Professor Elam

Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M

about

$7 Popcorn, not to mention the admission

October 10, 2010

Monday Oct 11, 2010

The trip to see the movie Wall Street demonstrated another lesson regarding managerial accounting and marketing. Two adults and three children arrived at the ticket window just before I did. Upon hearing the total admission price I heard the man say, 'gee!' The two were so stunned that the fellow selling the tickets suggested they step aside so I could purchase while they made a decision. I observed to the parent that he was of course quite correct. It was 12:20, the parking lot was near empty, the theater was near empty, the kids wanted to see a movie (no not Wall Street) but the price was a big setback.

That of course is ridiculous. The lesson taught by Southwest Airlines is that the priced needs to fall until the seats are full. When I was in college there was a another airline named Trans Texas Air, derisively referred to a Tree Top. It flew turbo props. I flew from Austin to Midland one time during all of college, the one way ticket was a whoppping $36, at a time when gasoline was 40 cents a gallon. Trans Texas finally ceased doing business and no doubt most of the seats were empty that last day.

I don't know if the kids got to see the movie, I suspect an ice cream cone was substituted instead.

Inside I thought I might actually get a popcorn, did I want to move from small to medium for another dollar, okay that will be $7. Like the husband outside I was stunned. I declined the popcorn.

This model won't work. It never does. Whether it is an airline or a movie theater the seats need to be full. During the Depression movies flourished, for a few cents one could forget the Depression and sit inside removed from problems for a couple of hours. Donwloads fill that slot now. I was at Regal Entertainment Group RGC, It peaked earlier this year at 17 and is now 14, moving opposite of the overall stock market which is up, no wonder. Gee a matinee ticket and popcorn is the same price as the stock, what's wrong with this picture?

Posted in Cost Managerial

5 responses to “$7 Popcorn, not to mention the admission”

Virginia Esparza

October 11, 2010

My husband and I usually go to the movies once or twice a month and he always makes sure I have my student ID for the student discount. I usually laugh but every bit helps especially if it is a new release where they can charge up $10 per ticket.

LikeLike

Reply
Kristin Hinojosa

October 11, 2010

Well Santikos does not accept student ID’s anymore only military. The price for a movie ticket is now so high I don’t even bother going to see a movie. I usually wait for red box, but then it’s only a matter of time before red box raises the prices because they have no competition.

LikeLike

Reply
Phillip Garcia

October 12, 2010

When I was in Biloxi Mississippi, there are some casinos that have movie theaters inside their casinos, the prices for tickets, popcorn, and drinks were reasonable; the reason why the prices were low was because the casinos make their money mostly on gambling. People who are only in the movie theaters business need to merge with the casino business or some other type of business, for example a theme park (Six Flags of Texas) in San Antonio would be a good place to merge the two businesses, and both are in the entertainment business. All of the movie theater companies should merge and this will reduce their ticket and food prices. This would bring in more customers into the movie theaters and they will make a profit. ACCT 3314-350 Student.

LikeLike

Reply
Dennis Elam

October 12, 2010

Now here is someone who is thinking about managerial accounting and marketing. I would suggest that the shopping malls missed this idea, the logical thing would be a kids’ movies at the mall, park the kids at the movie while mom shops assuming each kid is tagged and cannot leave till mom shows up to pick them up.

LikeLike

Reply
Rico Fernandez

October 12, 2010

You can also relate the cost of making the movie, actors especially, because they expect to be paid extremely well, as their price goes up so does ours? And it doesn’t help with the digital age we live in now, with the enhanced graphics and sound, in the end we pay.

LikeLike

Reply