PIRACY, maintenance expenses and ever-increasing energy prices are driving film industry costs through the roof.
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The top price for an ordinary cinema ticket has hit $20 in areas of Sydney with movie-theatres across the nation expected to follow suit, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Average prices are currently sitting around $17 in areas of Canberra and Sydney – with the question facing film-lovers and families not one of whether they want to see a movie, but if they can afford it.
Thankfully, this is not the case for those who choose to support the City’s Lilac City Cinema.
Proprietors Andrew and Amanda Moore told the Post there were no plans to bump up local ticket prices in the foreseeable future.
An increase would go against their business policy, for one, and the slight price increase just wouldn’t make that much of a difference when faced with percentage cuts from distributors.
Ticket prices will remain at their affordable $7 and $8.
But why are our prices at such a low cost compared to neighbouring cities? It’s simple, Mr Moore explained.
To keep costs down, staff at the cinema undertake majority of the maintenance work themselves – from cleaning to making the icecream sold at the candy bar.
“We do everything ourselves.
We make our own popcorn; we make our own ice-cream and do our own cleaning,” he said.
“We just do our best to make sure expenses don’t blow out and that way we can keep our pricing at an affordable level, which is our policy.
“We want to make sure price is not an excuse for not coming and enjoying the entertainment.”
Energy costs are the biggest factor for cinema management, Mr Moore said, with costs averaging out to some $280 per day.
During months where air-conditioning or heating is in high use, bills can rise to $10,000.
“Energy costs are a very big factor, simply because we own the building… but we are able to hold it at a reasonable price just from the fact we do everything ourselves.
“We’re not greedy and we’re not ruthless in regards to our pricing.
Our whole philosophy is if you maintain a good turnover and that maintains a reasonable profit then we can keep doing it. Sure there are some months that are very difficult but there are other months where we bank enough.”
In all their time running the cinema, the Moore’s are only aware of three incidents of piracy.
While the physical action of pirating films is not so common in regional areas, the aftermath of movie theft trickles down through all factions of the industry.
“Piracy really affects the whole industry not just us. If we can’t return money back into making movies, we won’t have an industry in the future and that’s the biggest problem,” Mr Moore said.
Still, they reassured that Goulburn’s ticket prices would remain the same, unless forced by distributors.
“How it works is that we pay a percentage (to the distributors).
So the first week of a film you might be paying 55 per cent - so of our ticket price of $8, 55 per cent of that goes back to them so we see about $3.60 of that,” Mrs Moore said.
If they were to bump ticket prices up to $10, distributors based on that percentage would see $5.50 and only $4.50 would remain with the cinema.
“The small increase we actually see is not worth it. Especially when you consider people might say it’s getting too expensive for them. If we can maintain this momentum we will be fine,” Mr Moore said.