The “Dollar” Theater Closes - An Economic Sign?
We have, or had, down the street from us a theater that ran movies that were a few months old and admission to them was $1 per person. In years past in the summer, when my older son was off from school, sometimes when the weather outside felt unbearably hot we would go to the dollar theater in the middle of the day for a fun treat.
But no more, for last week the dollar theater here closed its doors for good, citing economic problems as the cause.
And it makes me wonder - is this a sign of our current economic state that a theater that only charges a dollar for admission went out of business? Is it that they couldn’t afford to pay their expenses with such a small admission price, or that less people were going out to the dollar theater because of constraints on their budget? Are movie theaters in general doing poorly? The regular-priced theater here is still open and the parking lot seems crowded when I drive by it on my way home from work each day. But I haven’t done any kind of statistical analysis of it, or heard anything in the local news about the regular-priced theater. It could be doing poorly as well for all I know.
For some reason, finding out the dollar theater is closing just hit me in a new way about the state of the economy. And, I’ll have to find other cheap or free entertainment on really hot summer days this year…
How bad are things, really, and is there any sign they will get better anytime soon other than wishful thinking?
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February 12th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Wow! A dollar? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a movie theatre that charged admission that low - not even from my grandmother (although she would say they were too poor to go to the movies, I’m sure). You’ve been really lucky. We have a movie theatre that charges $5 a show to see movies a few months old and I thought that was quite a bargain. Of course, the Canadian dollar is a bit lower, but still…
February 12th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
That’s the saddest thing I’ve heard since the drive-in movie theaters in my hometown were shut down to make way for new condos. I feel for your loss.
I love dollar theaters! Now you’ve got me worried about the very few I know about!
February 12th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
The $1 theater I used to love went the way of other low coast entertainment back in the late 90’s.
One of our local library branches has family movies on a regular basis. Maybe yours does too.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
That’s interesting because whenever I drive by the regular theaters the parking lot are packed. Perhaps frugal people are the one who frequent dollar theaters and they’re all trying to scale back even more to bolster their emergency funds.
We used to have a .50 theater when I was in college (12 years ago), we loved it!
February 12th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
What kind of movies were played there? What was their cost on refreshments and such? Overhead must have been expensive.
I would have thought a place like that would have been booming. Fast food places are increasing in business because they are cheaper that your standard Applebee’s, Chili’s, and Outback flare.
February 13th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Traditionally the movies theaters are one of the things that do well in a downturn of the economy. Has to do with escaping reality for a little while. But I must say that I can’t imagine being able to pay all the bills on $1 admission prices. The regular movies will do just fine during this.
(Even in China when hundreds of thousands were starving to death the theaters were still full. Weird.
February 13th, 2009 at 4:11 am
All theaters around here charge 10.50, more for films over 2 hours. My wife took our kids and a few of their friends to a film the other day and with 2 buckets of popcorn, it was 70 bucks for one adult and six children on a “special” family price. Hard to cut back on this much though as we only go to movies twice a year as it is.
I remember growing up in Canada and going to a triple feature on a Saturday afternoon for 75 cents in 1973. Normally, it was 50 cents for one movie.
February 13th, 2009 at 6:25 am
Omg, $70 for a movie? No wonder the attendance has been decreasing over the years. We go maybe once a year as we 3 small kids.
That price is in my future with 3 little ones.
February 13th, 2009 at 8:22 am
I’ve always heard that the concession stand is where theaters really make their money and I imagine that is especially true at the $1 theater. My guess is that while people might be willing to lay down $1 for the movie, they have probably said no to the snacks at the concession stand therefore causing the economic problem for the theater.
February 13th, 2009 at 11:23 am
At theaters its all about the refreshments. At the $2.50 theatre in my hometown, you actually buy your tickets AT the concession stand. So you have no choice but think about it.
February 13th, 2009 at 11:44 am
A buck? Gosh. That’s unheard-of around here. I’d probably go to more movies if that’s all it cost to get in.
Truth to tell, though… If you’re a cheapskate who’s willing to wait a few months to see the Hottest New Film so you can get in for a dollar, you’re probably not going to stuff yourself at the concession stand. You might even (yipes!) sneak in some pop and a bag of popcorn on the bottom of your purse.
If they closed because they were going under (as opposed to “the owners wanted to retire”), it probably was because they couldn’t sell enough outrageously overpriced junk food to pay the overhead.
Drive-ins. Gosh, those were the good old days!
February 13th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
I haven’t seen a dollar theater is a long time (we have the $4 matinee places that I love since they run pretty recent movies).
February 13th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Theaters make most of their profits on concessions–so at the 1.00 theater, the chances are those buying tickets were less likely to shell out 3.00 for a candy or soda. That’s probably what drove them under. At the regular theaters, most of their ticket profits are sent to the movie studios–they keep a small fraction of tickets sold.
There isn’t a $1 theater, but there is a $3 theater and I’ve gone their a couple times. I admit, even though I am saving money everywhere else, I go to the movies. And the movie theaters are still doing really well in this recession. I plan to see Confessions of a Shopaholic tonight–ironic huh.
February 17th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Our local dollar theater (where prices are actually closer to $2, unless it’s family night) is doing very well. I keep hear of people going only to find the movie they wanted to see was sold out.