The rising costs of movie tickets and concession items have many staying at home rather than attending movies at theaters. A survey conducted by the American Association of Retired People show that 40% of seniors no longer attend films because they can no longer afford the prices. Fewer sold movie tickets tends to cause some panic to movie executives, who earn most of the profits from sales of these. Fewer people going to films, and increasing expense of making films both contribute to higher prices for movie tickets.

The average non-matinee movie ticket now costs about 10 US dollars (USD). Popcorn costs about six USD, and a drink, about four USD. Thus, the average expense at a theater is about 20 USD. For a family of four, that’s approximately 80 USD for two hours of entertainment.

One can buy a DVD player for approximately 40 USD and a DVD rental is about four USD. Popcorn and soda for a family costs about 10 USD. That’s 54 USD for a family movie night at home. Plus, one doesn’t have to pay for gas or parking. Since one now owns the DVD player, the next movie night may cost about 14 USD.

The expense of concession stands has much to do with the way in which movie studios are reimbursed by local theaters. In the first week of a film’s release, the studio may make as much as 90% of the revenue from sales of movie tickets. So while movie tickets are high priced, they are not benefiting the theater tremendously. Each subsequent week the film brings greater revenue to the theater. So seeing second run films tends to mean one is giving more money to the theater and less to the studio.

The question is, do the studios need to charge so much? That’s a debatable point. Some of the best films are made on fairly low budgets. Some high budget films are not well received, such as the colossal failure of the film Pearl Harbor. In general a studio makes up for its losses on high budget films by earning higher returns than expected on low budget films.

While actors make a great deal of money, they are not the only reason for high cost of movie tickets. If one ever takes the time to read the end credits of a film, one will see huge numbers of people employed by large productions: from gaffers, to film assistants, to animators, to casting assistants, to art or set designers. Many of these people work in unions that set specific prices for work. Thus budgets for films that require a high number of employees are going to be very expensive.

This does not mean, of course, that studios don’t turn a profit. In fact the largest studios make a great deal of money. However, since people are seeing fewer films in the theater, the movie tickets now reflect the price of the increasing gamble studios take when producing a high budget film.

However, many in the US simply can’t keep up with prices of movie tickets. A sixteen year old making minimum wage must work nearly four hours to afford seeing a film and purchasing concession items. Movie tickets for a poorer family might be 10% of a family’s weekly income. To an increasing number of people, movie tickets are now too high a price to pay for entertainment, especially when film rental is significantly less expensive.

It is a matter of speculation as to whether theater owners and studios will catch on and drop prices. It is unlikely. Most people now budget deliberately and stick to matinee performances, or go on “cheap nights.” However popular films usually aren’t included in cheap nights unless they have been running for several months.