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Movie ticket prices have more than doubled in 25 years, but inflation tells another story
The price of just about everything seems to have gone through the roof over the past few years and that is especially true of movie tickets as taking the family to the theater can end up costing an arm, two legs and your right kidney, especially when snacks and drinks are factored in.
Its an undeniable fact that the average cost of movie tickets has continually increased over the decades but its scarcely believable that in the last 25 years, prices have more than doubled. However, when inflation is accounted for, the story of movie ticket prices looks quite different.
How movie ticket prices have increased over the years
Data analysis site The Numbers has published a report examining the average cost of a movie ticket from 1995 up until 2023 and the rise in prices over the years is eye-opening.
Fast-forwarding in four-year intervals, this is how ticket prices have changed:
- 1995 | $4.35
- 1999 | $5.08
- 2003 | $6.03
- 2007 | $6.88
- 2011 | $7.93
- 2015 | $8.43
- 2019 | $9.16
- 2023 | $10.53
In the first year of available data, the average cost of a movie ticket was just $4.35. Meanwhile, 25 years ago in 1999, the price had increased to $5.08 but was still less than half the cost of a ticket today. As of 2023, the average cost of a movie theater ticket is a dizzying $10.53.
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Adjusting for inflation tells a different story
As with box office totals from years gone by, we get a clearer picture of how the cinema industry and ticket prices have evolved when we adjust for inflation using the US Inflation Calculator.
For example, using data from the Motion Picture Association of America in 2017, The Motley Fool reported that a movie ticket in 1967 cost just $1.20 and that in 1987, that price had increased to $3.91.
When inflation is factored in, those ticket prices become $10.95 and $10.49 respectively, which shows that the cost of seeing a movie hasnt actually changed all that much when compared to the strength of the currency and level of inflation at the time.
- 1995 | $8.70
- 1999 | $9.29
- 2003 | $9.99
- 2007 | $10.11
- 2011 | $10.74
- 2015 | $10.84
- 2019 | $10.92
- 2023 | $10.53
When examining the data in The Numbers report, we can see that, when adjusted for inflation, ticket prices in the late 1990s and early 2000s were undeniably cheaper than what they are today, ranging between $8.70 and $9.99.
But after the financial crash and recession of 2008-09, the price of tickets rose quickly and actually became more expensive than they are today when inflation is factored in.
Movie ticket sales have been declining for 20 years
A fascinating piece of data that The Numbers report shows is that after peaking in 2002, the number of movie tickets sold had been steadily decreasing – even before the Covid-19 pandemic – falling from 1.575 billion sales in 2002 to 1.225 billion sales in 2019.
Despite this, thanks to rising ticket prices, the total box office gross had continued to increase, rising from $9.115 billion in 2002 to $11.223 billion in 2019, although thats without factoring in inflation.
The changing habits of film fans are almost certainly due to the increased ability and convenience of watching movies from the comfort of home.
TVs and sound systems have continued to grow in quality and the time between a movies theatrical release and its home is now so short that a film will be available to buy or stream in a matter of weeks.
On top of that, watching a movie at home means you can pause it at your leisure for bathroom breaks, avoid noisy and disruptive audience members and stop you from having to remortgage your house to buy snacks at the theater.
The global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 saw a dramatic shift in the movie industry, with ticket sales falling to just 214 million that year. And while numbers recovered to an extent by 2023, with 849 million ticket sales, thats still 400 million fewer than in 2019.
With ticket prices still rising and streaming movies on the likes of Netflix becoming ever easier, itll be fascinating to see what becomes of the moviegoing experience in the years to come.
