Cinemas blaming piracy for increase in ticket prices.

The price of a ticket to the movies is set to increase to an average $20 per person. With the price for an adult already at an average $18,  concession prices around $16 and kids at $14 the price of going to see the latest flick in the cinemas is already expensive. Booking tickets online adds another surcharge, as does films in Xtremescreen (Hoyts), 3D, and other ‘luxury’ cinema experiences. Then if you want to add some popcorn and a drink it’ll set you back another twenty odd dollars.

Going to the cinemas is becoming a luxury, and with the proposed ticket increases, they may even become obsolete in the near future. There are many issues that cinemas (and the film industry) need to address rather than worry about increasing their profits. Cinemas are blaming the price increase on piracy as Australia is one of the worst countries in the world for ‘stealing’ films and TV programs. This just seems like a bad excuse as cinemas already take on average 60% of ticket sales with distribution companies taking about 30% and only 10% actually reaching the pockets of the hardworking people behind the film. If caring about the filmmakers, screenwriters, editors, and production crew is the priority for cinemas, you would think they would change the percentage of their takings to pay the creatives more. Thus, I don’t accept that piracy can be a claim made by cinemas in a bid to increase their profits.

Investing your time and money on a film is one of the many reasons why people don’t go to the movies as often anymore, as they try and weigh up which film they want to see the most. Often, by the time they’ve seen a few TV spots and trailers through the media, they decide that the film is worth watching only to realise that they are too late. Films are more and more being given short screening periods, with the available session times after a couple of weeks not fitting the average worker’s schedule. From my experience, choosing a movie to spend your time and money on can be quite difficult, especially when you have competing reviews and opinions from friends. A lot of the time, people would just rather prefer to watch something in their own time and in the comfort of their own home, and not have to deal with people who don’t turn their phones off or talk loudly in the cinema. Usually, by the time I get a chance to go to the movies, the film I want to see is no longer in Xtremescreen, and at my local cinema that means that it’s in a dodgy theatre that is half the experience it should be.

As somebody who wants to work in film and TV production in the future, it is disappointing that piracy is so prevalent in today’s society. Criminalisation and fining of people who download illegally hasn’t proved to be successful as a deterrent. Downloading content illegally has become so common that people have surprised reactions to others who don’t participate in the behaviour. The mentality is that ‘everybody is doing it so why can’t I?’ While there isn’t a clear and simple solution to the issue, one suggestion would be to implement a similar system as Netflix or iTunes which could either be a subscription service, where you pay monthly and are allowed to download as much content as you like so long as you don’t reproduce it. Or it could be more like iTunes where you can buy an episode or pre-order a whole series for a discounted price, so that each new episode of your favourite series is downloaded automatically and you have paid for it. Films could also be purchased in this way. There are some devices being introduced currently, similarly to Foxtel, however, they aren’t at a standard where it appeals to the masses. They are devices that must be purchased and installed, unlike a program like iTunes which can be accessed by anyone who creates an account, and content can be easily connected and viewed on TV’s, computers, and mobile devices.

The major issue of course is, so long as it is available for people to download content illegally for free, they will continue to do so. The solution then is to create a large program that allows people to download content at a cheap price, whilst also shutting down illegal free download sites.

Rather than blaming piracy on the dwindling numbers of people going to the movies, cinemas should focus more on incentives to go and watch a film. Better deals at the candy bar, upgrading the theatres that currently exist, making Xtremescreen the standard for all theatres, and promoting more cheap nights would create more incentive for people to go to the movies. Hoyts has created the Hoyts Rewards program which is a points accumulation system where customers can eventually redeem points for a movie ticket or candy bar item. While it does create interest and an incentive, you have to buy the rewards card for $10. If you register your card within the first month, you receive a ‘free’ movie ticket – except you really just paid $10 for it. You need to accumulate thousands of points before you are able to redeem any – it kind of reminds me of going to the arcades when I was little and no matter how many tickets I thought I had, the only thing I could get with them was a bouncy ball and not the cool toy I wanted. Hoyts Rewards members do get promotions like the $10 movie of the week and special premiere screenings. While the $10 movie of the week sounds great, the majority of the time the film has been out for a while and you are likely to watch it in one of the dodgy theatres.

Better quality of theatres, lengthier screening times and more frequent screening times, cheaper ticket and candy bar prices, and ACTUAL savings for being a member would create more incentive to go to the movies rather than the proposed ticket increase which is just a ploy to increase profits by cinemas.