AMC Theatres ‘Sightline’ Pricing Strategy Won’t Improve Moviegoing Habits

In other words, AMC will charge a “standard” rate, which is based on their current ticket pricing, for seats near the back or to the far side of auditoriums in their larger theaters, while the middle of the auditorium, including aisle seats in smaller theaters, will become “Preferred Sightline” real estate where tickets will go up $2 each. Meanwhile seats at awkward angles, generally including the front two rows, will be $2 less than Standard Sightline. These discounts will be called “Valued Sightline,” although one must be an AMC Stubs Member to qualify. The strategy will go into effect at select New York City, Chicago, and Kansas City locations on Friday, with a planned expansion imminent for the rest of the country in 2023.

If this had been the strategy of the nickelodeons of 115 years ago, one wonders if cinema would’ve ever caught on.

Admittedly, we do not know the actual stresses and pressures being placed on AMC Theatres’ financial situation right now. And less than two years since the COVID-19 pandemic effectively shut down theaters for over 12 months, it’s safe to say the economics of exhibition and moviegoing remain precarious, as indicated by Regal Cinemas announcing last month it would close 39 multiplexes forever. However, one cannot help but immediately question AMC’s strategy to counteract this grim environment by attempting to squeeze more of those nickels and dimes out of the audiences who are still going to the cinema. For now.

At the moment, movie theater owners are coming off 2022, the first real “post-pandemic” year where cinemas saw 12 months without extreme interruption. Whereas theater chains were closed for nearly all of 2020, and anywhere between three and six months of 2021, 2022 was the first year since 2019 we could begin surveying the damage inflicted on moviegoing as a national habit by COVID. The results are bleak.

According to The Numbers, 813 million movie tickets were sold to patrons in North America last year. While that seems like a hefty total in a vacuum, it’s down by more than 33 percent from 2019, which saw 1.23 billion tickets sold; the year before that, 2018, saw 1.31 billion tickets sold; and 20 years ago the annual rate was at more than 1.5 billion tickets sold.

On paper, it was clear even before the pandemic that moviegoing was declining in the 21st century. This was due to a confluence of factors, including the rise of premium cable television, video games, internet accessibility, social media, and finally streaming. Yet throughout the height of this in the 2010s, movie theaters were able to absorb the loss in ticket sales by rapidly inflating ticket prices, especially for luxuries like IMAX and 3D. While 2019 saw fewer tickets sold than 2013, the total domestic box office increased by nearly half a billion dollars.