2023-06-25 19:00:15
Inflation also hits the cinema. The average ticket price is 7.20 euros in 2022, an increase of 2.2% in one year, and 6% compared to 2019. And as soon as the rooms are modernized, the prices rise.
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“Our visitors are willing to pay more for more experience. The satisfaction of our customers, in relation to the price, is higher in our premium rooms than in our standard rooms”notes Eddy Duquenne, general manager of Kinepolis, who charges an extra 2 or 3 euros for a comfort space « cosy seat », even 6 or 7 euros more for a session in 4DX (armchairs moving with the action of the film) or Imax 3D (large screen and in relief). This amounts to nearly 20 euros for a premium cinema ticket.
This is the case at Kinepolis in Nîmes (18.70 euros in 4DX) or Pathé Parnasse (18.50 euros, offering wider and reclining seats, laser projection and Dolby Atmos sound). “On the most important films, one in three admissions is made in one of our 70 French premium cinemas and these tickets are systematically the first to be sold. This clearly demonstrates the growing appetite of the French for these formats.”, underlines Jérôme Seydoux, co-president of the Pathé group. But at this price, is the dark room worth the candle?
Projection from 20 or 30 euros
Comfort and technology do increase the average price of the sessions: according to the National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC), it was necessary to pay an average of 14.14 euros in 2022 (+ 3.2% increase in one year) to go to a premium room in France. “The number of tickets sold between 20 and 30 euros is multiplied by 2.7 compared to 2021, to reach 1 million admissions in 2022”indicates the CNC.
With record prices, doesn’t French cinema give the image of a luxury product? When Netflix allows – for 5.99 to 17.99 euros per month – access to a catalog of more than 6,900 titles to date, screening at 20 or 30 euros becomes unaffordable. According to a study with the explicit title – “Why do the French go to the cinema less often? » – and published in May 2022 by the CNC, the second reason given by spectators stating that they go there less often or not at all is: “The price of the cinema ticket is too expensive. »
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Although still marginal, the “non-film” part of this escalation. It concerns sessions where recordings of operas, concerts, shows or sports are broadcast. Admission can sometimes climb to 30 euros. For example, tickets for the “Indochine – Central Tour” concert, best non-film performance in 2022, were sold for 22 euros by Pathé. Thus, in 2022, 500,000 admissions (for 9.3 million euros in revenue) were not for films. It’s not much… but the number of visitors has quadrupled in one year.
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