Getting Bigger at the Box Office; A 25-Cent Increase Brings Ticket Prices to $7.25 at Many Area Theaters
Old shows like "Maverick" and "The Flintstones" may be pulling customers into movie theaters this summer, but there's nothing nostalgic about ticket prices.</br></br>Cineplex Odeon Corp., the largest operator of movie theaters in the Washington area with 29 theaters and 125 screens, said it has increased prices by 25 cents. That brings the cost of a movie to $7.25 in the District, where Cineplex operates 13 out of 17 movie theaters, and to $6.75 at most suburban theaters.</br></br>Sony Theaters Management Corp., which operates Loews Theaters, said it has raised prices by the same amount at four of the eight theaters it operates in the Washington area. The increases took effect at the end of last month.</br></br>The AMC movie chain increased prices by a quarter, to $6.75, at its Union Station theater, the only one it operates in the District. But prices were unchanged or reduced at its other complexes in the area. The price dropped a quarter at its multiscreen complex at Potomac Mills.</br></br>Movie theater operators generally review their prices right before the summer and Christmas, their two strongest seasons. When they did this year, what they saw convinced them that consumers would continue to come even at higher prices, industry executives said.