GigaOM

Overpriced Movies Have Got to Go!…

I am cheap.  I am unashamed of admitting that.  So when I come up off of $10 just to put my behind in a theatre seat to watch a movie, I’m hoping that it’s worth something more than two free hours of air conditioning.
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[...] Young writes on GigaOm about an idea for pumping new life into the cinema experience. It was a response to Mark [...]

[...] ohne großes Budget mehr Besucher ins Kino locken könnte. Robert Young von GigaOM hat einen simplen Vorschlag gemacht: Wenn jemand sein gebrauchtes Kinoticket an einen Freund oder [...]

There’s no real incentive for me as the opening day movie-goer to share my stub. Sure, maybe one day down the road I might someone else’s stub but I’m have enough clutter and gave up on grocery coupons a long time ago. Given that… the movie theaters should offer the descending pricing you propose without passing around my trash.

“These days, word-of-mouth is the single most influential factor that drives a film’s success.”

Case in point: Snakes on a Plane.

They have a huge amount of buzz and I don’t think they spent much to get it. Opening weekend at least should be a smash hit for them.

Unlike Dave, I think keeping the ticket stubs is a great idea. Not only do you give incentive for someone else to go, people rarely go to the movies alone so they’re going to drag someone else along too.

That was better than what I was thinking of.

great idea Om,

that might actually catch on… very novel.

I am a movie goer and that would work! How many stubs is Mark going to give you for the idea?

Wow !! What an idea. If someone implements this, you should definitely be rewarded handsomely.

I’ve been thinking more about this… The reason I avoid movie theaters has nothing to do with cost or even content. So unless those movie stubs can also magically block cell signals, silence bickering couples or rowdy children, unstick floors, etc they won’t get me back into the theater.

Robert,

You are in the wrong business, being a blogger!

I love that idea. That would absolutely get me back in the theater, because it also takes care of those high ticket prices (Europe), which is an added bonus.

If they have any smarts they’ll do that right now.

Fascinating idea, but I, too, doubt that it would produce any significant results. Factor in the price of babysitting and refreshments and the buck or three saved on the ticket price begins to look insignificant. Of course, I don’t attend movies often. Perhaps the regulars would find this prospect more appealing. And (to further undermine my opinion) maybe the revenue bump would need be only modest given that the costs of establishing such a system don’t appear to be daunting. Either way, if it had been my idea I wouldn’t have posted it here for all the world to see.

I like the idea! But I wonder if the increasing value is a good idea. Ofcourse this evens out the demand curve a bit, but on the other hand, it awards me for not going to a movie NOW, but wait to see it. I might decide that i’ll wait 4 weeks, to save the $4, and then forget about it alltogether, lose the stub, or just not care anymore. While if the incentive is to get a discount NOW, I rush to see the movie this evening. I think many people plan on seeing movies, which in the end they forget about. Marketing is also about using the buzz when it’s still ‘hot’, and not a month later, when the next big hit is around the corner, and most people have forgotten about last months hit.

I really can’t see anyone keeping their ticket stub to save a friend $1-2.

that is a most excellent idea

Nice idea. But what happens to the coupon when the movie doesn’t last in the theater for more than a couple of weeks?

I’m not George Costanza. I’m not going to carry 15 ticket stubs around for weeks. The main problem lies in our inherent lack of selflessness. If I’m handing out stubs but not getting any back in return, where is the upside for me? Even worse, if that stub thing worked, it would destroy Hollywood. Actors, Agents, Studios are made or broken based on how a movie opens. If opening weekends dip down (because people were waiting on friends to give them stubs), the whole scale is tipped.

I think it’s a great idea!!

Funny, cause I thot it was going somewhere else. I thot the suggestion was going to be to increase the value of the ticket, similar to a superbowl ticket. Make it LOOK fancy and theme it after the movie… like PIRATES would have a treasure map on it.

But I still like the incremental value added idea. It’s a good one!

