Cracking The Atom

Disney, Fox, and Lionsgate have teamed up to lead a $50 million investment in Atom Tickets, a mobile ticketing app that will launch later this year. Atom is designed to make movie ticket and concession purchasing very simple and will be available for free on Apple App and Google Play.

Atom Tickets logo

"We believe Atom Tickets will revolutionize the way people go to the movies", says Michael Burns, Vice Chair at Lionsgate.  Atom will also provide film reviews and trailers.  When arriving at a cinema moviegoers will simply scan their previously received codes into a reader at the box-office or concession stand, making the experience seamless and very convenient.

According to the studios, the Atom app will enhance a cinema's revenue stream as people purchase more when buying on-line and knowing they won't have to wait in line.  This not only adds value to the consumer but aides the studios and cinemas by providing deep consumer data on purchasing habits and movie choices which can be converted into such things as ticket and concession coupons.

CMG says great!  Atom does all that which makes it a lot better than Fandango.  However, CMG sees a much deeper reason for Atom - the introduction of dynamic ticket pricing (DTP)!.

DTP (and you are going to hear a lot more about this in the future) is a way to charge more or less for a movie ticket, depending upon factors like: time, location, popularity of movie, etc.  For example, in the U.S. over 4 billion seats go unsold in cinemas each year.  Atom can offer these, less used Tuesday afternoon seats, at a discount rate.  The whole issue being to increase the utilization rate at cinemas, which is about 15-18%.

All well and good, but I feel the reason for DTP is ticket price management (manipulation) on the up-side, ie. higher ticket prices for those movies in high demand.  For example, 'Star Wars' admission tickets for the first days after release could have garnered a premium admission price, perhaps as much as $15-20 for a general admission ticket.  This is what the studios are after, they could care less about a cinema's utilization rate.  DTP is a way for the studios and cinemas to extract more out of each movie's gate - be it by lowering or raising the admission price, based upon the series of factors.

Dynamic Ticket Pricing is coming. Get prepared for it.