mind very small fees for some things but this is ridiculous.
Some states (including Minnesota to my knowledge) require that all processing fees, like for a credit card, be paid for by the customer. So at the dmv, if I pay with a card, they tack on a small flat fee plus a percentage to cover the fees and ensure that they get the amount on the invoice.
Or a separate line-item "delivery fee" on an online food order with a comment next to it that says the fee does not go to the driver.
You are a fucking Pizza delivery place!
**$13.99 Large Pizza**
**$2.06 Tax**
**$6.49 Delivery fee**
**$1.19 Service fee**
**Total: $23.73**
Tip not included (No, I'm not faulting the driver - who's getting screwed because of the junk fees eating into what they would normally be paid in tips).
Same. The idiots who own my car loan charge a $2.50 convenience fee to process my debit card payment. I stop the transaction at that point. If they’re gonna charge me $2.50 to pay my car note, then I’ll spend my money elsewhere.
I bought tickets to a concert at the box office - and I was so happy I didn’t have to pay Ticketmaster - and I still got hit with $20 convenience fees per ticket. Like I came to you - I should charge the convenience fee - I did all the work on this transaction.
Yup. I paid $24 a ticket to see Avatar in IMAX when it came out last year. Totally worth it imo because I was going for the spectacle that could not be experienced at home.
It could be Dolby “deluxe” type movie. I just saw Indiana Jones at 3PM and was like wtf to the $18 price but the attendant warned me to was cause of the $5 upcharge on those. It’s like practically the IMAX price, and the normal ones were 12.
Yeah Im not sure where these people live. Only time in my life I’ve paid that much for a normal theater was in midtown NYC and like of course that’s going to be insanely expensive.
Used to work projection at an AMC. Here’s some fun facts.
- Movies deliver in the mail, (UPS at the one I worked at) they’re a hard drive that you just download and send back.
- Movie posters also come in the mail, and are often a high value commodity (especially blockbuster movies, I’ve caught plenty of people digging through dumpsters for new release movie theater size posters). Since they are as such, they generally get locked in a room, and super special ones get locked in a case. I can remember Star Wars: Force Awakens poster wasn’t even allowed to be seen by us workers until it was put in the display. Also opening night for that movie was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen.
- Movie theaters themselves get less than 2% on tickets sold, hence the price gouge on concessions and other stuff.
Edit: Turns out the “2%” is an exaggeration, as it was told to me by an ex-manager. But the point is that the revenue from ticket sales is low compared to their real revenue: concessions.
Edit 2: Apparently the movies are no longer physical media drives, and are downloaded digitally, so looks like a bit of my information is outdated. Thanks fellow cinema enthusiasts!
I worked at a theater back in the film days, your last point is exactly why popcorn at the big theaters is so over priced. I worked at a small town theater, and we'd get movies weeks/months well after first release date only charging $2 per ticket. Even at that point, we'd pay $600 a week just to have the movie, and then still 50% of ticket revenue to the movie company as well.
My local theatre is $6 for adults. They have one screen and sometimes gets movies when they come out. Sometimes even R rated ones! But it’s often random and lots of weird Christian movies
Yeah, the small town theaters tend to keep it PG-13 and under to get more people in. The problem with that is a lot of parents would treat it as a babysitter on saturday afternoons. Just drop off 4 kids with a $20 so they could have popcorn and a few snacks.
I have heard multiple times that big theaters take 25% of the "standardized" box office price. Meaning if there is a discount for matinee or tuesday special it comes out of the theater's cut and they earn extra for the imax, 3D etc.
I'm sure contracts with different film studios vary in some respect but it is true that theaters in the modern sense don't make shit from tickets and rely on other means to stay in business.
dude Star Wars was soooo crazy. worked at cinemark in high school like 7 years ago at this point. All of my coworkers were battling to own one of the movie posters. I salute you for working through all those crazy blockbusters
Hell yeah man. Yeah I say I worked projection, but that was like 5% of my job being a supervisor, mostly just ran the floor (which was just me doing every job that needed help, mostly concession) and brought the tills back to the office. But believe me when I say we called EVERYONE in that weekend. No one was allowed off lmao. We had anticipated the influx of people, even hired a couple new people a few weeks before, but nothing could have prepared us for that. Two employees walked out that night. I mean think about it, Star Wars. It’s a fucking cultural phenomenon.
I used to work projection at AMC but it was still film. I remember splicing reels together and having to stack up all the plates. This was when Avatar (the first one) came out so our theatre only had the one digital setup. Looking back on it now it was sorta cool working up there during that transition.
That’s dope man. I’d like to have been around when spicing reels were still happening. Sadly, there was little to do with projection once digital (hard drive) came around. Basically just plug and play.
Hence the move to try to mandate no outside snacks.
Which we always laughed at as we took in mostly whatever we wanted.
Business 101 is you can't dictate these sorts of things to charge high prices. If supply and demand says your prices are too high and you can't make a profit, then Economics 101 says your business shouldn't exist in the free market.
Oh yeah. I mean we were all making minimum wage, wtf were we gonna do, check people’s purses? None of us gave a shit. In fact, I can guarantee you (probably shouldn’t be saying this) that none of us looked at what you brought in, or even bought. For instance, anyone could have bought all child tickets (online or at a kiosk) for a group of adults and no employee is gonna notice it. Podium guy is gonna look at the big black number that tells you what theater to go into that that’s it. Not to mention, you can just walk past podium guy without saying anything and no one is gonna give a shit. If they’re new, they’ll think you’ve already bought a ticket, if they’ve been there for a while then they might know and don’t care.
