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- AMC Theatres isn't going ahead with its plan to charge more for the best seats at the movie theater.
- The proposal irked moviegoers and movie stars when it was announced in February.
- After trials at select locations, the chain scrapped the plan to ensure "its ticket prices stay competitive."
America's biggest theater chain backtracked Thursday on its plan to charge moviegoers extra depending on where they sit — so go ahead and get the best seats in the house for that "Barbie"-"Oppenheimer" double feature.
Moviegoers, and even some celebrities, balked at AMC Theatres' initial proposal to hike ticket prices for the most popular seats in the cinema. AMC's unpopular tiered-pricing plan would have raised costs for middle seats and charged less for seats in the front row. The price differences amounted to $1 or $2, The New York Times reported.
AMC announced its plans to implement the program, dubbed Sightline, at its US and Canada locations in February.
But trial runs at select theaters didn't yield the desired results. The discounted tickets in the front row didn't attract more people to the movies, the company said, and 25% of those who would typically sit in the more expensive seats didn't spring for them due to the upcharge.
"To ensure its ticket prices stay competitive, Sightline at AMC will not continue at the current pilot locations once the test ends in the coming weeks, and the program will not roll out nationwide," the company said in a press release.
Theater companies like AMC have been searching for new strategies to claw back some of the revenue they've lost since the onset of the pandemic upended movie-going habits and the rise of steaming services brought films to the fingertips of millions.
The US box office dropped from $11.3 billion in 2019 to just $7.3 billion in 2022, according to Box Office Mojo. Over 2,000 screens of the more than 41,000 in the US closed between 2019 and 2022, according to the National Association of Theater Owners.
Some theater chains have struggled to stay afloat. Cineworld, the theater giant that owns Regal Cinemas, filed for bankruptcy last September and looked to close 130 of its locations nationwide during the process.
Even AMC teetered on the cusp of bankruptcy in 2021 before it raised $917 million via debt and equity to save itself. Today, AMC still owns over 7,700 screens and nearly 600 locations in the US, topping both categories nationwide, according to data from the National Association of Theater Owners.
The company reported a 21.5% increase in revenue for the first quarter of this year.
CEO Adam Aron said he was optimistic that the results were "just the tip of the iceberg for what's to come in the remainder of the year" in a press release at the time. But he added that the company has been "very transparent that it will take a few more years for the industry box office to return near to pre-pandemic levels."
The domestic box office has grossed just over $5 billion in 2023 to date, per Box Office Mojo.
But according to the media analytics firm Comscore, data from the first half of the year shows the domestic box office is still underperforming when compared to prepandemic totals, CNBC reported.
The hope is that this weekend's blockbusters "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" can help boost the full-year total and keep the movie world — and the Barbie world — afloat.