AMC CEO Adam Aron Defends New “Sightline” Ticket Prices, Acknowledges “Significant Change in Status Quo for American Moviegoers.”

AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron said the new Sightline ticket pricing system, which the chain is piloting in three markets, has the potential to expand the cinema market and stave off future price increases.

“We are in times of inflation, and times of inflation drive up costs,” he said. “Under the industry’s pre-Sightline structure, the only choice we had if we wanted to raise the price in a theater was to raise the price of all the seats.” With Sightline: “If we feel the need, raise the prices to raise , we might just do it in the most popular seats in an auditorium and actually hold the line and not raise prices in other seats. So this is a way to increase the price now, but to prevent a price increase later.”

“I look at ‘heat maps’ [meaning] which seats are reserved for a particular film, and no one sits in the front row. It could be opening night for war of stars, rows three to 18 are full, row one is empty. There’s a chance that by lowering the price up front, we can expand the movie market to more value-conscious consumers,” he said during a phone call after AMC’s fourth-quarter financial report.

The company announced earlier this month – amid much fanfare – that seats in the auditorium will be classified as Value Sightline (lower price), Standard Sightline (traditional price) and Preferred Sightline (higher price). It will be tested in New York and Chicago, as well as in Kansas City, where AMC is headquartered, before rolling out nationwide later this year for the initiative, which actor Elijah Wood says upsets a “sacred democratic space.” “for all.”

Aron noted that the strategy is consistent with how other operators price their seats for live theater, concerts and sporting events, and how AMC has been pricing cinema tickets in Europe for years.

“However, we understand that this represents a significant change in the status quo for American moviegoers. So we will search [their reaction] Very close [and] will tell you in future discussions what we saw in the test. We look forward to this thing working well for our movie audience and for AMC,” he said.

The benefits for AMC are clear: it hopes to fill less desirable seats, get more for more desirable seats and draw people into its AMC Stubs loyalty program, whose A-list members don’t pay additional fees for “premium” seats billed in .

Everything helps. The box office is in the midst of a recovery that is expected to finally pick up steam this year, but it’s been a stroke and AMC is looking for cash to pay down debt or buy more theaters. Aron warned that without the possibility to raise cash, new successes in the future could “fly away”. The company faces a majority shareholder vote on March 14 to start the process, as well as several court cases aimed at stopping it.