New AMC Ticket Pricing Tiers Mean The View From The Cheap Seats Might Strain Your Neck
Nicole Kidman, in a popular (and heavily satirized) ad for AMC Theaters, proclaimed that “heartbreak feels good in a place like this,” but then again, she wasn’t craning her neck staring up from the front row when she said that.
AMC announced Tuesday that it will institute a pricing model similar to that used by concert venues: the price you pay depends on where you want to sit.
AMC, which is the country’s largest movie chain, announced a new ticket pricing initiative it’s calling Sightline. This means that seats in the front will be cheaper while more desirable seats in the middle will now cost more.
AMC will roll out this new pricing struction at all of its roughly 1,000 movie theaters by the end of the year. The three tiers include Value Sightline, which are the seats in the front of the venue, Standard Sightline, and Preferred Sightline sections, which will be made up of the more-desirable middle seats.
Standard sightline seats are the most common in auditoriums and available for the traditional cost of a movie ticket. And as always, membership has its perks: Value sightline pricing is only available to members of the AMC Stubs loyalty club, including the free tier. Stubs A-List members (who have paid for the privilege) can reserve the preferred seats at no additional cost.
“Sightline at AMC more closely aligns AMC’s seat pricing approach to that of many other entertainment venues, offering experience-based pricing and another way for moviegoers to find value at the movies,” said Eliot Hamlisch, AMC’s chief marketing officer, in a press release.
The good news (for fans of the matinee) is that Sightline ticketing applies to all showtimes after 4 pm at participating locations, and that it’s not applicable on Tuesdays, when AMC sells tickets at a discount.
According to chain management, theaters that offer variable pricing will provide a detailed seat map that will outline each option when patrons purchase tickets online, whether on the AMC app or at the box office.