> I recently signed up for Cinemark movie pass for $8.99 a month. What's amazing is that their commercial seems to strongly suggest the tickets are a discount. It never explicitly says so.

They probably are in high-cost urban markets which probably account for a large share of their volume.

> It's hilarious because a weekend evening ticket is $7.75 a ticket,

My local Cinemarks' prices for weekend evening tickets for standard-format 2D (they don't have IMAX, but do have XD at an upcharge) range from $11.75-$12.75.

But even then... why sell a plan providing me no discount? Shouldn't I get the same discount others would off their tickets?

It's strange to hear there are places Cinemark has significantly higher prices: I live in a fairly affluent suburban area, my Cinemark is literally around the corner from a significant number of multi-million dollar properties. Anyone who sees movies near me can arguably afford the higher ticket prices.

But thanks for the non-local perspective on the matter!

Keep in mind that urban areas have much higher property values, which get passed down by landlords in the form of much higher rents per sq ft. Chain movie theaters are more or less the same size everywhere you go, so an equivalently sized movie theater in a bustling downtown is likely paying top dollar.

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/8/9/gary-morris-law...

But is the commercial real estate expensive there? In a lot of suburban areas commercial areas can be significantly detached from residential in terms of pricing to to rezoning difficulties.

To add to what dragonwriter said, weekend evening tickets at my local Cinemark theatre is $14.50 for a 2D movie in its first or second week.

Local vs. National pricing is always funny like that. For example, a local doughnut chain had a sale that was actually $0.01 more expensive than the local price.

On the other hand:

"Unsurprisingly, Manhattan (average adult ticket price of $12.59 when matinee pricing is included) was the most expensive of the city’s five boroughs. Not a single Manhattan theater we studied offered a sub-$10 price for a regular adult ticket. The average cost of the borough’s 28 theaters was $14.30."

This one just happens to be my closest, preferred theater:

"The most expensive regular adult ticket in New York City was for $17.49 at the AMC Loews on Manhattan’s Upper West Side."

At those prices, MoviePass is a ridiculous deal for me.

Source: https://www.valuepenguin.com/2015/04/movie-ticket-prices-ins...