Surge pricing for movie theaters

I have a friend (and coworker) who loves going to the movies. I too, enjoy watching films from time to time on the big screen, but movie ticket prices have gone through the roof lately. Just to go with my wife to see a movie and get a small thing of popcorn and soda can cost upwards of $50. It’s crazy.

As I was looking at tickets for a few movies this weekend I started thinking about matinee vs. standard pricing. This is a decent incentive to see a movie at a strange time, but realistically most people are going to see movies in the evening on a weekend. Companies like Uber have experimented with elastic prices, which got me thinking… what if there was surge pricing for movies during peak times?

Rather than a discount for seeing a movie in the afternoon, you would be punished for wanting to see a movie at a standard time. This might prove helpful when theaters are especially packed (like when Dune 2 came out), but realistically I think theaters are having a hard enough time as it is getting people to come back to the theater. Rather than getting more people into seats during off hours, this might drive more customers to enjoy a movie at home instead of going to the theater.

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