AMC Blocking Good Seats For Upcharged Loyalty Program

If you were planning to go to an AMC theater soon, you might have to pay more for a good seat.

AMC has announced that they will be “reserving” the “best” seats for their paid loyalty program members, meaning that unless you pay for their A-List or Stubbs Premiere programs, you won’t be getting one of the good seats.

According to AMC Chairman Adam Aron,

“Later this year, AMC will introduce preferred premier seating, where we will block and reserve the best seats in the house in our theaters to be accessed first only by our A-List and our Stubs Premiere members — that’s the two VIP tiers within our Stubs program — at no added charge at AMC. We will assure the best seats in our auditoriums are held, at first anyway, for our best customers.

AMC is exceptionally well positioned to capitalize on a recovering box office. And as I have said many times before, the not-so-secret formula to a full box‑office recovery is straight forward, we need more great movies from our studio partners.”

Basically, if you want the good seats, you need to pay over $25 a MONTH to get them. Now, it does cover up to four films a week, so if you watch two a month, it is worth it. It’s more difficult to argue this if you are not a single member. The deal doesn’t cover additional members unless they each have a membership. Families may see little benefit. Those that only go to the theater once a month would be better off not joining.

This new seat change is set to roll out later this year. If I were to guess, they will start doing this when all the highly anticipated films start dropping.

Of course, other seats can be good as well, but it’s a bad look to announce that the best seats go to those who pay monthly subscription fees.

Why is AMC doing this?

My guess is the move is due to AMC seeing a 10% drop in attendance last quarter. Their revenue was also down.

Like every other corporation out there, they want to charge the few people they have more money to offset their losses. By reserving seats for those paying $26-$28 a month, they hope to stop the losses.

It’s worth mentioning that AMC was the only chain that didn’t carry “KPop Demon Hunters” last summer for its historic run. Moves like that are likely costing them money.

Is this a good idea?

Likely no.

A big reason people are not going to the movies anymore is the cost. Tickets alone are expensive, but drinks, snacks, and more quickly add up. While you can save money on all these things as a member, families may see less benefit from the program unless everyone has a membership, and you are going to the theater more than twice a month.

Many have already started waiting for films to go to streaming services instead of hitting the theaters, which is the reason for declining audiences in the first place. This choice is going to convince more to wait. 

If they really want to see a film, they can simply go to another theater that isn’t making customers pay a subscription fee to get the “best seats.”

On the flip side, if people are paying that much for membership, it should have been a perk before now.

What do you think? Is this a good idea?

Comment and let us know!