Photo: Courtesy of AMC Theaters. Can you remember the last time you went to the movies? Neither can we. While that may be because we're just getting past that dreaded movie wasteland known as Hollywood dump season, it also has to do with the fact that our home entertainment options are endless. Why leave our own couch to go to a more expensive, less comfortable couch?
Though ticket revenues rose to $10.9 billion last year, from $10.8 billion the year before, that can mostly be attributed to the increase in ticket prices from formats like 3-D and IMAX, not to increased attendance. In fact, the total number of tickets sold fell 1.5% in the past year. That's an alarming trend for studios and theater owners, who face increased competition from the ever-increasing amount of on-demand services, online-streaming companies, and luxury televisions and sound systems whose quality comes close to what's being offered at your local multiplex.
It comes as no surprise then that a trade group representing theater owners is trying to hammer out an agreement with theater chains and movie studios that will allow them to lower ticket prices for one day a week. What day that might be has yet to be determined, but in Canada it's called "Cheap Tuesday" and that has a pretty nice ring to it, don't you think? (TIME)