Theater owners got an earful this week at CinemaCon, and honestly, it was overdue. Paramount’s distribution head Chris Aronson took the stage and told exhibitors what many of us have been shouting from the back row for years: change the damn model. Cut the trailers down, extend matinee pricing to 6 PM, offer mid-week discounts, maybe even toss in a two-for-one popcorn deal. You know—make going to the movies feel like a good time again, not a wallet-draining obligation.
Meanwhile, AMC’s CEO Adam Aron is over here playing the long game, pushing studios to commit to a consistent 45-day theatrical window. He’s not wrong—exclusivity helps. Letting a movie breathe in a theater before it shows up on your Roku screen is a solid idea. But here’s where the two perspectives start to diverge. One guy is yelling, “Fix your lobby!” and the other is whispering to the studios, “Give us a little more time.” Both of them have valid points, but I think they’re missing the one thing that actually brings people back to theaters: value.
Now I don’t mean value in the “blockbuster experience” sense—though sure, IMAX and Dolby Atmos have their place. I mean in the “my family of four can see this movie without taking out a second mortgage” sense. And I say that with the weight of experience: 14 years working in movie theaters, including over a decade at a drive-in and time spent at a literal rat-infested shithole of a second-run house in Pasadena that, somehow, still pulled in over 200,000 people a year. Paint was peeling off the walls, half the seats creaked like haunted house props, and we had an unspoken agreement with the rodents to just stay out of sight on weekends. But people came—in droves—because you could see a movie for a few bucks and not feel like you were getting scammed for wanting a little entertainment.
Let’s face it—ticket prices have crept into the realm of the ridiculous. The national average went from around $9 in 2019 to almost $11.50 in 2024, and that’s just the average. In big markets, you’re easily looking at $18 or more for a single adult ticket. That’s not just unsustainable—it’s hostile to repeat viewings, which we all know are what help a film go the distance at the box office. Everyone talks about opening weekend like it’s the Super Bowl, but it’s the long tail that builds the legacy. You think Titanic made $2 billion on opening weekend alone? Hell no.
So here’s my take, and it’s not just some abstract theory—I’ve lived it. If you want people to come back to theaters and keep coming back, you need to rethink how you’re pricing access. Studios and theaters should agree on a tiered pricing system that reflects not just the market but the reality of how people see movies.
The first two weeks? Charge full price. Let the hardcore fans, the FOMO crowd, and the people who treat moviegoing like a Friday night ritual fill the seats. But after that? Cut the price in half. Make it worth someone’s while to come back for a second look. And if a film is still playing after a month, drop it to a flat $5 a ticket. Turn it into the modern version of a second-run screening without having to wait for a new theater to pick it up.
This is how you build a culture of rewatchers again. People who don’t just want to see a movie, but want to live in it for a while. I remember back in 1999, I caught The Phantom Menace at a midnight showing—yeah, I was that guy. Then I saw it again the next day with my best friend, and a few months later, I took my siblings to a second-run theater to see it again for just a few bucks. That third viewing? One of my favorite memories. Not because of the movie (we all know the movie’s flaws), but because I got to share it without worrying about how much it was going to cost.
Tarantino once said movies are the working man’s art form. He’s dead right. They’re meant to be accessible. They’re meant to be communal. And when you price people out of that experience, you’re not just losing ticket sales—you’re killing the culture.
Look, I get that studios want to make their money. I understand theaters are still recovering from the pandemic. But if you really want to save the industry? If you want to keep the lights on and the projectors running? You have to meet people halfway. Work together. Build a system that lets the opening weekend shine, but gives the rest of us a reason to come back without feeling like we’re being gouged. Give the $5 ticket a comeback tour. Embrace the long run.
And while we’re at it, can someone please figure out how to let theaters sell home video pre-orders? I’m begging here. Imagine walking out of Deadpool & Wolverine, adrenaline still pumping, and there’s a kiosk right by the exit asking if you want to lock in the 4K steelbook for $25. You think fans wouldn’t throw their debit cards at it? You think studios wouldn’t love locking in digital or physical sales before the movie even hits home video? That’s a win-win, and it’s just sitting there.
The future of moviegoing doesn’t have to be bleak. But we need more than nostalgia and superhero cameos to keep people coming back. We need deals. We need flexibility. We need to stop pretending like streaming isn’t a competitor and start offering something it never can: an experience that feels worth it—not just for the story, but for the price.
So yeah, Paramount’s right to shake things up. AMC’s right to want more time on the clock. But if we want to get butts back in seats long-term? We need to stop chasing gimmicks and start making movies feel affordable again. Because when it feels good to go to the movies, people go. And when they go, they remember why they loved it in the first place.
Hollywood After Dark 