Hollywood movie studios are fuming over AMC CEO Adam Arons’ public reveal this week that his theater chain charged extra for opening week tickets to “The Batman” and would continue to pursue surge pricing, calling the move unhelpful, confusing and “incredibly greedy.”
“It’s just confusing and frustrating to me why you would openly boast about bumping up prices for the biggest films,” one industry executive told WrapPRO about Aron’s surprise announcement during AMC’s earnings call earlier this week. “It sounds incredibly greedy.”
The exec continued, “Any consumer that hears or reads that is going to feel that they’re being gouged, and right now with everything getting more expensive with inflation, are headlines about surge pricing what we need right now when so many auditoriums are nearly empty unless it’s an opening weekend for a tentpole?”
Representatives for AMC didn’t respond to requests for comment.