Village Cinemas’ surge pricing scheme is a truly terrible idea

With the influx of streaming services such as Netflix, Foxtel reducing their subscription prices, Australia being the #1 country when it comes to downloading illegal torrents, free-to-air networks offering free catch-up services and a hefty back catalogue of shows, the ever-shrinking timeline between cinema and home releases, and the cavalcade of other entertainment options available from our living rooms — someone at Village Cinemas decided that the best way to draw movie-lovers into their dark, archaic cinemas was to charge them more money during peak hours.

Yup.

Not surprisingly, the move was universally loathed, and so the company has quickly halted their surge pricing trial, which saw them charging up to a dollar more for tickets during popular session times.

“We were running pricing variation trials over the summer period which we appreciate may have caused angst and concern to our customers,” they sheepishly told news.com.au.

“We can now confirm that all pricing variation trials have been stopped effective immediately.

“Our goal is to ensure movie going remains as an affordable entertainment choice for our guests.”

Of course, they could always reduce the pricing. But that’d be crazy.

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