Does anyone know the cost of a movie during 1938-1940

artemis31386 · Nov 22, 2010

I'm writing a historical piece set during Hollywood's Golden Age. I need the cost of a movie ticket between 1938 and 1940. I thought I heard somewhere that it was ten cents, but I want to be sure.

mscelina · Nov 22, 2010

Am currently watching the movie moguls miniseries on AMC. They just mentioned that the average Shirley Temple movie cost $150,000-200,000 to make and netted between 1.5-2 million on first runs alone. I would think that would serve as a mean average--full on musicals(think Golddiggers of 1933) or big epics (GWTW) would cost more.

mgencleyn · Nov 22, 2010

Looks like this list might be helpful:

http://boxofficemojo.com/about/adjuster.htm

It is largely about how to adjust for inflation, but the list to the right looks like actual prices for each year starting in 1910.

This site may also help you generally:

http://www.natoonline.org/statisticstickets.htm

Since these are averages, I suppose some theater might have had a cheap ticket for half off somewhere. So ten cents might have been right in a few cases, maybe. Otherwise, it looks like about 24 cents.

Also, I'm wondering where these are averages, if any ticket would've cost 24 cents. Maybe more like an even 20 or 25? I dunno.

search strategy (Google search): movie ticket costs history

artemis31386 · Nov 22, 2010

mscelina said:
Am currently watching the movie moguls miniseries on AMC. They just mentioned that the average Shirley Temple movie cost $150,000-200,000 to make and netted between 1.5-2 million on first runs alone. I would think that would serve as a mean average--full on musicals(think Golddiggers of 1933) or big epics (GWTW) would cost more.

Thanks. I wasn't looking for the cost of production though. I found that information on imdb.

artemis31386 · Nov 22, 2010

mgencleyn said:
Looks like this list might be helpful:

http://boxofficemojo.com/about/adjuster.htm

It is largely about how to adjust for inflation, but the list to the right looks like actual prices for each year starting in 1910.

This site may also help you generally:

http://www.natoonline.org/statisticstickets.htm

Since these are averages, I suppose some theater might have had a cheap ticket for half off somewhere. So ten cents might have been right in a few cases, maybe. Otherwise, it looks like about 24 cents.

Also, I'm wondering where these are averages, if any ticket would've cost 24 cents. Maybe more like an even 20 or 25? I dunno.

search strategy (Google search): movie ticket costs history

Thanks, these links are helpful.

Gugland · Nov 22, 2010

Try ebay and collector sites too. I'm sure people collect old ticket stubs, and some must surely have admission prices on them.

Cricket18 · Nov 22, 2010

According to this, 11 cents. Frankly, I though it was even less. Like, just a few pennies.

http://www.wildeytheatre.com/Memories/1930_s/1930_s.html

mgencleyn · Nov 22, 2010

Cricket18 said:
According to this, 11 cents. Frankly, I though it was even less. Like, just a few pennies.

http://www.wildeytheatre.com/Memories/1930_s/1930_s.html

When I was a young girl, it cost 11 cents to get into the Wildey. I'm not sure how much an adult ticket cost. At Christmas, my sister, brother and I would each get a book of gift certificates to the show.

...

A child's admission ticket cost ten cents, plus one cent for tax. Another five cents would buy a package of candy or popcorn. This was quite a thrill for a girl growing up in the 1930s.

Then that looks like a juvenile rate. Too bad there isn't a list to account for that. Anyway...

mgencleyn · Nov 22, 2010

Hmm. I put in King Kong (2005) just now and see on a poster at ~12:41 and ~13:24 for the adult live stip show a price @ 25 cents. The movie takes place in 1933, so if you're having an adult theater, then that's about right. I would've expected a markedly different rate. And I trust Jackson did his research thoroughly.

johnnysannie · Nov 22, 2010

Between twenty five and ten cents - depended to some extent what theater, where, how new the movie etc......not so different than now.

PeterL · Nov 23, 2010

Most movies were a dime. There might have been a few that cost more, and there probably were places that charged more, but they were variations around a dime.

thothguard51 · Nov 23, 2010

My mother, says most movies in St. Louis, Mo. cost 10 cents. These were mostly the matinee and serial type movies. The larger productions like Gone with the Wind, the Ten Commandments, etc, cost 25 cents. She said it wasn't until after WW2 that the prices went up.

jallenecs · Nov 23, 2010

My father used to tell stories of when he was a kid (this would have been the mid- to late- thirties). He and his cousin would go watch movies every Saturday. He would take a quarter with him: A nickel for the trolley ride, a nickel for the ticket, a nickel for soda, and that left a dime to buy a hot dog after the movie.

Then again, this was Huntington, WV, the Keith Albee theater. The cost of living was lower in the backwaters like Appalachia than in big cities.

artemis31386 · Nov 23, 2010

Thanks everyone!!!

I really appreciate all the help.

RJK · Nov 24, 2010

According to my mother Who's long gone, a matinée cost 10 cents and an evening show could be as much as a quarter. She said she was a good girl until she sneaked off to see King Kong. It was all down hill from there.

I remember matinées in the fifties costing a quarter. We'd see two cartoons and sometimes a double feature, for 25 cents.

Does anyone know the cost of a movie during 1938-1940

artemis31386

All around miscreant

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

mgencleyn

Damned Butterfly

artemis31386

All around miscreant

artemis31386

All around miscreant

Gugland

Sufficiently downsized

Cricket18

Gnawing my hairless tail

mgencleyn

Damned Butterfly

mgencleyn

Damned Butterfly

johnnysannie

PeterL

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

jallenecs

Searching for Wonderland

artemis31386

All around miscreant

RJK

Sheriff Bullwinkle the Poet says: