Cinemark Takes Advantage of Christmas Moviegoers
For many people, going to the movies on Christmas is a tradition. In my case, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a tradition, but I can remember going to the movies the past 2 or 3 years on Christmas, and a few random Christmas watchings in other years gone by.
Last night was no exception as I wanted to go see National Treasure: Book of Secrets at the Movies 12 theater complex in Ames, Iowa. This is a complex run by Cinemark (the best seat in town, which features a furry character as its mascot…) and is really the only complex for new movies in town, except for the “college” theater that has the new art films. The Movies 12 has begun a program that a lot of Cinemark theaters have been doing - offering one discounted night a week where the matinee price is the price for a ticket all day.
The Movies 12 in Ames price happened to be $5 for shows all day on… you guessed it… Tuesdays.
They even had a press release
So when I went to get my ticket, imagine my surprise when it was $6.75 - the normal price. I looked up at the sign in the little climate controlled booth, saw the Tuesday verbage on the sign, shook my head in disbelief, and paid the $6.75.
I’m wondering if it is worth writing a letter to the editor in the local newspaper describing the situation. How about “local business takes advantage of Christmas - raises rates.” It certainly has me irritated that Cinemark took advantage of people’s Christmas traditions last night, but in the end, what can I do?
Except blog about it.
Technorati Tags: Cinemark, Christmas, movies
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Comments
I think it’s pretty greedy to charge normal prices on Christmas, when normally that day would be discounted. Especially since there was no signage up at the location that said so.
I sent an email to Cinemark Corporate and received this response…
I’m sorry we were unable to have Bargain prices on Christmas evening, but all Cinemarks were informed on 12/19/07 that Bargain Tuesday would not apply to major holidays. This was not a local decision, it was a corporate decision for the entire company. This is also noted on the http://www.cinemark.com website at the top of the listing for Movies 12 in the pricing section.
Please be aware that if you attend a movie on New Years day, there will not be Bargain prices on that day either. Bargain Tuesday will resume on 1/8/08.
As always, if you attend any movie before 6pm, all prices are $5.00 per person (bargain prices).
Policy or not, if it happened to fall on a Tuesday, the honorable thing would have been to grant the Tuesday price.
It’s no different than the way retail stores up prices just before christmas, or how their sales end just before you need them, and start up again right after christmas. Holidays are the absolute busiest time of the year for movie theatres and they’ve always been treated as ‘weekends’, no matter what day of the week the holiday might fall on. If their prices were higher than normal, then I’d say yes, they’re taking advantage of it. But if the prices are the same as their normal days, I hardly think that constitutes taking advantage of the holiday.