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Vafrow's avatar

As a Canadian, this doesn't impact me, but our main theatre chain up here made a similarly unpopular decision last year to add a service fee to any online orders made to each ticket. It was met with similar comments by people that it was going to sink their business, and they'll regret it. Six months later, people stopped talking about it, and the chain posted it's financial results today with a big turnaround from the prior year (even though domestic box office in that period was down year over year). This will be a little different, because execution has different challenges, and AMC doesn't habe the best track record, but, I think the issue is overblown. Most people will shrug and buy whatever seats work for themselves and not pay it much thought.

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David Cho's avatar

I think you have a lot of fair points, but the two biggest things I think are worth bringing up is: 1) I think AMC does do a pretty good job, at least in New York, of investing in the experience of going to the movies (better seats, reliably bright screens, etc.) and 2) I'm not sure it's fair to assume this exercise is one of necessarily growing profits solely out of greed (obviously greed has a lot to do with it), but rather an attempt figuring out a business model that allows them to stay afloat.

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