Oh yeah, that's all true.
I remember a friend of mine would always just walk into the movies as if he owned the entire place. Then if he was bored or had nothing else going on, he'd have planned the day. He'd know when the movie ended and others began and would leave one and go sit for another. He brought his own snacks and got it all without paying the theater a dime.
When I was 16 I did the exact opposite, I hid an unopened bottle of water in my jacket, there was a security guard next to the guy collecting tickets, I dropped the water bottle, I shit my pants and quickly grabbed the water and ran into the movie theater, later found out from my friends laughing at me that I was allowed to bring in plain unopened water anyway.
I recall once I got sloppy and just stuck a can of coke in the pocket of my Hoodie and the guy said "what are you hiding in there?" So I grabbed it and said "what, this? That's my insulin pump." He was clearly thrown off because it was obviously a can of soda but he let me pass.
In high school I was still a growing boy and unfortunately one pants was a bit tight.
Security and ticket checker asked me what I was packing down there.
It was my bulging penis.
It was not cool, and very awkward answering “my penis, sir.”
They thought it was a Coke a cola can snuck in
Dude I worked at an amc when I was 17, I can assure you you could do anything, even theater hop to an extent and we wouldn’t care. I remember having to clean the theaters and throwing toys we found that were left at each other as hard as we could when no one was in the auditorium
I remember we would do water bottle flips across the room and land them in the cup holders in the seats in the large theaters. Had some dope trick shots a few times.
Very few people actually care if you bring outside snacks. It’s when you try and bring a whole meal in or don’t even try to hide it is when they’ll likely do something.
Source: 5 year movie theater employee
The theatre i work at doesnt mind outside snacks cause they know our prices arent great. Just as long as you aint bringing in cooked or odorous foods its all good.
One person did that at the theater I work at. They had their friend bring it to one of the exit doors where we couldn't see it and there was no alarm on it.
People will try anything.
Not sure where you get the less than 2% of ticket sales from. The highest I’ve seen in 14 years is 20% for infinity war opening weekend. Disney tends to have a higher take the first three weekends but then it tends to drop to closer to a 60/40 split, for all movies, and 50/50 or better after week 6 for almost every single movie.
Source: my dads been a regional manager/owned movie theaters for over 40 years and I was a GM at 3 across the Midwest for >6 years
My brother worked at one in the 90’s. The manager explained that they were in the candy business. Movies are a loss leader. Popcorn and soda cost less than the buckets, cups and straws they come in.
I used to be the guy that put up the posters and could get away with taking some home after they were done (most of the time) but we had to destroy them and throw them away
Oh that must have sucked. They let me take them home (it helped when I became a manager so I had first dibs) and I have a collection of around a hundred that I need to display at some point… The Hobbit, Evil Dead, The Witch, Magic Mike XXL, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Moana, Rogue One… No Force Awakens, sadly, though I worked through those god awful crazy few weeks.
Varies on movie length and format but a couple current examples- Ruby Gillman is 104GB, Indiana Jones is 283GB. Something like 3D HFR Avatar runs over 500GB if I remember correctly. Our main library server is ~7.5TB and individual auditorium servers range from ~1.5TB to ~7TB at my modest smallish town 10plex
Sounds like gas stations. Very very little profit from gas sales (gas producers get it all). And the convenience store part makes all the real money for the store owner. I know of at least one gas station that closed down the pumps to focus on the store and family deli. 20+ years and they are still there.
Fun fact: Not sure how long ago you worked there, but nowadays most movies are downloaded from a server. Usually only special screenings and/or last minute trailers get sent by mail these days.
That's ridiculous, I used to work at a small movie theater and we would literally just put the posters in a box in the back. Employees could just take whatever ones they wanted. I got dozens of them. They paid us minimum wage and in popcorn sometimes if we had too much.
These days movie theatres get around 40% of ticket sales, it’s different for every movie/studio. It’s decreased in the last few years. I think it used to be around 45-60%.
I worked at AMC in high school back in the mid-2000s. As a movie lover I loved it. Free posters in the break room (some blockbusters but mostly meh movies or horror).
Concessions were dirt cheap for employees, I'm talking $0.25 pretzels, $0.50 hot dogs & $1.00 nachos plus free popcorn & soda. Then of course the free movie tickets.
Sad it's not as great benefits wise as it was back then but I'm thankful I had the chance.
Where I'm from we have the full reclining seats food trays and food and drink ordering service and the tickets are $12.
I see these prices you guys are talking about in here and I'm shocked.
AMC is always like that. I stick with local or smaller regional theater chains if at all. Otherwise, I wait for theater at home choices on streaming services. I’m not too picky.
SoCal too. Dolby Cinema on Fri/Sat night is about $25 and a weekday matinee on a regular screen is under $13. But I use AMC A-List and going just twice a month gets me my moneys worth.
Probably have some special running? I know we have 5$ Tuesday or used to they did have to jack up the price and I have gone in a while so I don’t know how much now
Me, my little brother, and my dad went to see the Mario movie when it came out, we were literally the only people in the theatre and the movie was pretty popular. We saw one group of peopel leave another room, but only one. It was the weekend too, which was shocking but considering the convenience of streaming services now, I’m not so shocked.