I like the idea but would propose that the ticket be changed to communicate a link to an online campaign or a sweepstakes promotion etc so that the value could be greater than just a discount for a friend. Create value beyond the paper-stub. If you could link the stub to an online community (unique number = unique entry) similar to how the Passport program worked for Rugrats (over 32 million passports distributed)… maybe. Perhaps the more times the ticket stub gets passed along, the value (chance for a sweepstakes win) increases? Similar to a loyalty program like Coke Rewards…

or another couple of ideas: first, extend premovie ads to 30 minutes or 45 minutes and then if people show up at the start of ads or before, they see the movie for half price…this would include previews and trailers and yet another coke ad…or alternatively, when a movie bombs on the first weekend, the studios cut ticket prices in half and simultaneously release into cable and download alternative channels (a la cuban’s dud film about the dolls)…basically, that ticket stub idea is only a patch - movies are moving toward multichannel simultaneous release, and if i’m presented with the option to watch at home for a premium or get 3 bucks off in the theater, then i’m gonna stay home, away from cell phones and chattering teens…

Building on your idea to increase sales in a theater -

1. Reward the movie goer himself instead of a friend. If I see a movie in the first week, then I can use the stub for some OTHER movie that is running in its second week (or later) to get an appropriate discount for the ticket.

2. Subject the original stub to an expiry date of say, 1 month and you may have repeat customers within a month.

3. The stub for a movie that is seen in its second week gets a smaller discount than the movie stub for a movie from the first week.

Interesting, but would the ticket stub be more powerful than someone just telling a friend that the movie was really good? Would I give a ticket stub to a friend to go see a movie I didn’t enjoy? If I enjoyed it, wouldn’t I just tell a friend that they should go see the movie because its good?

What about a frequent flyer type of deal, see 5 movies, get the 6th free?

One problem is that its not like the studio’s care if you go see multiple movies some of those movies come from other studios.

or as my friend says do what Sony does… promise the world in your product, create buzz… then backtrack on those promises and say it will not be included… only works if you have had successful brand recognition from the past… in other words, burn your good standing and reputation for the sake of a quick buck… that’s how Hollywood sequels work. :)

I have to agree with Andy. The reason people don’t go to the movie isn’t because it costs too much. It provides little value. Watching a movie at home is almost as rich of an experience (or at least “rich enough”) for many people, and it orders of magnitude more convenient. No driving to a theater. No waiting in line. No price gouging on concessions. No screaming little kids during the movie. No giggling teenagers during the movie. At home you can pause the show to go to the bathroom, make some popcorn, answer the phone, whatever.

The movie theater is an inferior product. As people have more money, they spend more on home theater equipment, DVDs/Netflix, etc. They don’t go to the movie theater more often.

People don’t want to keep track of little pieces of paper.

I don’t go to movies as often as I would want, and it IS because of prices. See, I don’t often go to the cheap theater because of the sticky floors, bad projection, etc. The more expensive ones, like the indie theaters, have better facilities and crowds. I’d definitely be up for the stub discount.

I like the idea but it does not address Mark’s original question, “How can you convince 5 million people to give up their weekend and go to a theater to see a specific movie without spending 60mm dollars?”.

So much of the movie industry is driven by the opening weekend and the current model requies massive spending to drive this. There are always exceptions (Snakes on Plane) but if you try to copy this grassroots model for all releases, it too will get old. I don’t have an answer for Mark on this front.

If the Pittsburgh Pirates win people will watch them.
please buy the pirates allready. your pocket change could get them to the world series. McClatchey is a douche.

That’s a really interesting idea, Om. Using stubs to promote word-of-mouth marketing could be an important step towards revitalizing the cinema industry.
What I see is that, it adds a nice networking element to the movie watching experience. Stubs could become a part of every conversation about a movie. And of course, websites revolving around the concept of sharing/exchanging/displaying your stubs would crop up too.
Of course, once some extra thought and research is put into it, the idea would become more refined. I think movie theatres should definitely give some thought to this idea.
I am not too sure about the concept of the discount going up as the stub becomes older. Wouldn’t it be better if it was the other way round? I mean, each stub would give you a discount on say 5$ on the same movie after 2 days. After that, the discount would keep reducing. This would encourage people to watch the movie immediately. On the other hand, if the discount were to keep increasing, people might keep putting away the movie for a later date. Even without the stub thing, I generally have the habit of putting away the watching of a movie every time because I have other things to do.

