I've got to wonder about ticket prices in all this. I went to see Fate of the Furious at 7pm in a major San Francisco multiplex in its third week of release, and the theater, which probably had 200 seats or so, only had an audience of about five. Five people, for the biggest movie in the world, at 7pm. Granted, the weather that day had been unusually beautiful, so moviegoing probably wasn't a big priority for many locals that night, but still: it was kind of nuts.
And the tickets were $12 - each more than a whole month of Netflix streaming. (And two tickets being significantly more than the $20 blu-ray pre-order, which these days includes a digital copy you can give to your friend.) It made me wonder what the room would look like if the price were reduced in a movie's third week to, say, $5? The theater might not make much profit at $5 per person, but how much could they possibly make with a near-empty theater?! Every empty seat is zero revenue, is it not? Not only zero tickets sold, but zero popcorn and snacks sold to those patrons who didn't come. Obviously, there's no sense in charging $5 in the first weekend or two of release if a whole crowd is willing to fill up the room for $12 apiece, but maybe differential pricing should kick in at some point. We're a city of app-makers; I'm sure someone could write an algorithm to fill some of those rooms at prices that motivate the public to leave their living rooms and streaming services while still making the theater money.
