Here's Why You'll Pay More To See The Batman At Some Theaters
Robert Pattinson takes on an iconic superhero role in "The Batman," DC Films' first movie featuring the character since Ben Affleck portrayed Bruce Wayne in "Justice League" and Batman's first solo film since Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" in 2012. The new movie, written and directed by Matt Reeves, is said to be darker than previous iterations of the character, with early reviews pointing to David Fincher detective movies like "Se7en" and "Zodiac" as films of comparison (via CNET).
"The Batman" follows Pattinson's Bruce Wayne at an early stage in his career fighting Gotham's criminal underbelly, tackling multiple antagonists at once in the new movie. Paul Dano portrays the Riddler, Zoë Kravitz plays Catwoman, Colin Farrell plays the Penguin, and John Turturro brings Carmine Falcone back to the big screen for a group of formidable enemies. The film's release on March 4 comes just as Hollywood is kicking into high gear for the year: Awards season for the film industry's 2021 slate ends with the Academy Awards on March 27, and several other major releases are set to follow "The Batman" into theaters as spring rings in blockbuster movie season.
The movie theater industry is still trying to dig its way out of an economic freefall that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated; a significant number of would-be moviegoers have still not yet returned to seeing movies in theaters (via Variety). As a result, some "Batman" fans may notice slightly higher ticket prices for "The Batman" while the industry tries to adjust.
AMC Theatres is rolling out a new strategy called variable pricing for The Batman
AMC Theatres is using the theatrical release of "The Batman" to test out a new strategy that it hopes will help the movie theater industry rebound. According to Entertainment Weekly, this variable pricing strategy makes it so that a ticket for one adult to see "The Batman" in a Los Angeles movie theater currently costs about $1.50 more than a ticket to see another movie at the same venue. AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron noted to EW that while "The Batman" is the starting point for the company's variable pricing method in the United States, AMC has been operating this way in Europe for years now. He compared the strategy to how tickets are sold for sporting events and concerts; the best seats and most highly anticipated acts cost more money to see.
It's not yet clear whether other major American movie theater chains will adopt variable pricing strategies similar to AMC's in 2022 as well. EW also reported that Cinemark, which operates 321 theaters and 4,408 screens across the U.S., is exploring changing its pricing for film screenings depending on a wide variety of factors (via Cinemark). If theater chains are looking for popular blockbuster film releases to test out the strategy, "The Batman" is a great place to start. According to Variety, Warner Bros. is expecting its major release to prove highly popular and make over $100 million during its opening weekend.