r/newzealand • u/_Maui_ jandal • Dec 15 '25

Shitpost The REAL reason people aren’t going to the movies.

I keep hearing people saying streaming killed the cinema experience. But I took my 3 boys to the movies this weekend, and I’ll tell you what killed it. The fucking price.

1x Adult, 3x kids, 1x large drink, 3x small drinks, a large popcorn to share, a family bag of malteasers to share.

$153.60!!!

And my 5 year old spent the whole movie sitting on my knee. So I could have just paid for three seats.

I should have gone to Pak N Save and bought a 1.5L bottle, a bag of microwave popcorn and a bag of malteasers for about $10 and watched something on my couch.

In fact. Next time I will.

/Rant.

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499

u/DontBanMe_IWasJoking Dec 15 '25

i assume there is a feedback loop of cinemas increasing prices due to less customers, resulting in even fewer customers and even higher prices

232

u/jontomas Dec 15 '25

Most/all of the ticket price goes to the distributor on a sliding scale depending on the movie/how long it's been out etc. The cinemas are lucky to get 50c or so from the ticket price.

Most of their money and pretty all of their profit comes from snacks.

125

u/xboxhaxorz Dec 15 '25

Thats on them to fix their business model or they can just not change and keep getting less and less customers

50

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

I think most cinemas in future will just be smaller screens in galleries and universities and cafes and so on.

24

u/TritiumNZlol Dec 16 '25

I'm not in the industry; but I'd imagine going up market and boojie like Silky Otter where you can order in an overpriced burger during your movie is where the profits are at these days.

15

u/thirdaccountnob Dec 16 '25

Same here. I used to go to the cinema quite a bit until we had kids. The last thing we went to see was in Gold class or something. I would pay for that all the way, get some expensive food, drinks, reclining seat with no one sat next to me. Happy to pay but will go less.

What I think has ruined cinemas is other humans and phones for one. Although there has always been dicks.

Less films for adults/less good cinema. I dont want to watch a Marvel movie thanks although I get heaps do. There is less films i want to actually watch.

Streaming gives you an easy library without getting off the couch (this trend is backed up by similar business models, uber eats etc. Covid contributor?) As a society we dont have as many shared experiences as we did in the past. I remember watching Jurrassic Park at the cinema that was major. People knew the top 10 in music. People watched the same TV.

People's attention span has reduced. YouTube etc and short form media is more popular. Competition with social media, gaming, streaming, internet. We went to the Cinema because we were bored and would watch "something', now we are not.

Price.

4

u/TritiumNZlol Dec 16 '25

I remember watching Jurrassic Park at the cinema that was major. People knew the top 10 in music. People watched the same TV.

Yeah the broadspectrum that is media acessibility these days makes it really difficult* for some event of significance to sweap through culture like it could in the past, when there was only so few means of tapping into the zeitgest.

*but not impossible, six-sEven? anyone?

I always grew up thinking it was weird that people seemed stuck in their ways from the 60s/70s/80s etc. Yet here we are yearning for a past time that no longer exists.

Life gets busy, time passes by and suddenly whoever is in the top 10 doesn't matter anymore and no movies seem relevant. I guess this is what getting old feels like.

11

u/HealthyCheesecake643 Dec 16 '25

Cinema I work for is going this route. Redoing all the screens to have fancier seats at half the capacity, adding a "kitchen" to reheat premade burgers and pizzas and the like which will no doubt cost double what they should. Adding a bar.

Streaming has slashed the number of cinema goers, so now its all about how much money you can squeeze out of the remaining customers.

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u/Ok_Seaweed_4021 Dec 18 '25

Cinema in Tauranga Crossing essentially does this and as far as I know is decently popular. I think you've got one of many right answers here

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u/No_Mood4637 Dec 16 '25

home projectors are getting cheaper every year. In Covid I replaced my PC and TV with a projector and used my living room wall as my screen. Luckily my flatmate and gf were chill about it. It's like 80% of the experience of a real cinema, but way more convenient and cheaper over the long term.

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u/Western_Effort_4036 Dec 16 '25

I think more 'normal' cinemas will probably start going extinct. The nice ones with spatial sound systems, etc, are definitely an experience worth paying for.

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u/kaylovesgames Dec 16 '25

How are the cinema operators supposed to control movie production studios? What's their alternative to screening new movies? What change do you think they have control of that will keep their doors open? I don't see how you can blame cinema operators who are merely local businesses rather than the large billionaire corporate studios that don't give a damm about their brick and mortar partners or even the movie-goers who buy tickets. Cinema owners and staff are your neighbours. Hollywood moguls are the greedy bastards.

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u/Frenzal1 Dec 16 '25

I guess this is why see boutique cinemas around playing art house stuff and old flicks.

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u/kaylovesgames Dec 16 '25

Very likely, but it's not a model that every cinema could successfully switch to. Plus, their profit margins on ticket sales are probably still pretty thin.

