Let’s Fix What’s Not Working in Theatrical

Edited by Rachael Garel

We’re all aware that the theatrical industry has yet to return to pre-COVID levels. For years now, we’ve been told the answer is more marketing. More trailers, more ads, more merch, more posters, more. More. MORE. And don’t get us wrong, we love a great campaign. (Did you see Western Film Services at CinemaCon? We were everywhere!) Marketing is key. If people don’t know what you’re selling, they can’t buy it. But somewhere along the way, marketing stopped being part of the solution and started being treated like the proverbial Windex. Ticket sales down? Concessions in a slump? Put some marketing on it!

However, like most worthwhile things in life, the answer isn’t as simple as one solution. To bring audiences back in a meaningful, lasting way, we have to take an honest look at how the business itself is structured. Not just how we sell movies, but how we present them, price them, and experience them. Real growth is going to come from expanding our scope beyond marketing and giving both exhibitors and audiences that something more. More flexibility. More intention. More reasons to come back. On that note, we humbly present:

Our Five Step Plan for World (Box Office) Domination

1. Eliminate Per Cap Minimums

Per cap minimums sound perfectly reasonable…until they start shaping behind the scenes decisions. In practice, they can really work against operators and create an artificial pressure on ticket pricing that often doesn’t reflect audience demand. Instead of responding to their ticket holders, theaters can find themselves structuring around a rigid per cap minimum, and that rarely leads to the best outcome for them or their guests. 

When that pressure is removed, ticketing decisions can move in sync with demand. Exhibitors can price in a way that fits the ever-changing landscape of their community, try ideas that bring people in on slower days, and create entry points that feel welcoming instead of prohibitive. The result is simple: more seats filled when it matters, more guests through the door, and stronger attendance overall. 

At the end of the day, the goal of our industry hasn’t changed. Fill the seats. The more freedom theaters have to adjust ticket prices to meet that goal, the better it works for everyone, top to bottom.

2. Reset Ticket and Concession Pricing

This is the part no one loves to talk about. Costs are up across the board. Labor, supplies, utilities. Asking operators to lower prices in that environment feels counterintuitive at best and reckless at worst. 

But audiences are feeling that same squeeze. When everyday life gets more expensive, entertainment is one of the first things people cut. Not because they don’t want it, but because it stops feeling like a justifiable spend.

That’s where the opportunity is. When pricing feels like a value, the entire equation changes. A night at the movies becomes an easy “yes” again. Not a splurge. Not a debate. Just an affordable two-hour escape from the rest of the world, which is what movies were always meant to be. 

The upside is bigger than it sounds. Lower pricing doesn’t mean less revenue. It means more frequency. Guests come back more often, they bring other people, and they rebuild the habit. Over time, they spend more, not less. We’re already seeing this play out. Some theaters are blazing the way, leaning into value pricing, and most importantly, proving it works. It’s not theoretical anymore.

3. Elevate the Customer Experience

This is a hill we will die on, and it matters more than anything else on this list. Clean theaters and bathrooms are the baseline. That should never be the selling point. That should be the expectation. What matters is how it feels to be there. Staff should be engaged, informed, and present. When a guest asks a question, they should get a real answer from someone who actually wants to be there. That alone goes further than most people realize.

Then we go beyond that. We bring back showmanship. 

It doesn’t have to be expensive. It just has to be intentional. Have a team member step in before the film starts and welcome the audience. Share the runtime. Set the tone. Create a moment that reminds people they are part of movie magic, not just sitting in a room staring at a screen. If you’re playing something with a built-in fanbase, lean into it. Bring in local vendors. Invite the community in. There are more creatives around you than you think, and they’re looking for places to show up. These are just a couple of ideas, but the larger point is this: we have to wake up our collective creativity again.

We’re living in a time when the world’s nations are declaring loneliness epidemics. People are craving connection. Theaters are one of the few places built for shared experiences, and we are underutilizing that. If we make the experience feel alive again, people will come back for more than just the movie. 

3b. Side Rant: The Preshow Experience

We need to be more honest about the preshow, both with the audience and with ourselves. Asking someone to pay $20 for a ticket and then sit through 25 to 30 minutes of ads is not a great start to any moviegoing experience. At best, it’s tolerated. At worst, it drives people away.

We all know that same guest can pay $20 a month for ad-free streaming at home. The in-theater experience has to feel premium from the moment they sit down. When it starts to feel like they’re paying to watch commercials, they either stop coming back or they time their arrival to skip the trailers entirely. Once that happens, the value of those ads disappears. Either way, if people aren’t watching, what are we really accomplishing?

Every minute before the movie either builds anticipation or chips away at it. Right now, it’s too often doing the latter. If we want people back, we can’t waste that moment. A shorter, more intentional pre-show respects the audience and makes the start of the film feel like something worth showing up for. Because that moment is the handoff. It’s where the outside world ends and the experience begins. Get it right, and it lifts everything that follows.

4. Program Alternative Content Midweek

There is just too much unused capacity Monday through Thursday. Empty auditoriums represent missed opportunities, and that time could be working for theater owners instead of against them. Alternative content can be the answer to these slower time slots. Concert films, cultural programming, anime, faith-based titles, live events, etc. When you match the right content to the right audience, these titles aren’t filler. They over-perform.

It’s about using every screen with intention, not just relying on the weekend to carry the week. It also ties directly back to experience. Midweek shows give you space. Space to experiment, space for staff to engage, and space to turn something smaller into something memorable. We’ve spent the last decade watching fandoms grow into full-blown communities. People show up for the things they care about. When we give them more reasons to show up in theaters, it shows up in our bottom line.

5. Give Theaters More Control Over Showtimes

We’re still operating in a system where decisions are often locked down before the audience has even had a chance to weigh in. By the time demand is known, whether something is going gangbusters or underperforming, the schedule is already set and changing it isn’t always easy or even possible. That disconnect costs money.

We’re not advocating abandoning structure and letting everyone return to Wild West rules. That doesn’t make sense either. We’re just suggesting that there’s much more room for grace and flexibility. Every market behaves differently, and the operators closest to their audience are the ones best positioned to make those calls in real time. Theaters that have more freedom to react to their audiences will outperform the ones that don’t. We need to empower them to meet their market. When we limit this flexibility, we’re not protecting the system. We’re slowing it down and holding back the very people we say we want to support.

The Whole Picture

When all these pieces come together, the pricing, the flexibility, the experience, and the control over programming, the system starts to function the way it was intended. Theaters can adapt to their markets in real time, and audiences get something that genuinely feels worth showing up for again. It’s not about reinventing the theatrical experience. It’s about restoring and refining it. Tightening what has loosened, removing the friction that has built up over time, and getting back to the core of what makes this business work. It means trusting the exhibitor to know their audience and respecting the audience enough to meet their needs and wants. When that happens, the excitement builds, the energy returns, and the entire ecosystem can strengthen in a way that no single fix could ever accomplish.

If you build it, they will come.
And they will fill theaters again.
And that is the whole (damn) point.