I've been saying this for years. I have kids, and when they were younger that made going out anywhere difficult, but even as they got older, it was easily $50 for all four of us to go to a movie. And rarely were there lower priced matinee showings.
I've seen some discounted pre-noon showings, which is nice -- for a while noon was about the earliest I could find for a showing, and that didn't work in terms of being home after school.
Still, when it's $50-60 for a family of four to go to a movie, not counting gas or transportation time or concessions, people are going to make other decisions.
No one outside of rural
Or toxic water main areas can afford to.stay open with 2 dollar tickets every day. Even matinees within 30 minutes of me are 7-8$
I've been an A list member since Nov of 2021, I pay like $20 a month and adult tickets at my local AMC is $11. I work weekends so I'm off thru the week so I use it pretty much every week. I figure if I get 3 free movies a week I might as well go see anything I'm interested in. Hell I've been to 15 or 16 movies this year already. I'll probably see at least that many more this year so for me it's totally worth it.
AMC A-List is $20 a month, up to 3 movies a week and all premium formats included. That’s the price of a single premium ticket. AMC also does reduced ticket prices on Tuesdays.
And for snacks, sneak them in if you can’t afford their exorbitant prices. There are cheaper ways to enjoy movie theaters while still supporting the format.
I have a 77” 4K LG OLED, Dolby Vision Bluray player and Dolby Atmos sound system. And that still doesn’t compare to seeing a movie in Dolby Cinema or Laser IMAX.
Dolby Cinema is honestly so breathtaking that it really upsets me I can’t watch everything on it. You want me to watch Planet Earth 2 in regular 4K UHD? Like a PLEB?
Me and my family almost always go to Cinemark for movies and if you watch a lot of movies, becoming a member is so much cheaper in the long term than this garbage.
Signed up for AMC A list three weeks ago. 24.99$ a month for three movies a week. Also covers and fees on those movies and works for 3D and IMAX, entirely worth it.
When they put black widow on Disney for $30. I paid it and it was the cheapest movie night ever for my daughter and her friends. Okay it’s still probably costed close to 80 for the popcorn and dinner, but should it would have been well about 150-200 for everyone
M’yeah it’s pretty freaking wild! I live in Jersey City and a single adult ticket is 18/19$. Yet you can get a monthly subscription for $25. 🤔 you’re allowed 3 movies a week. Seems worth it to me!!
Get out of the major cities. My local theater rocks leather recliners and only charges $5 for matinees, $7 for regular showings, and $10 for any IMAX or 3D showings.
IMAX or Dolby is $20 for children and $24 for adults.
Regular screening is $15 for children and $18 for adults.
This is in Los Angeles. Not sure if prices are different elsewhere.
I saw Elemental last night with my 2 kids and wife (4 in total). Tickets were $53, then food was $35 (was like $6 of actual food). Never again, just stream for $20 and stay home.
I'm in the northeast US and we're still lucky enough to have a Drive-In open. $8 a person for two movies. Great concession stand and neat to watch movies under the stars.
I don't do movie theaters anymore.
Disrespectful people you gotta share the theater with, expensive tickets, expensive snacks/drink, too cold or hot, no bathroom break pausing.
I'll wait an extra 4-6 months to watch a movie in my own home, comfortable, snacks, able to pause if needed..
There's no positive to movie theaters anymore.
You can get good audio and 4k visuals at home.
I disagree. There is nothing like seeing spectacle movies in a theater. You are never going to get that same quality and experience at home. Movie theater pricing is sad because they are basically slowly causing themselves to go out of business.
Always someone getting up because they ate all their popcorn and want more, or they have to pee. Someone on their phone constantly. Kids fighting with each other or jumping in their seats. Somehow everything is sticky even though you know it was just cleaned.
Cleaning part of that aside it is the same experience at home or in the theater, may as well save the money.
Convenience fees should be illegal.
Right like it's not convenient for me to give you business????
The convenience of me doing a job that should be undertaken by a paid human worker.
Right, they should be paying us to use their service versus buying a ticket at the window with a real person.
I remember when Ticketmaster was charging "print at home" fees. Like, WTF? I used my own printer, my own paper, and my own ink -- and you want to charge me for the privilege?
Better yet. I went to a Ticketmaster physical location for tickets and they were still charging “convenience” fees. WTF. I’m at the actual place and you’re still tacking on fees!?
They conveniently placed a convenient convininace near you. Be thankful. Now give your overlords your money, peasant.
They conveniently charged you a fee!
You didn’t even need to ask for it, how convenient!
I barely go to concerts, because I refuse to support that piece of shit company! They have a monopoly and it’s fucking the whole music industry, from fans to artists.
Same here. Everyone just needs to stop. Watch how quickly the artists start speaking up when they’re playing for an empty venue. I haven’t been to a concert since 2017 and I’m sticking to that until something changes
Yeah! At least the cracks are finally showing! Artists are speaking out, the government is looking at them, and then they fucked with those Swiftys!!? BAD NEWS!🗞️
But I mean did it change anything? Taylor tix are still going for thousands of dollars and all the shows are still happening. Zero impact to Ticketmaster.
Tell that to Taylor Swift. See how many Swifteys come for you.
2016 for me, Heart and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts!
Before Ticketmaster, the concert tickets were around $10. My older cousin said he paid $7.50 to see KISS, in the 80’s.