I like collecting all my ticket stubs. I’m not giving my Stub to “Sarah”.

Sorry Om, I have to disagree. I can’t imagine toting around ticket stubs. Uh, this is the electronic age, right? I don’t carry cash around and you want people to carry stubs?

The way to make people come to the theaters more is to make it more of an experience. Right now teenagers are the ones frequenting the theaters the most because it is a place they can hangout, a social experience. Now if theaters were to enhance the experience for the older audiences, that would bring in more people.

The problem is older audiences have higher standards that they want met otherwise they won’t go regularly. Why not have two different theaters (one premium and one standard) on the same property? Kinda like having a Marriott and a Fairfield Inn on the same property or sitting on the 50 yard line instead of behind the goal posts. I, for one, would go to the premium theater and pay more for the movies that I really want to see. That’s how I would do it.

Hey HOLLyWOOD–want my time and money, and word of mouth? the answer is simple: stop making formula movies based on shallow pop-culture ideals concocted by mediocre mall public education sheeple. and stop paying bubble-headed actor’s (like Ben Affleck) the lion’s share of production costs. pay-up for real talent: get real writers!

Studio management needs to take responsibility for the garbage they continue to churn out: everyone there should be paid a percentage of profits –that would create incentive to actually make interesting movies.

Bloated movie budgets are so common and absurd–it is on par with government’s wasteful and sloppy spending.

Just imagine the box-office person arguing with a teenager whether a coffee-stained, bent-out-of-shape stub is legit, when there are 10 people waiting in the line and it’s 10 min before the movie starts.

Not to mention the after-market trade in stubs, or the web 2.0 social networks for stub lover or auctions in stubs.

I doubt that this idea alone will save the movie industry.

Couple of questions:

What purpose does the stub serve in the first place? Why not just drop the rates for the movie ticket as time passes?

Are all the movie theatres owned by the same owners? If I take my stub to some other theatre running the same movie, would I still get a discount?

As a theatre owner, why should I keep giving consecutive discounts as each subsequent stub owner shows up? Will the studios reimburse me for the discount?

“These days, word-of-mouth is the single most influential factor that drives a film’s success.”

Bingo.

I can’t say that I have immediate complete answers for Cuban. But five questions pop up:

* What is the job that people are 'hiring' movies for when they go to the cinema?
* What are the barriers to the consumption of movies?
* Are there ways to eliminate or reduce some of these barriers?
* Are parts of the market overshot?
* Is there a simpler, lower-cost approach that appeals to a neglected or underserved market segment?

The first two questions are relatively straightforward and I will take a quick crack at them.

(link) weblog/2006/07/disruptingthe_.html

The last three questions get at the heart of the issue and I will attempt to address them over time. It would be a disservice to rattle of quick answers on those issues.

Mike@OnDisruption.com

Mark Cuban should consider buying an online video sharing startup like Str8Up

Instead of the value of the stub increasing with time (greater discount after more waiting time), it should increase with the number of people who have passed on the stub. First buyer gets it for $8, next buyer uses it to get a ticket for $7, third buyer uses second buyer’s stub to get it for $6 etc. Else, there is an implicit incentive for second buyer to wait it out till he/she can get the ticket for a buck.

Also, there should be some reward for the first buyer etc.,

Looks like Mark Cuban needs to hook up with Amway and launch another scheme of pyramidal proportions! Ah, an’t wait to see all those movie-goers accosting strangers and pestering them in malls to join in their little scheme.

Hi guys,

I think a couple of major points are being missed here

a) The article is by Robert Young, not Om ( hi Om :-) )

b) The issue is not the physical stub but creating an encoding of the movie-going experience that can be virally communicated and that carries a discount. In fact tracking a physical stub and incorporating that into the ticket machine to give a discount is pretty much a non-starter. So that is just an “idea-prototype”.

