AMC Theaters is abandoning its “Sightline” policy that charged moviegoers more money for better seats in their movie theaters. The theater chain is ditching the plan six months after it was first announced back in February.
But fret not. Sightline is being replaced with AMC testing out new seats for the front rows of a theater, seats that are larger, loungier, and will allow guests to “lay all the way back and relax.” Those will start rolling out in late 2023.
As IndieWire explained back in February, the real idea behind the Sightline up-charge was not to get more money out of people for things that were already free (though it did that too) but to drive people to sign up for the chain’s premium membership program AMC Stubs A-List, which would let people skirt the “Preferred Sightline” fees and get a discount on those worse seats in the front row. That’s where the real value was — not in an extra buck from someone who wants to sit in the middle of the house.
Many wondered if Regal and Cinemark would adopt the same dynamic pricing policy. AMC acknowledged on Thursday that the industry didn’t follow, and Sightline, which was just a pilot program for now and had never been rolled out nationwide, won’t continue “to ensure its ticket prices stay competitive.” The pilot program officially ends in the coming weeks.
It was also not popular. Elizabeth Banks was among those to say the premium pricing policy was head-scratching, saying it was a strange thing to do at a time when the theatrical marketplace is still recovering.
AMC, though, says the experiment was still worth it in gathering information about where people actually sit in the movie theater (some of us prefer to sit on the end of the row, thank you very much). The chain released data that said three out of every four of its AMC Stubs members who previously chose to sit in the Preferred Sightline sections still picked those seats even with the slightly raised cost, and at least one out of every 10 moviegoers still decided to sit in seats outside of the Preferred Sightline.
What AMC did not see was any noticeable change in people opting to sit in the front row, even though those seats were cheaper. As any theater owner will tell you, these seats for the most part are always vacant, so AMC’s next test will be if people are willing to sit up front if they can really lounge in style. No price was announced for those seats at this time.
