{"id":776,"date":"2013-05-13T04:50:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T11:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=776"},"modified":"2013-05-13T04:50:39","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T11:50:39","slug":"on-special-showings-for-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/05\/on-special-showings-for-seniors\/","title":{"rendered":"On special showings for seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"would<\/a>At the Freakonomics blog, Daniel Hamermesh reports<\/a> on pricing at his local cinema in suburban London:<\/p>\n

Every\u00a0Tuesday they show a recent movie (e.g., Lincoln<\/em> is showing on\u00a0May 21) and charge only \u00a33 ($4.60). \u00a0Moreover, you get \u201cfree tea, coffee and biscuits!\u201d Such a deal\u2014so how can they make money off this, or is it just altruism by the theater owners toward us old folks?<\/p>\n

The movie costs no extra rental, and the only variable costs are the wages of the one or two workers who sell the tickets and make the eats. \u00a0The fixed costs\u2014of the movie rental, the theater and heating\/electricity, are irrelevant for the owner\u2019s decision. \u00a0I should think that, if they can sell even 20 tickets, they will increase their profits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hmm, I’m not sure. I don’t know where he lives, so I did a quick search for movie theatres in South London and came up with the Empire Cinema in Sutton, Surrey. Indeed they have a special screening<\/a> each Wednesday morning at 11:00 specifically aimed at seniors, a film is presented that is already on DVD (this week it is The Impossible<\/em><\/a>), with complementary tea and coffee and all at a “special price” (which is not posted, though I note that their Tuesday price is a discounted \u00a34.95 for all seats, all films).<\/p>\n

But does that earn a profit? As Hamermesh notes, it is the marginal cost<\/em> that matters – what are the additional costs to the cinema of presenting this particular screening? It takes people to serve the tea and show the film, and the rental is not <\/em>free: my understanding from the fee structure of the Motion Picture Licensing Company<\/a> is that there is a minimum of \u00a375 per showing for film societies even if no admission fee is charged, and so I would have to imagine a license fee applies as well to established cinemas.<\/p>\n

To find whether the showing is profitable, we then compare marginal cost to marginal revenue<\/em> – how much will total revenues rise from doing this screening? That would depend on the box office taken for this particular screening net of any changes to revenues from all the other movies shown that week. If seniors wouldn’t go to any other movie anyway, then we can just add up what they pay for the Wednesday morning show. If on the other hand the free tea on Wednesdays means they forgo seeing Iron Man 3 <\/em> on the weekend, we would have to subtract that lost revenue.<\/p>\n

If the Wednesday morning show runs at a loss, can we explain? After all, this is a commercial cinema. It might help build goodwill amongst potential movie-goers in the neighbourhood to know that grandma and grandpa are getting a nice morning with their friends at the movies. It might also build goodwill in the Surrey County Council, useful when issues around zoning, parking, or hours come under discussion.<\/p>\n

Or it might be that, as Hamermesh hints, there is some altruism. We ought not to treat commercial arts venues as entirely<\/em> different from nonprofits. Commercial providers actually might want to show some altruism to a group, even if the official mission is to maximize profits, and it is not unknown for nonprofit arts organizations to aggressively pursue maximum returns on their presentations.<\/p>\n

Other ideas?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Freakonomics blog, Daniel Hamermesh reports on pricing at his local cinema in suburban London: Every\u00a0Tuesday they show a recent movie (e.g., Lincoln is showing on\u00a0May 21) and charge only \u00a33 ($4.60). \u00a0Moreover, you get \u201cfree tea, coffee and biscuits!\u201d Such a deal\u2014so how can they make money off this, or is it just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-issues","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-cw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1100,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/the-sunk-cost-fallacy-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":776,"position":0},"title":"the sunk cost fallacy","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"You've got to know when to fold 'em. Yesterday at Indiana University we hosted Peter Frumkin, who talked about his new book (co-authored with Ana Kolendo) Building for the Arts: The Strategic Design of Cultural Facilities. The book contains a range of case studies of significant building or renovation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sunk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/sunk-titanic.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/sunk-titanic.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/sunk-titanic.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/sunk-titanic.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/sunk-titanic.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":986,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/08\/whatever\/","url_meta":{"origin":776,"position":1},"title":"Whatever","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Washington Post reports that Forum Theater will not charge an advance price on tickets, but instead will have audience members pay after the show, whatever amount they think is right: Michael Dove, Forum\u2019s artistic director, says that he has long been concerned about what it means to be a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"where's my director of development?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/busker-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1773,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/12\/explainer-how-do-costs-affect-ticket-prices\/","url_meta":{"origin":776,"position":2},"title":"Explainer: How do costs affect ticket prices?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Suppose the costs of putting on a show fall - this could be from falling rental rates for performance spaces, technological changes that reduce costs of lighting or sound, or falling labor costs (perhaps through policy changes that lower the cost of providing health insurance to employees). How will this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"When are those darn prices going to come down?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/airplane-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2976,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/03\/on-the-high-price-of-west-end-tickets\/","url_meta":{"origin":776,"position":3},"title":"On the high price of West End tickets","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Guardian has\u00a0a new editorial\u00a0up about how the price of a theatre ticket in London is too darn high. I imagine it would be possible to write a similar piece about theatre in any big North American city as well. But it makes some questionable claims and assumptions, so, here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":504,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/03\/a-primer-on-price-discrimination\/","url_meta":{"origin":776,"position":4},"title":"A primer on price discrimination","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My previous two posts dealt with different aspects of price discrimination, and since many future posts will cover the topic from various angles, I think it worthwhile to go over a few basic ideas and definitions. Marginal cost will be defined here as the cost to your arts organization of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"direct price discrimination\"","block_context":{"text":"direct price discrimination","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/tag\/direct-price-discrimination\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"who knows their reservation prices?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/audience-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2817,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2023\/02\/can-you-scale-the-house-at-the-movie-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":776,"position":5},"title":"Can you scale the house at the movie theatre?: Updated (no, you can’t)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"February 8, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"US cinema chain AMC has announced it will start to have differential prices for movie seating: Three pricing tiers will soon be offered. For example, the highest-end \u201cPreferred\u201d tier are in the middle of the theaters and will be priced at a \u201cslight premium\u201d compared to its \u201cStandard\u201d tier, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"At the movies","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/rose-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}