RE:RE:RE:Premium priced productSo here is my big question for Cineplex... If revenues from premium ticket offerings are helping you offset lower attendance than why dont you make every seat in your AVX auditoriums a D-Box seat?Just add $3 to the regular AVX ticket price (matching IMAX price) instead of $8 extra for a D-Box seat?
The way I see it, if people want a premium large format "Out of Home" movie watching experience in Canada, they basically have 2 choices, AVX or IMAX. Both are offered by Cineplex. Right now the Cineplex ticket prices in Toronto for "Fate of the Furious" are:
AVX: $16.50
IMAX: $19.50
AVX/D-Box: $24.50
So why not just match the AVX price with IMAX price and include D-Box for everyone that chooses AVX over IMAX. Currently, there are approximately 450 seats in Toronto's Scotiabank Cineplex AVX auditorium. Only 32 of these are D-Box seats. Because D-Box seats are a bit wider they may only have room for about 350 D-Box seats in total. But still... $3 x 350 = $1050 vs. $8 x 32 = $256. Even after adjusting the premiuim revenue sharing formula it would seem that both Cineplex and D-Box could be way further ahead in a packed theatre by doing this.
Potential Inhibitors: 1) Initial capital expense of doing this across all AVX theatres. 2) Increased cost of power/electricity consumption. 3) Increased maintenance costs. 4) Higher AVX ticket price for everyone becomes a deterrent.
I can see that the first 3 inhibitors are worth considering but not the 4th one. Personally, I've always been a fan of the original 70mm film, large format, taller aspect ratio movies available exclusively in the original IMAX theatres with a custom designed seating and sound geometry. However now that the big exhibitors have all gone digital and many "Converted-movieplex" IMAX auditoriums exist, the distiction between IMAX and AVX is blurring. There are still some IMAX movie sequences filmed with IMAX cameras that jump impressively into a larger aspect ratio, but in general many IMAX movies don't really differ that much from what AVX offers. So if I got D-Box motion in AVX for the same price as IMAX with a boring static seat I'd pick AVX/D-Box every time!!
Maybe Cineplex should just buy D-Box, expand their production facilities and go all-in with D-Box for AVX in Canada, then go global with the same strategy. They could also use the D-Box motion technology for any future VR entertainment offerings. IMAX is already getting in the VR Centre game so Cineplex might want to keep pace. Maybe IMAX should beat Cineplex to the punch and buy D-Box first!