I went to the cinema with friends last week and the attendant smiled and asked for $68 for the four of us. That’s $17 per ticket. Inside the cinema there was myself, my three other friends and a solo guy way up the back looking suspiciously like he was enjoying the sight of Ms Heigl on the big screen a bit too much. My point is that if tickets have now increased to $17 per ticket, and that empty cinema is anything to go by – we are in for a rude awakening – and that’s not even counting the solo man.
The Australian movie making industry and cinema going audience have some major challenges ahead. Traditionally there has been only an 18 per cent rise in cinema ticket prices and fees since 1988, fairly small considering the 293 per cent increase in TV subscription fees. In 1905 you could buy a cinema ticket for 5 cents. Today, in Australia a general admission ticket is $17.00 per person, compared to the States where an average ticket price last year was $7.18.
Yes, in Australia better wages are paid to our ushers and ticket sales staff and there are great distances that the film needs to be transported, but ultimately there outlays are hugely disproportionate to the pricing.
The reality is that the regular cinema going punter has cut back his/her expenditure already due to the economic downturn, pile on the already declining rates of cinema attendance and now the huge price increase, we are going to see far reaching consequences.
Supporters of the price increase say that it won’t affect movies being made in Australia because 3/4 of all film finance in Australia comes from government funding. But it does affect how or if Australians go to see the movies – and that affects everything. Our culture of cinema has picked up a lot especially in the last ten years as Australian actors and actresses have made such an impact on American and other international audiences. As a result we are just now building a healthy pride for our industry, a pride not seen since The Man From Snowy River days – but how will this new price increase affect this carefully built pride?
Another factor affecting cinema attendance is the healthy Australian TV marketplace. A few nights ago I had the pleasure of working on Underbelly. Underbelly is Australia’s highest grossing TV show and with new additions like that as well as the aussie stable of Home and Away and Neighbours still going strong internationally, the TV industry is healthy, viable and pulling audiences away from the cinemas and bringing them back home. It’s an absolute pleasure to see the Australian TV marketplace being in the state it is, but I would like to see that happening in tandem with the cinema industry.
Cinema is not just a place to lose some hours, not just a place for fantasy and entertainment, it’s an important discussion on how we choose to identify ourselves, what our culture is, what our heritage is. It’s a place of learning.
And with prices this high, we are not only excluding students, the elderly and the low income earners, but the middle class will feel the pinch as well. So if people can only afford to see a few movies a year, will they be the overly advertised foreign blockbusters and if so will we lose that all important discussion about our national heritage, our past, present and future as Australians? Will Aussie films go the way of the Dodo bird? Will our hotbed of talent have to leave the sun burnt shores of this country to gain employment overseas? How will it affect the current filmmakers and importantly, the up and coming ones?
I guess we will have to wait and see how the ticket price increase will affect our precious industry but I encourage you all to write into your local megaplex chain with your concerns and to frequent the independent cinemas that have still managed to keep the prices low. And if you see solo man sitting up the back, run the other way.
