$7 Movie Tickets

my first thought was that the reason I don't like monopolies is because it essentially gives corporations the freedom to do whatever they want, including screwing over their customers, because there's no where else to go for the service. So if this introduces low prices, which is a benefit to the customers, then it's good right? It goes pretty much directly against the idea of a monopoly, right?

now I'm thinking about how huge companies can afford to take a hit on their profits for a while if the end result is that smaller companies are run out of business. Now I'm realizing how things that are less expensive often come with a much higher cost further down the road. It's a sound business decision if that's what Cineplex is doing, but I have to admit that I'm discouraged and disappointed with living in a world where decisions are based primarily on sound business practice. I know what I just said, and it's exactly what I meant.

I become more and more of a socialist as time goes on. I do not see this as a bad thing. Just kind of a lonely thing.

Aw, well being a socialist isn't lonely at all. You're in good company :-)

I would tend to see see this as just marketing rather than a deliberate attempt to sustain a monopoly. One of the biggest deterrents to seeing movies is that's they're not cheap, so they've made movies cheaper in order to get people to come and watch them. I bet these cheap tickets aren't good for opening weekends and stuff either, which means they won't really be cutting into profits, just putting bums in seats that would otherwise be empty. It seems more designed to attract people that aren't watching movies at all, and less about attracting people that are watching movies elsewhere. I can't see that this is evil, just competitive. And cheaper movies is a good thing for consumers.

I do see Melanie's point about the bigger companies being the ones that can afford to market this way, and I do agree that this is unfortunate. Wal-mart comes to mind, they have more money for marketing, alot of power because they're buying in such huge quantities, etc. But the biggest problem with Wat-Mart is that what they do is unsustainable and exploitative. I don't see this aspect of exploitation behind Cineplex's offer. Of course i don't know enough about how film distribution works to comment on how level the playing field is for first run-cinema. Obviously i realise that Cineplex is far more powerful than the Bloor Cinema, but i'm guessing they're more concerned about competing with AMC.

I'm not arguing that the Cineplex near-monopoly isn't a bad thing, it is. And they're just as bad as any other big company, and of course they're looking after their own interests. I just fail to see the conspiracy. :)

I don't know if this happened in Ontario, but here's a quick story that made me more suspicious about their recent activity.

Back in the late 90s, Famous Players (now Cineplex) was running into some decent competition by the smaller second-run movie theatres in the lower mainland. When FP was charging $8 to $9 for a movie, these smaller, less impressive theatres were running the same movies a few weeks later at $4 and $5. Neither parties were all to happy about the arrangement, but they were both running a business and the rest of us were all benefiting.

In an effort to "value-add" their chain of theatres, FP went ahead and started building the Silver City style theatres everywhere. Now you could see that latest big flick on a bigger, shinier screen with frickin' loud speakers. When compared to the little guys, the alternatives looked rather pathetic.

However, the newer theatres charged $10 and were further out of town (due to their size). The smaller theatres still managed to hold onto their market share because for all the really cool stuff FP had added, they hadn't done anything about the price.

Now comes the dirty part.

Famous Players kept their older, smaller theatres open, in direct competition with the little guys and their new Silver City theatres, however they changed one thing: the older theatres now charged a paltry $2. In other words, FP ran the older theatres at a loss with the explicit intent of destroying their competition.

And it worked. The smaller theatres closed up shop in a matter of months. In no time, the entire lower mainland from Vancouver to Chiliwack was dominated by Famous Players theatres. Choice was gone, and with it, the $2 fees. After the last small theatre closed down, the remaining old theatres bumped their prices back up to $8.

So yeah, you could be right. Maybe it's just marketing. But somehow I doubt it.