“Cinema fixed-price system collapsing” read a headline in the Nikkei Marketing Journal (23 December). Partially obscured, perhaps, by the hype over the latest Star Wars spectacular, a new pricing trend in cinema tickets has been spotted by the media.
The standard cost of admission at nine major cinemas in the Tokyo area has long been set at ¥1,800. When James Cameron’s Titanic was released in 1997, many theatres charged higher admission, but that was to cover the drop in revenue resulting from fewer showings due to the film’s 195-minute length.
With the latest Star Wars film running for 135 minutes, the theatre’s justification for higher admission charges is apparently based on the principle of supply-and-demand for popular first-run films. A slick new complex of Toho Cinemas in Shinjuku Ward set the price of tickets to Star Wars: The Force Awakens at ¥2,000. This higher price was applied at nine of Toho’s most popular cinemas nationwide.
On the surface, a 10% increase does not seem that much, and some viewers willingly paid up.
“I really wanted to see the film, so I had no problem paying the additional amount”, a 20-year-old told the newspaper.
“I don’t give much thought to a minor difference”, said Tadahiko Kimura, age 46. “For me, what matters is the time I lose in waiting until the showing”.
However, others appeared displeased by the theatre’s new pricing strategy.
In comparison, according to the article, speciality theatres with MX4D technology—which provide 3D goggles and seats that move—charge ¥3,600 for admission.
Cinema attendance in Japan has been fairly stagnant since the late 1980s. During Japan’s golden age of cinema entertainment, around the mid-1950s, more than one billion adults went to the cinema each year. Admission was ¥130 in 1957 (equivalent to around ¥723 in 2011 value) and ¥250 in 1965 (¥1,330 in 2011), rising to ¥550 in 1970 (¥1,680 in 2011).
The current price of ¥1,800 became the standard in 1993, but this was mostly for first-run showings of imported films. In 1992, studios set admission for domestic productions at ¥1,200. The average price paid for an admission ticket was ¥1,285 in 2014, when 160mn people went to the cinema.