Online booking fees aren’t enough — Cineplex jacks ticket prices for Barbenheimer

If you noticed Barbie or Oppenheimer in Canada over the weekend, you could have paid greater than ordinary.

The Globe and Mail studies that Cineplex was adopting “variable” or “dynamic pricing” for these movies, which means it charged extra for them than different titles as a consequence of elevated demand. The so-called ‘Barbenheimer’ double-feature led to Cineplex’s largest summer time weekend up to now.

As The Globe factors out, Cineplex hiked basic admission prices, not premium codecs like IMAX, relying on the theatre. For instance, Cineplex’s Yonge-Eglinton theatre in Toronto charged $14.50 for Barbie and Oppenheimer, versus $13.50 for Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning — Part One on the similar location. However, one other Toronto theatre, situated in The Beaches, bought tickets for all three movies for $12.99. Meanwhile, Barbie was priced at $15.50 at Vancouver’s Scotiabank Theatre, in comparison with $14.50 for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. 

In an announcement to The Globe, a Cineplex spokesperson claimed “this is a practice that has been in place for a number of years; anticipated consumer demand is one of the factors considered when determining pricing, as well as location, a guest’s age, day of week and others.” They added that “there are no surprises and a guest is fully aware of what they are paying when they select their ticket type.”

Of course, one may argue that many individuals doubtless aren’t conscious of this observe, particularly in the event that they don’t go to the films usually and will have solely been going as a result of complete “Barbenheimer” craze. It’s not as if Cineplex makes this data available. To that time, Cineplex doesn’t clearly record value breakdowns on its web site, so customers can solely work out actual prices upon checkout. Therefore, there isn’t a clear body of reference for whether or not tickets in a single space of Toronto may cost greater than these bought at one other location within the metropolis.

Cineplex’s lack of clearly listed ticket prices is definitely a key level of rivalry in a lawsuit filed in opposition to the theatre chain by Canada’s Competition Bureau. Matthew Boswell, Canada’s commissioner of competitors, argues that the corporate’s $1.50 on-line booking payment is “deceptive” since clients aren’t in a position to simply gauge the bottom price of a ticket, to start with. Cineplex claims that it doesn’t record prices as a result of they fluctuate relying on location and film format and, subsequently, an “interactive” method — the checkout course of — is required.

“Cineplex also glosses over the fact that when the price of a movie ticket is disclosed on the ‘tickets’ page, Cineplex does not actually adjust each price representation to show the full price,” added Boswell. “Rather it adds up the cost of each movie ticket and the cost of the online booking fee (which can be charged up to four times per transaction) all together, leaving it to consumers to figure out that the per-ticket cost has increased.”

The Globe provides that Cineplex CEO Ellis Jacob instructed the publication final 12 months the one “variable pricing” it does is with premium admissions like IMAX and Ultra AVX. “We haven’t gotten to the point where we have premium pricing because it’s ‘X’ product. We will look at that and do it if we see it works. But for us, it’s driven by the experience we’re offering you,” he claimed.

Of course, what Cineplex has performed with Barbenheimer runs counter to that, so The Globe requested for clarification. In response, the Cineplex spokesperson stated Jacob wasn’t referring to a single week of screenings however, quite, the whole run of a movie.

“We currently apply the additional charge for a number of weeks on select high-demand films. When determining ticket price, additional factors considered include the duration it will run and the anticipation of the film’s success,” she stated. “We do not include an upcharge on most films we show in our theatres.”

A motive as to why Cineplex is charging extra for the identical film at totally different theatres wasn’t offered. That stated, whereas Cineplex is Canada’s main theatre chain with a roughly 75 % market share, Landmark, the nation’s second-largest exhibitor, additionally adopted variable pricing for Barbenheimer, studies The Globe. 

Image credit score: Universal

Source: The Globe and Mail