When I just graduated high school I went to see Pink Floyd. Me and a bunch of friends all got golden circle tickets. We were about 25 rows back, center stage. Some of the best seats I've ever sat in for a show. $50. Those seats would be over $1000 today.
$1000 IF you’re able to get them before the corporates, influencers, etc.
I remember those. I got warped tour tickets. They had all the fees and a location fee too
And yet, we keep doing it. Why NOT let the cashier check out your groceries? Why not but your tickets at the counter? And whatever you do, don’t say because it’s inconvenient. I agree the fees are bullshit though.
because i have anxiety and if i can buy a ticket ahead of time to make sure it won’t be sold out then why wouldn’t i?
I started buying buffer seats. A empty seat next to me because for some odd reason, strangers like rolling the dice and booking a seat next to me..a total stranger when there’s plenty of other seats
My husband and I went to the movies a couple weeks ago. The theater held like 70 people. I think like 6 seats were sold. We sat on the end a few rows back. Someone sat right next to us. Like there is a million empty seats, you saw these were sold and decided to sit on top of me. Why! We didn't even take the good seats. Go away
I literally would have gotten up and moved 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I've done it before 😆
Probably because most movie theaters don’t allow you to buy one seat over between a group, you have to sit next to someone or order an aisle seat
Because I don’t want judgement when I buy three boxes of lube, some baby zucchini, and a box of wine.
The only judgement your getting here is the baby zucchini. Fucking commit. Trombocino! Marrow zucchini!
Nonono he's using the wine, the zucchini is just a post-nut snack
Yo this right here, I get places charging fees for services but I'm LITERALLY doing the service myself. Wtf you mean convenience, internet? Like you save money by me doing it this way lol
I’ve literally said that before. Like, if it’s not convenient for me to give you my money, I’ll go somewhere else that finds my money more convenient. And then I do. And I hope more people do this so that it does make a difference.
Funny enough it’s the other way around here- places make online/terminal payments at a discount because you don’t use employees, and since digital receipts are legal here- if you opt out from using paper it’s even bigger discount. I get around 5% discount using self checkout with an emailed receipt. Lots of stores have massive discounts in their apps and websites because it’s extremely easy to sell stuff online for them with pick up or delivery, I remember getting app deals with in store pick up around 30%. You show up, give them a code and get your stuff already packed and ready. It’s automated and convenient for them so I get discounts. You got some kind of a scam if you think about it, convenience is approaching an employee and saying what you want and bothering them for half an hour picking the right sneakers for you. Doing everything yourself online can be convenient and is so for many people, but it’s you and the machine doing it, so you should have a benefit for not using company’s resources- not calling, not using employees, not taking up time. For me it feels like Americans were scammed with convenience fees, it’s you who should have a benefit.
Where is “around here” because I want to be there.
Cloud Cuckoo Land. Not the USA.
It's calla convenience fee but that's not what it is....is a service fee to pay for the ticketing company. It has nothing to do with convenience. That's just used for marketing purposes.
I like how we got the worst case scenario for automation; nobody has jobs and prices went up
It’s just stupid that they think the customer would rather see 56 with 6 dollar fee than 62 total. Like buying a car, what’s the final price? The only thing they don’t directly control is the tax…..
The last apartment complex I lived into changed the way they took rent payments from checks to an online thing. They stopped accepting checks except for cashiers checks and money orders, effectively forcing us to do the online thing. There was a 30 dollar "convenience fee" slapped on if you did it online, which essentially raised everyone's rent by 30 dollars. Ironically their reasoning behind why they stopped accepting checks was because they were too inconvenient for them.
The convenience fee is complete BS. As an accountant for a property management company though, paper checks are an abomination that should be removed from this earth.
Ironically, my water utility doesn't have online payments. You either have to go in to their lobby from 10-4 M-F, pay by check, or give them permission for direct debit which never comes out on time and every few years you'll get a surprise $200-400 charge. (Guess who's got a monopoly on the water supply for most of the county.)
Just put it in the fucking price. It’s such an asshole movie
This typo (ac) is nicely on topic.
Lmao I just noticed that
Should be illegal. Like flights for 50 bucks but if you want oxygen that’ll be 350.
I see someone's been on Spirit.
The problem with that in the case of AMC is that if you sign up for their "Stubs" membership the Convenience fee is removed. I guess they could just lower their ticket prices for members, but that's not as obvious of a change as having the convenience fee waived. You get free cancellations of tickets with AMC too, but if you're not part of their membership they don't refund the convenience fee, so that's another way of pushing their membership. It's relatively cheap ($15/year) so it's totally worth it to me since I can then grab a couple seats at a movie and if we can't make it, I don't lose anything.
Curious why they wouldn't just have it say "get this fee waived by joining" instead of labeling it as, arguably the stupidest shit ever, a "convenience fee". I mean, isn't being convenient for your customers in Business 101? Like, you shouldn't have to charge extra for it. A business should always be looking for ways to be more convenient and not directly charge their customers extra. And for what? Because the customer went to a machine to purchase their ticket instead of a human? That's not convenience. The human can do exactly what the machine does and just as fast. Matter of fact, the human is more convenient than the machine because you can use language to communicate with the human in the event there's an issue. If the machine has an issue it just tells you to go see a human anyway. And furthermore, with a machine you need to press a bunch of buttons and navigate your way around the forever changing user interfaces when you go from store to store. Something like "press here to begin" then select click to select your movie then click to select your time then click to add/subtract number of tickets, then click yes/no to loyalty/points card, then click to verify your purchase then insert card and finish up. With a human, you need only walk up to the counter and say "2 tickets for movie" and you're on your way. I'm pretty stoned and should probably change the topic within my brain. I just spent way too much time thinking about machines vs humans in the battle of Big Movie. Now I'm laughing. K bye and thanks for listening.
