When entering the Cinesa website to buy a ticket at some of its cinemas, which are included in this pilot experience, the seat selection process has changed. A notice appears warning that the prices of the seats will be variable depending on their position and the seat map shows areas with different colors, each with a different price. Same screen, same sound and same movie, but the price changes depending on where you sit.
Cinesa test. The leading cinema chain in Spain, with 35 complexes and more than 400 rooms throughout the countryhas launched a pilot test in three complexes: Nassica (Madrid), Salera (Castellón) and Parque Principado (Asturias). The first rows and the sides have a lower price than usual, while the central area, which has the best visibility, carries a supplement. The advance notice warns: “We are testing a new system that allows you to choose where you want to sit based on the price that best suits you.”
Prices in Nassica, For example, They range from 8.40 euros for the areas closest to the screen to the standard price, ending with a supplement for the central seats, with the VIP seats (a category that already exists before the pilot) being the most expensive. The pilot is neither indefinite nor generalized, and Cinesa’s own notice warns that the company is testing the response before making any decision about its extension. Currently, Cinesa has 35 multiplexes throughout the country.
They already tried. Cinesa belongs to Odeon Cinemas Group, the largest exhibitor in Europe, with a presence in nine countries. And Odeon, since 2016, has been owned by AMC Theatres, the largest cinema chain in the world. In February 2023, AMC launched Sightline at AMC: a pricing system by seat location with three levels: the first rows and seats for people with disabilities were renamed Value Sightline, with a reduced price. The center seats became Preferred Sightline, with a supplement. The rest, Standard Sightline, maintained the usual price.
The show premiered in three markets (New York, Chicago and Kansas City) with the intention of extending it to all AMC locations in the United States before the end of the year. Five months later, AMC canceled the show. The conclusions after analyzing the data were that three out of four spectators who previously chose the central area continued to choose it with the supplement, but lowering the price of the first rows had not increased their occupancy. Essentially, people were still sitting in the same places.
Cinesa Airlines. There is a lot of reading comparison of this action of Cinesa with the airlines’ pricing policy, but it is not entirely accurate. On a flight, the difference between seats has a series of very clear additions: legroom, priority boarding… In a cinema, the difference is minimal and the different rates have been decided practically arbitrarily. The differentiation makes more sense in the theater or at a concert, where the different location can lead to considerable differences in the sound or what you see on stage, but this is not the case.
The Cinesa case. Cinesa already has a differentiated pricing architecture depending on the quality of the seat or the type of experience thanks to the iSense, IMAX, ScreenX, chair-bedsPlus reclining seats and VIP seats. However, and although it is logical that the next step is to segment the rooms themselves, the reaction on social networks to the announcement has been mostly negative. At the moment, Cinesa has not responded to the questions we have sent them about this decision, so it is not clear whether the strategy it is pursuing is to earn more with the increase in the price of the central seats or to attract more audiences with the discount on the front and side seats.
The door is open for competitors like Yelmo to follow in their footsteps. AMC in the US, precisely, stopped the experiment of these tiered prices because its competition kept them fixed, and the company judged that at the image level these fractional prices could be harmful. The key will be to check whether the Spanish public values the location of the space or the savings for their pocket more.
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