Studios don't set ticket prices or schedule 3D vice 2D showings; theaters do. And I'm fairly sure theaters don't pay more to screen bigger-budgeted movies.
Actually they do.
Studios lease their films to the cinemas/theatres for a set period of time. For the first 2-3 weeks of a films release the % return the theatre sends back to the studio is around the 75-80% mark (in the US). After this point, that can swing to a 45-60% mark. But it is negotiated pre-released and then, sometimes, on a week by week basis dependant upon how well a film is doing. Some of this negotiation will revolve around
timings of showings, how many per day, not just the cost release per week.
A good example is something like
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones where certain theatres were told "You want this, you have to give us 100% for the first 5 weeks". Clearly that cinema (or chain) IS paying more to screen the bigger films and to make any money off it the cinema needs for the film to be still performing well at week 6 and onwards.
I used to work in the industry (albeit 15 years ago) and we were endlessly frustrated by negotiation tactics with distributors. I worked for Odeon, at the time the largest Cinema chain in the UK, who should have had ready access to pretty much all the major releases with no issues. However, I recall when
Mission Impossible 2 was being released, Odeon negotiated poorly with Paramount UK and we ended up only showing the film for one week, on one screen, 3 times a day. Why? Because a newer cinema, with larger screens opened 1 mile away and Paramount decided to put their efforts in that chain instead. Odeon would have still paid the % back per ticket, but with limited exposure as a film like that would typically have played in at least two screens for 3-4 performances a day, over a few weeks.
So the leverage the distributors have over the cinema chains is massive and each chain WILL pay a different amount to lease the films dependant upon location, residential demographics etc. Some chains will get forced out of the equation all together because of politics. Or in the case of the following - force
themselves out. When
Hateful Eight came out in the UK this year the distributors only wanted the 70mm print to run on the Odeon Screen in Leicester Square, London. Which led to the chain Cineworld boycotting the film as they have a 70mm theatre in Leicester Square also. The distributors couldn't see the point of playing the film on a 344 seat screen whilst also playing it on a 1600 seat screen, but that lost them the remainder of the 800 Cineworld theatres across the country. It was an odd and bold move by the chain to highlight the point that the distributors really do control what plays where and for how much revenue, taking a loss by not entering into any contract with the distributor
Entertainment at all.
The leverage that the distributors have over the cinemas is really what has led to the massive surge in ticket prices and the over-reliance on concessions to help break even. If you have a huge turnover of films flooding your market, distributors demanding up to 80% of revenue for the first 2-4 weeks of big releases, a digital entertainment market that is quickly offering more fanciful and satisfying options to your customer base, the only thing you have left to do to survive is (a) hike your prices up, (b) reduce your staff (digital projection has completely destroyed that job, whilst the foyers are like Theme parks with massive queues and barely a staff member in sight), and (c) make your Pepsi's BIG, but watered down to piss, at £5 a go.
Hugo - shame