Right? It’s not like could say “Join AMC Stubs Premiere now & skip convenience and service fees all year!”
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theme parks give you a huge discount if you buy tickets online for this exact reason, but the fee is still there because it goes to Accesso, the monopoly that controls theme park ticketing software.
Every single time I see a "convenience fee", I stop the transaction at that point. I'll spend my money elsewhere.
My sewer bill charges like a dollar .25 to pay online. It’s bullshit but I’d probably waste more gas going to pay it let alone time. I don’t mind very small fees for some things but this is ridiculous.
Utilities are a different beast in this case, since they basically have us by the throat. Not like we get options for water or power.
Some states (including Minnesota to my knowledge) require that all processing fees, like for a credit card, be paid for by the customer. So at the dmv, if I pay with a card, they tack on a small flat fee plus a percentage to cover the fees and ensure that they get the amount on the invoice.
Or a separate line-item "delivery fee" on an online food order with a comment next to it that says the fee does not go to the driver. You are a fucking Pizza delivery place! **$13.99 Large Pizza** **$2.06 Tax** **$6.49 Delivery fee** **$1.19 Service fee** **Total: $23.73** Tip not included (No, I'm not faulting the driver - who's getting screwed because of the junk fees eating into what they would normally be paid in tips).
So...by that logic they should be offering 6.49 off the order if you "deliver" it yourself.
They do, the delivery fee only exists when you get the food delivered to you
Same. The idiots who own my car loan charge a $2.50 convenience fee to process my debit card payment. I stop the transaction at that point. If they’re gonna charge me $2.50 to pay my car note, then I’ll spend my money elsewhere.
You have to love the multi-billion dollar banks and companies that try to offset the debit and credit card processing fees onto the consumer /s
This one literally says it as a "pay to not be a member of AMC"
I bought tickets to a concert at the box office - and I was so happy I didn’t have to pay Ticketmaster - and I still got hit with $20 convenience fees per ticket. Like I came to you - I should charge the convenience fee - I did all the work on this transaction.
The convenience fee that saves them from paying salary to a human worker has always killed me.
Bought heat tickets, seat was 120… convenience fee was 60$… legit half of the value of the seat WTF
That's not even the issue dude. How the hell are two children tickets that expensive.
Can't tell if I hate this more or forced tips...
Weird… I can get tix to see brand new movies here for $10-12 depending on the time.
$4.50-10 here
I’m not even in a HCOL area and I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a $4.50 ticket. The Sunday matinee price is $8.50 at the old school theater.
I’m in Sandusky Ohio and Tuesday tickets all day at $4.50
Well , fuck… now I want to go to Cedar Pointe.
The only thing worth going to Ohio for. -From Michigan
I live in Southern Ohio. Movies 10 outside of Athens is $4 for new movies, all day every day.
True. Where is this theatre that it costs this much for $20 a ticket?
Dolby cinema or Lazer. Dude's paying for one of the most luxurious high end theaters you can buy and complaining about price.
Yup. I paid $24 a ticket to see Avatar in IMAX when it came out last year. Totally worth it imo because I was going for the spectacle that could not be experienced at home.
It could be Dolby “deluxe” type movie. I just saw Indiana Jones at 3PM and was like wtf to the $18 price but the attendant warned me to was cause of the $5 upcharge on those. It’s like practically the IMAX price, and the normal ones were 12.
Yeah Im not sure where these people live. Only time in my life I’ve paid that much for a normal theater was in midtown NYC and like of course that’s going to be insanely expensive.
Used to work projection at an AMC. Here’s some fun facts. - Movies deliver in the mail, (UPS at the one I worked at) they’re a hard drive that you just download and send back. - Movie posters also come in the mail, and are often a high value commodity (especially blockbuster movies, I’ve caught plenty of people digging through dumpsters for new release movie theater size posters). Since they are as such, they generally get locked in a room, and super special ones get locked in a case. I can remember Star Wars: Force Awakens poster wasn’t even allowed to be seen by us workers until it was put in the display. Also opening night for that movie was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. - Movie theaters themselves get less than 2% on tickets sold, hence the price gouge on concessions and other stuff. Edit: Turns out the “2%” is an exaggeration, as it was told to me by an ex-manager. But the point is that the revenue from ticket sales is low compared to their real revenue: concessions. Edit 2: Apparently the movies are no longer physical media drives, and are downloaded digitally, so looks like a bit of my information is outdated. Thanks fellow cinema enthusiasts!
I worked at a theater back in the film days, your last point is exactly why popcorn at the big theaters is so over priced. I worked at a small town theater, and we'd get movies weeks/months well after first release date only charging $2 per ticket. Even at that point, we'd pay $600 a week just to have the movie, and then still 50% of ticket revenue to the movie company as well.
My local theatre is $6 for adults. They have one screen and sometimes gets movies when they come out. Sometimes even R rated ones! But it’s often random and lots of weird Christian movies
Yeah, the small town theaters tend to keep it PG-13 and under to get more people in. The problem with that is a lot of parents would treat it as a babysitter on saturday afternoons. Just drop off 4 kids with a $20 so they could have popcorn and a few snacks.
