Tix wars
Italo theaters up in arms over prices
Acting autonomously, the Milan theater owners boosted the top price of admission from the standard 12,000 lire ($7.00) to $7.65 at the start of 1998. In addition to the increase, the exhibs also reached their own agreement on terms for lower priced tickets at afternoon and certain weekday sessions.
Responding to a complaint from Italian consumer watchdog org CODACONS, the national antitrust authority for fair trade competition imposed the fine Dec. 28 on the 25 offending exhibs, whose theaters account for 73% of box office revenues in Milan.
"CODACONS is entirely wrong in this matter," said Lionello Cerri, regional VP of national exhibition association ANEC. "No type of control exists on ticket prices. If an exhibitor wants to, it is free to introduce much higher prices and then deal with the public."
Focus shifting
The antitrust now threatens to shift its focus to Rome and other key Italian burgs. The most important city in the country for establishing moviegoing trends, Rome has seen considerable price increases in the past year as the exhibition sector undergoes long-overdue upgrading.
The new Warner Village Cinemas 18-screen plex in outer Rome has pushed the cost dispute to extremes by charging an unprecedented top price of $8.25 since its Dec. 18 opening. Admissions appear not to be suffering, however, with roughly 100,000 tickets sold in the two weeks since the ribbon was cut at the country's largest multiplex.
"Our price policies were established completely independently," says WVC managing director Antonio Maldonado. "We made the choice to increase prices to reflect both the improved standards we offer the public and our investment in constructing this complex. From day one, no one has complained about prices; on the contrary, the reaction has been extremely positive."
Auds foot the bill
Exhibs are arguing that improvements in audio and visual quality, seating comfort, refreshment stands and other facilities such as parking come at considerable cost, and that the public has demonstrated its willingness to pay for the quality increase.
The boom in theatrical admissions in the past year in Italy -- preliminary totals put the annual ticket sale count at around 125 million, representing the highest tally since the early 1980s -- and the untarnished results of the Milan theaters that implemented the price hike, suggest that Italians already have come to terms with paying more for better services.
