Up, Up and Away

How high is up? It might be better to ask how high movie ticket prices can rise, because the sky seems to be the limit. In December two theater chains raised prices from $6 to $7 at 48 screens in Manhattan. That follows a jump from $5 (or $5.50) to $6 in the spring of 1985 and means New Yorkers are paying perhaps 40% more than they were 2 1/2 years ago for their Saturday night at the movies.

So far, the fare hikes have been confined to the Big Apple. Cineplex Odeon, the Canadian-based chain that first raised the tariff, claims it has no plans to boost prices at its 1,614 other screens in North America. In Hollywood, as well as in Washington, Boston and Chicago, $6 is still tops, while $5.50 gets you through the door in Houston, and $5 is the limit in Atlanta and Cleveland. But Gordon Crawford, a California entertainment analyst, predicts that by the end of 1988 fans in Los Angeles will be paying $7. Some Angelenos seem sanguine at the prospect. "Movies are better than ever," says Bob Singer, 32, standing in line for Moonstruck, "and I don't mind paying more for a better product. So why don't they just reduce the price of popcorn a dollar and call it even?"

New York's Mayor Edward Koch wants to call it quits. He stood in front of two East Side cinemas last week, yelling "Scab!" at those who were bold enough to pay the admission. Nobody listened. Broadcast News was a sellout and Nuts was not. The message: people pay to see the films they want to see -- and can't be paid to see the others. Indeed, the mayor broke his own boycott to see Ironweed, which, he complained to Variety afterward, "wasn't even worth $5."