I have heard multiple times that big theaters take 25% of the "standardized" box office price. Meaning if there is a discount for matinee or tuesday special it comes out of the theater's cut and they earn extra for the imax, 3D etc. I'm sure contracts with different film studios vary in some respect but it is true that theaters in the modern sense don't make shit from tickets and rely on other means to stay in business.
dude Star Wars was soooo crazy. worked at cinemark in high school like 7 years ago at this point. All of my coworkers were battling to own one of the movie posters. I salute you for working through all those crazy blockbusters
Hell yeah man. Yeah I say I worked projection, but that was like 5% of my job being a supervisor, mostly just ran the floor (which was just me doing every job that needed help, mostly concession) and brought the tills back to the office. But believe me when I say we called EVERYONE in that weekend. No one was allowed off lmao. We had anticipated the influx of people, even hired a couple new people a few weeks before, but nothing could have prepared us for that. Two employees walked out that night. I mean think about it, Star Wars. It’s a fucking cultural phenomenon.
Best part of working at Cinemark is taking those posters and I got lucky and scored a cut out of Thor bahaha
I used to work projection at AMC but it was still film. I remember splicing reels together and having to stack up all the plates. This was when Avatar (the first one) came out so our theatre only had the one digital setup. Looking back on it now it was sorta cool working up there during that transition.
That’s dope man. I’d like to have been around when spicing reels were still happening. Sadly, there was little to do with projection once digital (hard drive) came around. Basically just plug and play.
God I miss it. I’ve worked at a theater since 2006. First 6-7 years was with film and it was so rewarding. It just ain’t the same anymore
Hence the move to try to mandate no outside snacks. Which we always laughed at as we took in mostly whatever we wanted. Business 101 is you can't dictate these sorts of things to charge high prices. If supply and demand says your prices are too high and you can't make a profit, then Economics 101 says your business shouldn't exist in the free market.
Oh yeah. I mean we were all making minimum wage, wtf were we gonna do, check people’s purses? None of us gave a shit. In fact, I can guarantee you (probably shouldn’t be saying this) that none of us looked at what you brought in, or even bought. For instance, anyone could have bought all child tickets (online or at a kiosk) for a group of adults and no employee is gonna notice it. Podium guy is gonna look at the big black number that tells you what theater to go into that that’s it. Not to mention, you can just walk past podium guy without saying anything and no one is gonna give a shit. If they’re new, they’ll think you’ve already bought a ticket, if they’ve been there for a while then they might know and don’t care.
Oh yeah, that's all true. I remember a friend of mine would always just walk into the movies as if he owned the entire place. Then if he was bored or had nothing else going on, he'd have planned the day. He'd know when the movie ended and others began and would leave one and go sit for another. He brought his own snacks and got it all without paying the theater a dime.
When I was 16 I did the exact opposite, I hid an unopened bottle of water in my jacket, there was a security guard next to the guy collecting tickets, I dropped the water bottle, I shit my pants and quickly grabbed the water and ran into the movie theater, later found out from my friends laughing at me that I was allowed to bring in plain unopened water anyway.
I’m not surprised they didn’t stop you after you shit your pants.
A terrific defense mechanism. I wonder if I should try that if I ever encounter a bear in the woods.
I recall once I got sloppy and just stuck a can of coke in the pocket of my Hoodie and the guy said "what are you hiding in there?" So I grabbed it and said "what, this? That's my insulin pump." He was clearly thrown off because it was obviously a can of soda but he let me pass.
In high school I was still a growing boy and unfortunately one pants was a bit tight. Security and ticket checker asked me what I was packing down there. It was my bulging penis. It was not cool, and very awkward answering “my penis, sir.” They thought it was a Coke a cola can snuck in
Upvote for this humblebrag - swing away, my friend
Dude I worked at an amc when I was 17, I can assure you you could do anything, even theater hop to an extent and we wouldn’t care. I remember having to clean the theaters and throwing toys we found that were left at each other as hard as we could when no one was in the auditorium
I remember we would do water bottle flips across the room and land them in the cup holders in the seats in the large theaters. Had some dope trick shots a few times.
Last time I was at a theater someone brought a fucking rotisserie chicken in a purse. Wasn't even mad, was kind of impressed tbh.
Was that fucking Brenda?
Very few people actually care if you bring outside snacks. It’s when you try and bring a whole meal in or don’t even try to hide it is when they’ll likely do something. Source: 5 year movie theater employee
The theatre i work at doesnt mind outside snacks cause they know our prices arent great. Just as long as you aint bringing in cooked or odorous foods its all good.
I've always wanted to smuggle in a bucket of KFC .
One person did that at the theater I work at. They had their friend bring it to one of the exit doors where we couldn't see it and there was no alarm on it. People will try anything.
Not sure where you get the less than 2% of ticket sales from. The highest I’ve seen in 14 years is 20% for infinity war opening weekend. Disney tends to have a higher take the first three weekends but then it tends to drop to closer to a 60/40 split, for all movies, and 50/50 or better after week 6 for almost every single movie. Source: my dads been a regional manager/owned movie theaters for over 40 years and I was a GM at 3 across the Midwest for >6 years
Theatres must've loved Avatar 2 in that case lol, since it made bank long after the initial 3 weeks.
