Average Movie Ticket Price Hits All-Time High In U.S. (And We Have ‘Star Wars’ To Blame)
By Angie Han/Jan. 25, 2016 6:00 am EST
The National Association of Theater Owners (via TheWrap) reports that the average price of admission in American cinemas reached a record high of $8.70 in the fourth quarter of 2015. That’s about a 5% increase over the same period last year, when tickets cost an average of $8.30. In all, the mean ticket price for all of 2015 in the U.S. was $8.43 — a 3.1% increase over the previous record of $8.17, set in 2014. Before Q4 2015, Q2 2015 held the record for the highest average ticket price in a quarter.
None of this should be remotely surprising. Heck, the last time we published a story like this, back in July, we predicted we’d be revisiting the subject right about now. Star Wars: The Force Awakens and all of its premium-format screenings were a huge part of what propelled the U.S. box office to hit a record gross of $11 billion last year.
But revenues and ticket prices are one story; attendance is another. If we take the yearly gross and divide it by the yearly average ticket price, we get a rough estimate of how many given people actually bought a ticket in a given year. And by that calculation, fewer tickets were sold in 2015 than in 2013, the previous record holder for annual revenue. Apparently, all the Star Wars nostalgia in the world can’t make up for the fact that a lot of people would still really rather stay at home and marathon Making a Murderer.
