LOS ANGELES â€" Moviegoers in the United States paid an average of $7.96 per ticket in 2012, a three-cent increase over the year before, according to the National Association of Theater Owners.
While ticket buyers generally bristle at price increases, the uptick was much smaller than in some previous years; from 2008 to 2010, for instance, theater owners raised prices by more than 4 percent annually.
The bad news: Price increases accelerated in the last part of the year. The average ticket price in the fourth quarter was $8.05. In the third quarter the average ticket price was $7.78.
One reason may be that theater owners, faced with declining interest for pricier 3-D offerings, are charging more for regular tickets.
Regal Entertainment, the nation’s largest movie theater chain, said last week that it raised prices for standard screenings by 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter; 3-D ticket sales in the period contributed 14 percent of Regal’s sales, down from 17 percent in the samequarter a year ago.