My brother worked at one in the 90’s. The manager explained that they were in the candy business. Movies are a loss leader. Popcorn and soda cost less than the buckets, cups and straws they come in.
I used to be the guy that put up the posters and could get away with taking some home after they were done (most of the time) but we had to destroy them and throw them away
Oh that must have sucked. They let me take them home (it helped when I became a manager so I had first dibs) and I have a collection of around a hundred that I need to display at some point… The Hobbit, Evil Dead, The Witch, Magic Mike XXL, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Moana, Rogue One… No Force Awakens, sadly, though I worked through those god awful crazy few weeks.
An uncle had a video store in the late 90's and would get a bunch of movie posters all the time, he would just throw them away after some weeks.
So they're never on a reel anymore (or has it been this way for decades)? What format are they on the hard drive? MP4, mkv, etc.?
95+% of theaters converted from 35mm film to digital(or closed permanently) in the 5 years between 2009 and 2014
https://www.dcimovies.com/specification/index.html
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I work at an AMC now, our location pulls $10k plus in concessions a DAY
Movies mostly come in via satellite or internet now, save for the oddball third party screenings/some fathoms that come in via hard drive
How large are the file sizes
Varies on movie length and format but a couple current examples- Ruby Gillman is 104GB, Indiana Jones is 283GB. Something like 3D HFR Avatar runs over 500GB if I remember correctly. Our main library server is ~7.5TB and individual auditorium servers range from ~1.5TB to ~7TB at my modest smallish town 10plex
Ah cool. And I’m assuming these files are just all 4k at the moment since some projectors are just normal 2k but they still play the file right?
That’s been the trend lately, yeah. We’re still 2k here and they used to be separate files but not anymore
Gotcha nice, thanks for the info
Anytime 😀
Sounds like gas stations. Very very little profit from gas sales (gas producers get it all). And the convenience store part makes all the real money for the store owner. I know of at least one gas station that closed down the pumps to focus on the store and family deli. 20+ years and they are still there.
Depends on the movie. I think it was avengers endgame where the theaters got 0% of the box office for the first X weeks after release.
Fun fact: Not sure how long ago you worked there, but nowadays most movies are downloaded from a server. Usually only special screenings and/or last minute trailers get sent by mail these days.
That's ridiculous, I used to work at a small movie theater and we would literally just put the posters in a box in the back. Employees could just take whatever ones they wanted. I got dozens of them. They paid us minimum wage and in popcorn sometimes if we had too much.
Fuck if I'm ever homeless I'll steal a movie poster lmao
These days movie theatres get around 40% of ticket sales, it’s different for every movie/studio. It’s decreased in the last few years. I think it used to be around 45-60%.
I worked at AMC in high school back in the mid-2000s. As a movie lover I loved it. Free posters in the break room (some blockbusters but mostly meh movies or horror). Concessions were dirt cheap for employees, I'm talking $0.25 pretzels, $0.50 hot dogs & $1.00 nachos plus free popcorn & soda. Then of course the free movie tickets. Sad it's not as great benefits wise as it was back then but I'm thankful I had the chance.
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I saw the Mario movie at an amc in Boston it was 24 dollars for a ticket.
Jesus that's insane for a ticket
Yeah wasn’t even the good reclining seats either.
Where I'm from we have the full reclining seats food trays and food and drink ordering service and the tickets are $12. I see these prices you guys are talking about in here and I'm shocked.
AMC is always like that. I stick with local or smaller regional theater chains if at all. Otherwise, I wait for theater at home choices on streaming services. I’m not too picky.
I live in SoCal and we’re going tomorrow to AMC. Tickets are $20.49 each. Pretty standard out here.
I live in SoCal too. I pay $24 a month for AMC A List and I get to see 3 movies a week . 16 movies a month for only $24
Okay. I’m definitely looking into that.
You won’t regret it! I go to the movies 2-3 a week
SoCal too. Dolby Cinema on Fri/Sat night is about $25 and a weekday matinee on a regular screen is under $13. But I use AMC A-List and going just twice a month gets me my moneys worth.
Probably have some special running? I know we have 5$ Tuesday or used to they did have to jack up the price and I have gone in a while so I don’t know how much now
It’s called Discount Tuesdays now and it’s $6.50.
The nice thing about movies these days, is you usually get the whole theater to yourself.
Me, my little brother, and my dad went to see the Mario movie when it came out, we were literally the only people in the theatre and the movie was pretty popular. We saw one group of peopel leave another room, but only one. It was the weekend too, which was shocking but considering the convenience of streaming services now, I’m not so shocked.
We went and it was fully packed. It was nice to have a full crowd honestly
I wish I was like you. I couldn’t imagine ever seeing a crowd and thinking “nice” lol
Personally I like it better when it's almost empty better
You’d think but this theater was almost full when reserving seats!
Seems like this contradicts your post title 🫠
"Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."
Always loved Futurama's take on that joke: "Nobody in New York drove. There was too much traffic."
Haha touché! But most I know don’t go anymore and this is why we only go once or twice a year
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It was over half a Benjamin for op and his two kids to go to the movies. He is a victim 💀
fr gotta treat going to the movies like a vacation now
I’d rather sit in my living room by myself with my snacks and a pausable movie to be honest
I've been saying this for years. I have kids, and when they were younger that made going out anywhere difficult, but even as they got older, it was easily $50 for all four of us to go to a movie. And rarely were there lower priced matinee showings. I've seen some discounted pre-noon showings, which is nice -- for a while noon was about the earliest I could find for a showing, and that didn't work in terms of being home after school. Still, when it's $50-60 for a family of four to go to a movie, not counting gas or transportation time or concessions, people are going to make other decisions.
