07/18/2026
I Lowered My Prices. Here's Why
A movie theater owner does math, feels bad about it, and fixes it.
By: Brandon Goding
Running a movie theater involves a lot of decisions.
Some are fun, like picking which films to show.
Some are less fun, like pricing.
For a while now, my prices have been twelve dollars for an evening show and eight dollars for a matinee.
No child price. No senior price.
Just two numbers, applied to every human being who walked through the door, regardless of age, height, or ability to see over the seat in front of them.
At the time, it made sense to me. Two rates are simple. Simple is easy. And this business has a way of making you cling to anything easy.
But then I started watching who was actually coming through the door.
A family would walk in.
Two parents. Three kids. And I would watch the total climb in real time, like a gas pump on a cold morning.
Sixty dollars. Before popcorn.
And popcorn, for the record, is not optional. Ask any child.
I kept telling myself the price was fair. That the numbers had to work. That keeping the lights on in a small independent theater in the northernmost corner of Maine is genuinely hard, and it is.
All of that is true.
But somewhere in there I lost the plot.
Because the whole reason I do this is so people in this community can afford to go to the movies.
Not so I can watch families do quiet arithmetic in my lobby and decide maybe not tonight.
So I ran the numbers again.
And I lowered my prices.
Here's where they landed: Adults are now eight dollars. Seniors are seven. Kids are six.
And if your child is two or three years old and content to watch the movie from your lap without claiming a seat of their own, they get in free. That is the going rate for people who cannot yet be trusted with their own armrest.
Matinees are now six dollars for everyone, no matter your age.
And if you're a member, every show is four dollars.
Any movie. Any time. Four dollars.
That is less than a fancy coffee, and the movie lasts considerably longer.
I want to be honest about something. Lowering prices does not automatically fix the math. I still have to keep the lights on. I still have to pay for the films, the popcorn, the heat that this region demands roughly ten months a year.
But I would rather have a full room at a fair price than a half-empty one at a price nobody can stomach.
A movie theater is not really in the business of selling tickets.
It's in the business of giving people somewhere to go.
A dark room. A big screen. Two hours where nobody has to think about anything except whether that character should obviously not open that door.
That's worth protecting.
And it's worth keeping affordable enough that a family of five can walk in, buy the popcorn, and not feel it in their bones on the way home.
So the prices are down. Come see a movie. Bring the kids. We saved you a seat.
