In George Lucas’s Dreams, Movie Tickets Cost $150

Star Wars director George Lucas has predicted that movie tickets will one day cost $150 (“Going to the movies is going to cost you $50, maybe $100, maybe $150”). Rakesh Vohra, a professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management said this would only be true if we ever collectively believed that it’s worth paying $150 to go to the theater.

“I think this is the sentence that caught my colleague’s eye: He and I teach a class on pricing. In it, we emphasize the simple point that fixed costs are irrelevant for deciding the price. If I could repeat this FACT in large, friendly letters like the warning on the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I would. So, the idea that a movie’s budget should determine its price is not merely wrong but risible.”

In other words: If the day of $150 movie tickets ever comes, it won’t be because the movie cost hundreds of millions to make. It will be because moviegoers believe that $150 is a worthy price for a few hours of air-conditioned escapism.

I mean, it’s hard enough for me to shell out $15 to go to the movies now no matter what kind of new experience it would be, so I can’t fathom paying $150. But maybe if you don’t account for inflation, that will someday be true.

Photo: Nadia Hatoum

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