Deflation affecting Japanese cinemas too
With one of the biggest cinema chains in Japan, Toho Cinemas, announcing that from next month (March 2011) they will cut the price of an adult ticket from 1,800 yen to 1,500 yen, iShare decided it would be a good time to conduct a survey to see what people thought about multiplex ticket prices.
Demographics
Between the 21st and 24th of January 2011 a mere 284 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.5% of the sample were female, 32.0% in their twenties, 32.4% in their thirties, and 35.6% in their forties. All had watched a movie at a multi-screen theatre, although it would have been useful to see the percentage of people who had been to the cinema.
As I always say, if you’re regularly paying 1,800 yen for the cinema you’d doing it wrong! The first of the month is 1,000 yen, Toho Cinemas have a loyalty card that gives you one free for every six watched, late shows are 1,200 yen or so, advance tickets are usually 1,300 yen, and ticket shops around cinemas often have left-over advance tickets on sale or other discount passes.
I’d like to see them do something about 3D surcharges; Toho Cinemas started off charging 300 yen extra, but last autumn they bumped it up to 400 yen. I’d watch more 3D (actually, I’ve given up now) if it was just 200 yen, or my loyalty card gave me a discount, or if I could buy my own pair.
My next movie will be The King’s Speech, and although I’d be prepared to pay full price for it, I’ll be going on March 1st, 1,000 yen day.
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