However, decouple the idea from the stub and make it an electronic token of some kind that can be emailed to multiple people and the more people redeem the coupon ( for a discount ) the more of a distributor credit you get. Sort of an Amazon affiliates program for each movie.

Hook this into movie sites like Fandango and into MySpace
and watch the thing explode as credits are automatically tracked and applied when you purchase your tickets for the next movie.

Now everyone has a motivation to do the thing that will increase audiences. Smart sites will add a rating feedback loop that rates how good a person’s movie recommendations are. So being a promoter of a movie just for credits will get damped out real fast by the first wave of viewers and the guy doesn’t get credit if too many people complain … etc. you see the point.

Good recommenders rise above the noise - creating a long-tailed “Ebert and Roper” with kickbacks.

Mark Cuban, if you need more ideas like these ask Om where to find me :-)

Now if like Dave you just don’t like the theater experience then maybe the credits and discounts can be applied to affiliated entertainment - after all by the time it gets going it’s a currency.

Hey Nitin,

Thanks for clarifying the authorship of the piece ;-)

And you’re spot on when you say… “The issue is not the physical stub but creating an encoding of the movie-going experience that can be virally communicated and that carries a discount.”

I’m digital-to-the-bone… do you really think I would have limited this concept to atom-based stubs? :-)

Thanks for the great comment.

I don’t believe it should be based on physical tickets. The alternative requires an electronic system, but hey, the original idea would need some systems work.

Tickets issued should have printed on them a reasonable length , unique string - something like an MD5 hash of some secret. This code can then be sent via email, SMS, instant message, carrier pigeon, whatever, to someone you’d like to give it to.

Each code can be used once and is invalidated in a centralised database once used at the point of sale. It is then also possible to perform good marketing analysis of the exchange of codes - e.g. do people attending Cinema ‘X’ send their codes more often than people attending Cinema ‘Y’ - is that because they had a better customer experience? etc. etc. etc.

Robert, I like the overall idea and I think Mark should try it at least once. I think it would be better for multilogies (TM) i.e. something that has more than one planned part with a known release schedule (Harry Potter, Pirates, LOTR etc) then get the discount on the subsequent sequel attendance and maybe a seat in a pre-release for the fans.
The real world implementation is difficult, I live in Thailand and here you get a two week window of opportunity, any longer than that and the film is off-circuit.
What you’re basically suggesting is long tail meets cinema.
I have to agree with Michael, for most people the event is as good at home (big TV, home theatre) and the seats are generally more comfortable :)
So maybe the asnwer for Mark is scale down, rather than bring the cinema to the home (DVD etc) bring home to the cinema. Smaller screens of varying sizes depending on number of friends and have a back catalogue of films that people watch to their schedule, Cinema on Demand…

Im reading Mark blog every day. interesting where he get all this great ideas.

I like the “ticket as coupon” idea. Not so sure about the specific details though.

“What about a frequent flyer type of deal, see 5 movies, get the 6th free?”

The major chains do have programs like that already. I’ve got somewhere north of 1000 points on my AMC Moviewatcher card and have earned quite a few free movie tickets (and other stuff) from it.

The one thing that really keeps me and most people I know from the theaters lately isn’t money though. Not directly anyway. It’s all the commercials we’re forced to sit through. If I’m paying more and more for ticket prices, I shouldn’t have to be sitting through 20-30 minutes of commercials. If the theaters cut back on those and/or better yet put some actual programming into their preshows, I’d bet there would be at least a partial upswing.

The idea of giving a discount is hardly likely to make people flock to see a film, however I’m sure jolly nice chaps like Robert would religously save their vouchers for friends.
I think it needs some anti-marketing, instead of these huge media blitzes, putting film imagery on every TV, shop, restaurant etc.
If the studios keep it quiet and seed a few thousand people, who can then invite their friends to see the film (they would still have to pay). No invite, no see! If you have something that is basically crap and overpriced, you need to create exclusivity to sell it at a premium price.
Stop trying to feed the masses, and concentrate on finding the real audience.
more on produktiv.com/pj/ramble.html…

Personally, I go to watch a movie because I WANT to watch it not because there is a discount available on it.
Once I decide to watch, then I may look for discounts.

