Average movie ticket prices, now $8.73 as of this year’s second quarter, are at an all-time high, according to the exhibition lobbying firm the National Association of Theater Owners.
That’s up 1.7 percent from the first quarter of 2016, which averaged $8.58 per ticket.
The new price average also represents a 3.6 percent increase over all of 2015, which averaged $8.43 per ticket.
But when you compare the new hike to just the same quarter a year ago, which had an average of $8.61, the increase is only 1.4 percent.
Ticket prices made a much higher jump in the first quarter this year — by 5.7 percent compared to 2015’s first quarter, from $8.12 in 2015 to $8.58 in 2016.
That, however, was not as high as average ticket prices were in the fourth quarter of 2015, when theatergoers were playing $8.70 on average — likely due to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” playing on specialty screens like IMAX and 3D.