AMC Theatres is under fire for a new pricing plan that charges premium prices for seats with better views
If you’re a movie fan, this news could have a big impact on your wallet. AMC Theatres just announced “Sightline at AMC,” a new ticketing initiative that will affect ticket prices depending on where your seat is located within the theater. AMC announced the change this week in a press release.
“Sightline at AMC provides moviegoers with seating selections based on their sightline of the movie screen within the auditorium, including seats in Value Sightline, Standard Sightline, and Preferred Sightline sections,” the release reads. “Standard Sightline seats are the most common in auditoriums and are available for the traditional cost of a ticket; Value Sightline seats are primarily in the front row of the auditorium and are available at a lower price than Standard Sightline seats; Preferred Sightline seats are typically in the middle of the auditorium and cost slightly more than Standard Sightline seats.”
In other words, if you want the best view in the house, it’s no longer simply first come, first served—you’ll now have to shell out a premium ticket price for it, too.
The new seating initiative is rolling out Friday at select theaters in New York, Chicago, and Kansas City. It will be implemented at AMC theaters nationwide by the end of the year.
The announcement was pretty quickly met with backlash from movie fans. Actor Elijah Wood, who is set to star in the upcoming second season of Yellowjackets, called out AMC for creating an inequitable experience for moviegoers.
“The movie theater is and always has been a sacred democratic space for all,” he wrote on Twitter. “This new initiative by AMC Theatres would essentially penalize people for lower income and reward for higher income.”
The movie theater is and always has been a sacred democratic space for all and this new initiative by @AMCTheatres would essentially penalize people for lower income and reward for higher income.
— Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) February 6, 2023
The move is just the latest pricing change as movie theaters across the nation struggle to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, AMC experimented with charging more for tickets to very popular releases—for example, tickets for Robert Pattinson’s The Batman were $1 to $2 more for certain showings.
