Theaters slowly raising ticket prices for 3D and Imax

The success of ALICE IN WONDERLAND has proved one thing: people will pay to see any piece of crap in 3D. I make no secret that I didn’t love ALICE but I think what bothered me the most about that movie was how terrible the 3D was. Would I have enjoyed it more in 2D? Probably not but I don’t think I’d have been as distracted by the awful 3D conversion process.

Theater owners can see though that people are willing to shell out a couple extra bucks to see a movie in 3D so what do you think they’re going to do? Price gouging! They’re going to actually make that premium higher so they can fleece the movie-going public.

According to a survey by the Wall Street Journal, 3D ticket prices have risen on average $1.50 across the United States with the cost almost doubling in cities like New York and Los Angeles. The average cost of a 3D ticket has increased from an average of $13.60 to $14.73 and if you want to see it in Imax 3D? Well that’ll cost you $16.63 on average (up from $15.13).

Starting this weekend for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and continuing into CLASH OF THE TITANS, 10 major theater chains will be jacking up their ticket prices an average of $1.13 for 3D and $1.50 for Imax 3D. Said the report, “If consumers absorb the price increases without issue, we believe it bodes well for the pricing power of the movie exhibition industry.” OK well who says we as consumers have to absorb the price increase without issue? We’re the ones paying to see sub-standard 3D conversions. It was a novelty at first but with the price increasing in this struggling economy, I hope more consumers take pause and decide to save their money.