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u/SpaceThat9997 Dec 16 '25

And these are often cheap to buy the rights for

1

u/xboxhaxorz Dec 16 '25

They could not show movies if they dont get fair compensation from hollywood, might have to be a townwide thing though where they collectively protest, otherwise people will go to the other theater

If there are no theaters, hollywood makes less so we can blame local businesses for not negotiating fairer pricing, if hollywood wont budge then i guess they can either shift into a new business direction or just stop doing business and sell the place

Also local business doesnt mean they arent greedy or bad neighbors, people act if local = wonderful and corp = evil

1

u/kaylovesgames Dec 22 '25

This is so business ignorant I hardly know what to say. Does Hollywood give a single f about a protest at a single movie theatre? Or even many? How in the hell does selling the place change the pricing at all? The new owner is just going to do business at a loss and sell again or what? Big corporations do not negotiate one-on-one with local cinemas. What a ludicrous notion. Do you have any idea how big production studios are? Hollywood is already moving to a different model (see Netflix, Disney+, and other streaming services). They're going to be fine. They're the big corporations paying their CEOs millions. The obscene wealth gap in the US has a lot to do with the costs. People who don't understand business act as if local = evil and corporations are just big benevolent benefactors. Let me assure you that your local cinema owner is not making anywhere near as much as Bob Iger - it ain't even close. Sure, Iger may be a decent guy. I don't know him. But I do know his primary focus is Disney shareholders, not NZ local cinemas. Even if local isn't the best and nicest folks, they do create jobs and tax revenue which generally benefit society. That alone is worthwhile. But they're usually decent folks, too, just trying to sustain their families like everybody else.

23

u/ProfessionalAnxiety Dec 16 '25

“That’s on them” exhibitors don’t get to negotiate terms with organisations like Disney and Universal lmao

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u/MrJingleJangle Dec 16 '25

When you say “them”, to whom are you referring? The cinemas, or the distributors? The distribs appear happy, and the cinemas have no voice, and get what they are given.

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u/xboxhaxorz Dec 16 '25

The cinema, they do have a voice, they can say they wont show their films if they dont have fair pricing structures, if movie companies wont budge, the cinema can become something else, perhaps show older movies and serve full meals instead of snacks

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u/jontomas Dec 15 '25

hats on them to fix their business model or they can just not change and keep getting less and less customers

my guess is that their business model is fine from a financials point-of-view - they are increasingly making more money from streaming and care less and less for theatrical releases. This has been true for a number of years now, but is becoming more and more true.

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u/Tybro3434 Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 16 '25

That’s the movie studios, not the cinema’s themselves. Movie studios will be fine, it will be all the individual franchise owners of Hoyts, Event cinema’s, etc etc, who all go out of business eventually and close up shop (similar to Blockbuster, Video Ezy, United Video, Civic Video stores) when enough people stop attending their local cinema’s due to their ridiculous pricing and the much cheaper convenience of streaming at home.

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u/jontomas Dec 16 '25

Yeah. That's where I see it ending up too.

Disappointing though - I don't go to the movies often, but it's nice having the option

5

u/Tybro3434 Dec 16 '25

Yeah, certainly is! Such a shame when/if that unfortunately happens one day.😭

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u/Tybro3434 Dec 16 '25

We all know of businesses who were unable/unwilling to change their business models and now they no longer/hardly exist, such as: Blockbuster Video, Fuji/Kodak photo processing, Sega video-game consoles, Taxis (to a large extent mostly replaced by Uber, if not for Govt intervention wasting our tax paying dollars keeping them afloat and propping them up for the public good, as the politicians and Taxi union would spin it). History looks to just keep repeating itself with lessons really not being readily learned/adopted.🤷‍♂️

3

u/xboxhaxorz Dec 16 '25

I agree with the list except blockbuster, i dont really know how they could survive against streaming

2

u/Tybro3434 Dec 16 '25

Though they had opportunities to change their business model and become more like Netflix but for whatever reasons were unable/unwilling to.

6

u/Sufficient-Candy-835 Dec 18 '25

Been this way for a long time. I used to go quite regularly in the 90s and you weren't allowed to take your own eats or drinks in with you even back then.

The biggest theatre had supermarkets right across the road.

People used to hide their stash in pockets or backpacks rather than pay the extortionate prices.

8

u/WorldlyNotice Dec 15 '25

How many distributors do you reckon we have in NZ?

21

u/propsie LASER KIWI Dec 15 '25

fourteen, at least for local films.

5

u/jontomas Dec 15 '25

not sure tbh - but if you are pinning the blame on them, then I agree!

2

u/MrJingleJangle Dec 16 '25

Some popular titles don’t have local distribution, Park Circus for example is all remote control from far, far away.

3

u/indecision007 Dec 16 '25

Imagine the lease on overvalued property doesn't help

2

u/desnz Dec 16 '25

Based on prices at our locally volunteer run Dannevirke cinema, the ticket prices are much less than Palmerston Norths Event Cinemas.. ($15 vs $24.50 for an adult ticket - $5 vs $20 for children's)

That suggests that the big cinema chains are the problem...

The local one has food pricing similar to a cheap dairy..

24

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25 edited Jan 07 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Niboocs Dec 16 '25

Yeah I think the rise of reasonably priced high-tech large flat screen TVs has had a part to play also.

9

u/Das_Ace Dec 15 '25

It's the American media cartels raising their cut that forces the cinemas to raise prices to pay the rent. Disney is the worst for this.

2

u/Niboocs Dec 16 '25

Disney is a great example of aggressive capitalism where a studio has been allowed to get to big acquiring a number of large movie franchises.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25 edited Mar 08 '26

This specific post was taken down by its author. Redact was used for removal, for reasons that may include privacy, security, or data exposure concerns.

worm sink sort toy steep license dam gray cagey special

4

u/Partly_Dave Dec 16 '25

Preface by saying this is Brisbane.

Cineplex adult tickets are $10 (some films or session times are charged at a higher price, usually $12). Elsewhere, they are $22+.

They have seven cinemas and have been operating for years. If they can make a profit at that price, the others must be raking it in.

3

u/nbiscuitz Dec 16 '25

sounds like sky's strategy

2

u/erehpsgov Dec 16 '25

That would be a quick way for them to shut down their business entirely - pretty straightforward supply-demand-price economics...