There are several factors that make people want to go watch a movie, discount on prices may be one of them, but I don’t think it is a major factor.

And If someone thinks they got better things to do than going to a movie, this stub idea is definitely not going to help.

The segment to be targetted is the one who want to watch the movie but instead decide to watch it at home on a DVD.

Why?

Price of the ticket, (Will a $1 or 2 off make a difference) - Nah.

Comfort - Can’t beat the home.
Ambience of the theater - Can’t beat that

and many more,

I guess, what I am saying is make movie going more worthwhile - create a unique experience that is worthy of my time and money.

My .2 c

hello! i am a cinematographer and not too sure of the feasibility of the stub idea. it may work sometime and many-a-times it may not. i may just postpone a movie because i am not getting a stub that discounts. i take discounts for granted. but then again, sometimes I may have too many stubs in my pocket and may decice to watch a movie BECAUSE i am getting a discount…however, as a film maker, I do think some steps need to be taken care of :
1) movies are becoming more and more expensive by the day, especially for younger people. newly married couples, esp those with very young kids, never go to theaters. all such friends of mine havent visited a theater for years
2) the theater going experience must be made more pleasurable. i once went to a PVR theater where they refused to let me in with my laptop case, AFTER i had bought two expensive tickets and refused refund as well, asking me to sell my ticket to whoever i could AFTER 15-20 minutes of the movie having started. (once the same theater refused me because i was carrying a stills camera). Even refreshments are priced to blackmarket levels. Its cheaper to hang around a Mall…I dont go to PVR anymore.
3) Film reviewers should be requested NOT to give ratings to a movie. Its sick. People spend endless amounts of energy and money and emotions making a movie and some reviewer, who are mostly just some passing journo with a JOB to rate movies will use personal subjectivity and will rate a movie as whatever. that discourages people from even TRYING it out. Let the consumers decice. For example, this week, in India, Omkara is rated higher than Lady in the Water, by a particular daily. What gives the writer the right to say that?
4) I think the whole thing is emotional. Give the customers a great emotional experience and they will want to come back again next week…

and of course, keep making great films.. ;-)

Two other things.

1. Put ads on the stubs for related movies/product… this can help offset the cost of the movie discount.

2. Allow people to build referral points. That way them THEMSELVES will get a discount…

I am suggesting a few improvements to the approach -

1) Immediacy - Mobile (I am surprised that you didnt use the mobile ;-) ) - Have a unique number on the stub and at the end of the movie (or interval in some countries) encourage the audience to SMS(text) ” ” to a shortcode (In your example “SMS ‘PoC 8373AUR 13988973434′ to 98234″) . The system then forwords a full message in the lines of “your friend with mobile number recommends that you watch . If you do decide to watch it, show this code - to get X$ off”
2) Sweepstake - Enter the folks who send the sms into a sweepstake (the more friends you forward to, the higher your chances of winning)
Note - You can track redemption patterns (since you have both mobile numbers) much better than a piece of paper passing hands.

Your idea is a solid sales promotion tactic and is worthy of development. However, there is an underlying problem that retards any awfully solid promotional tactic- bad movie.

We all know but rarely expand on this undisputable fact: To be successful you must first fix the product or service.

But I have to say that you have the nucleus of a great idea… which I would only use to add WOM and extra spin to a good or great movie. Nothing helps crap sell!

Although creative, this is a poor idea.

People already recommend great movies without any incentives. Because of the necesity to save the paper, etc. this idea will not increase that behavior noticiably. All it will do is decrease the ticket reciepts on great movies and have no effect on poor movies (people are not all of a sudden going to recommend poor movies to their friends just because you can save a buck or two)

All you are doing is giving someone a discount to incentivise a behavior (recommending a good movie) people already do natually (and for free)

The bottom line with WOM is the same as it will always be: Spend your time creating something worth talking about (cool, uniuqe, fun, etc. ) and poeple will happily do so for free.