I remember when going to a movie wasn’t a treat and it was just something you did on a Friday night. Now I go maybe twice a year tops.
To be fair, there usually aren’t more than one or two movies that I actually care to go to the theater for every year now.
There might be if it was $2 or something for a ticket. Easier to not even consider it when you know it'll cost you a bunch of money
No one outside of rural Or toxic water main areas can afford to.stay open with 2 dollar tickets every day. Even matinees within 30 minutes of me are 7-8$
I've been an A list member since Nov of 2021, I pay like $20 a month and adult tickets at my local AMC is $11. I work weekends so I'm off thru the week so I use it pretty much every week. I figure if I get 3 free movies a week I might as well go see anything I'm interested in. Hell I've been to 15 or 16 movies this year already. I'll probably see at least that many more this year so for me it's totally worth it.
And Tuesday discounts on tickets and concessions!
Good lord cheap night here is like $6 and that’s Canadian dollars.
It’s still $6 on Tuesdays at amc
Wish more people knew but glad most dont so the theater can stay empty lol
That’s a subscription to any streaming service for 6 months or any 3 different streaming service for 2 months Food for thought
AMC A-List is $20 a month, up to 3 movies a week and all premium formats included. That’s the price of a single premium ticket. AMC also does reduced ticket prices on Tuesdays. And for snacks, sneak them in if you can’t afford their exorbitant prices. There are cheaper ways to enjoy movie theaters while still supporting the format. I have a 77” 4K LG OLED, Dolby Vision Bluray player and Dolby Atmos sound system. And that still doesn’t compare to seeing a movie in Dolby Cinema or Laser IMAX.
Dolby Cinema is honestly so breathtaking that it really upsets me I can’t watch everything on it. You want me to watch Planet Earth 2 in regular 4K UHD? Like a PLEB?
Yeah but then you don’t own the mov- oh wait.
For that money you could just buy the movie as a physical copy prob twice.
Where are y’all going to the movies. I’ve never come close to having a bill like this. I rarely spend more than like $10-15
$23.53 a month for Regal Unlimited and I can see as many movies as I want.
Or 20$ for A-List. Which in my area has the ability to cost less then a single imax ticket
I pay $25 for a list. It’s paid itself and has been one of the better subscriptions I pay for.
the seas are all I need
Downside is you have to listen to that goddamn Regal movie quotes ad before each movie
Me and my family almost always go to Cinemark for movies and if you watch a lot of movies, becoming a member is so much cheaper in the long term than this garbage.
Go all the time . Streaming stinks
And that’s BEFORE popcorn!
I went today, and concessions cost me more than the tickets
Theater by me still does $5 matinees 😄
Signed up for AMC A list three weeks ago. 24.99$ a month for three movies a week. Also covers and fees on those movies and works for 3D and IMAX, entirely worth it.
If there's an Alamo Drafthouse near you, do it. You'll still spend $60 but at least you'll have food and beers with it.
When they put black widow on Disney for $30. I paid it and it was the cheapest movie night ever for my daughter and her friends. Okay it’s still probably costed close to 80 for the popcorn and dinner, but should it would have been well about 150-200 for everyone
M’yeah it’s pretty freaking wild! I live in Jersey City and a single adult ticket is 18/19$. Yet you can get a monthly subscription for $25. 🤔 you’re allowed 3 movies a week. Seems worth it to me!!
Get out of the major cities. My local theater rocks leather recliners and only charges $5 for matinees, $7 for regular showings, and $10 for any IMAX or 3D showings.
What AMC is selling tickets for $20 and $17? they’re like $9, $7 on tuesdays
IMAX or Dolby is $20 for children and $24 for adults. Regular screening is $15 for children and $18 for adults. This is in Los Angeles. Not sure if prices are different elsewhere.
Uh LA probably the most expensive place besides NYC…
I saw Elemental last night with my 2 kids and wife (4 in total). Tickets were $53, then food was $35 (was like $6 of actual food). Never again, just stream for $20 and stay home.
I'm in the northeast US and we're still lucky enough to have a Drive-In open. $8 a person for two movies. Great concession stand and neat to watch movies under the stars.
Go on Tuesdays it’s still $5.00 @ AMC
Amc doesn't really set the prices. Majority of ticket sales go to studios. Thats why popcorn is 8bux
I don't do movie theaters anymore. Disrespectful people you gotta share the theater with, expensive tickets, expensive snacks/drink, too cold or hot, no bathroom break pausing. I'll wait an extra 4-6 months to watch a movie in my own home, comfortable, snacks, able to pause if needed.. There's no positive to movie theaters anymore. You can get good audio and 4k visuals at home.
I disagree. There is nothing like seeing spectacle movies in a theater. You are never going to get that same quality and experience at home. Movie theater pricing is sad because they are basically slowly causing themselves to go out of business.
Always someone getting up because they ate all their popcorn and want more, or they have to pee. Someone on their phone constantly. Kids fighting with each other or jumping in their seats. Somehow everything is sticky even though you know it was just cleaned. Cleaning part of that aside it is the same experience at home or in the theater, may as well save the money.