I bet a lot of people who wait for the DVD would go see more movies in the theater if they could apply their theater ticket price to a later DVD purchase.

As with rebates, hardly anyone would bother to save their ticket stubs for months, so the actual discount per DVD sold would be much lower. Actually, when you consider the turkey factor (i.e., you see a film in the theater and it’s so bad you don’t want to buy it on DVD, lest it infect your other DVDs with its badness) the average discount would probably fall to a buck or two. Still, it could be an appealing incentive to get more home-viewers to the theater.

nice. Mark Cuban: “if you have any great ideas that will change the economics of xyz, send them to me. I want to hear about it”.

no. send ‘em to me. I don’t have a sports team yet.

Hoping to get a job with a Billionaire!

Hi Mark Cuban,

I did a quick search word search in your movie biz challenge and I was looking for just one word, everyone else seems to miss one key point.

The word I have in mind will definitely get 5 million people in the US every weekend to watch a movie. You will still spend something on advertising but nothing close to 60 million.

The anticipated problem with my idea is that you will have to change a few fundamentals within the movie business and get stakeholders i.e. advertisers to try something new.

The movie theater is on e big TV at the end of the day so why don’t you just treat it like one and reverse the concept by bringing the “Home TV Experience” into the “Movie Theater”.

Basically, HBO brought the Movie Theater Experience in the home and monetized its income along the lines of the Movie Theaters so I propose you bring the Home TV experience into the Movie Theater and adapt your income streams the same way TV does.

In a nutshell,the word is “FREE”- make it free to watch a movie in the theater and sell advertising in each segment at a higher cost to advertisers; a price that allows for a total re-coup of cost of provisioning the movie.

Mr. Cuban, Google et al. changed the advertising business for online advertising it’s now someone else’s turn to change the business of advertising in movie theaters.

As some have said, word of mouth exists already. One problem with this plan is that you can only give your ticket stub to one person — you can’t tell ten people in your office about this awesome movie you saw and give all ten of them a coupon. So the incentive you’ve added is a rather limited incentive, and it would take a long time for it to “snowball.”

Hi there,

If your looking for an automated, hands free way to begin earning bundles of cash 10 minutes from now then head on over to (link)

No one has responded to the “What’s in it for me” query raised by Dave Zatz in the first line of the first response…

The essence of his point is key here…There remains NO incentive for the first exchange from the first user to the second…the most crucial communication point in any viral, networking or WOM model

The simplest way to get a new butt in the seat is to give them something they currently don’t have available. There will always be crying babies, high concession prices and talkers. They need a reason to go that all of the negatives couldn’t overcome. The need to know they are going to experience something that is “worth it”. Saving a buck doesn’t matter. Have you stopped driving your car because gas is over $3/gallon? That’s an excuse people use to not go. But when a huge blockbuster hits the theaters, they go because they can’t stand not to experience the “buzz”. My partners and I have been working on our concept of the perfect movie going “experience” for quite a while. We are looking for investors to help us start a chain that addresses this very problem Mark Cuban asks about. I literally could write a book supporting the psychology, physiology and economics of the movie going experience and when you’ve finished reading it, you’d wish you had a million to invest in the concept.

“It pays to know how a man thinks… it pays better to know how he feels.”

5ms ago i happily divorced , now i need a soulmate . there are several apparently matched men , one of them seems to be more proper , his name mohammed paigah . give me your idea and help me to deside .

well here is the thing if you are making more than one movie then why make people leave the house many people have huge televisions and also an internet connection so why not set up a web site where people go and watch the movie keeping in mind you will have to use a good codec for the video encoding and you will have to have 256bit encryption or higher to keep the pirates away as payment you could have prepaid vouchers like phone companies do and also a credit card option but thatsjust an idea that could possibly make millions and may cut down on the amount of pirates if you like this idea please email me at Adrian_Smith@westnet.com.au kind regards Adrian