Open Letter to Tebatso Bahula from Total Exposure (organiser of event) and Bruce Whitfield - Money show Presenter on 702 between 6pm and 8pm As I am big fan of both the Freakonomics books, I am really looking forward to the Red Carpet screening of Freakonomics along with the guest introductory note by Paul Theron on the 16th March 2011, the movie is certainly a big event and I have promoted it to great extent amongst my work colleagues and friends.
I would however like you to consider the following, when the movie was released in the states last year, it did a simultaneous release on the internet and DVD At the time, Stephen Dubner warned that there was also going to be another “wrinkle” in how they released the movie in movie theatres Filmgoers can choose how much they wish to pay-anywhere in the range of $.01 to $100, with the completion of a short questionnaire.
The data collected anonymously at the time of purchase was analyzed by authors Dubner and Levitt to identify what factors and circumstances prompt movie-goers to pay more or less for their screening tickets. I think that Ster Kinkeor can partner with an auditing firm to analyse the data collected locally from our Ster-Kinekor theatres.
In the spirit of the creative, incentives-based thinking behind Freakonomics, the pay-what-you-want screenings reference a popular experiment from the original book, in which authors Levitt and Dubner analyze how people interact with a weekly, pay-what-you-want bagel delivery service.
“The pay-what-you-want screening represents a fun and engaging way to illustrate the underlying premise of Freakonomics-the application of economics and incentives-based thinking to everyday situations to uncover surprising and sometimes controversial conclusions,” muses producer Chad Troutwine. “It seems only fitting, then, to engage Freakonomics audiences in their own local economic experiment, offering a chance to see the film in advance of its theatrical release while simultaneously bringing the concept of incentives thinking to life.”
In South Africa, movie ticket prices have escalated making it very difficult for the average man on the street to make it a regular family outing. If discounted loyalty programmes such as Vitality, Ster Kinekor Movie Club or Edgars Movie Club are considered, the price does come down significantly., I spend a lot of money on movies in a month and watch an average of 6 movies a month at the Ster-Kinekor Cinemas, Spending R100-00 at a time between my girlfriend and myself I spend on average R600-00 per month on movies at Ster-Kinekor. If I paid the full price of R40-00 per movie this would go up to R840-00per month
I definitely think “The pay what you want “ adds to the viewers experience, and through it we can get a more engaging idea of how South Africans respond to incentives, I for one would be willing to pay R15-00 to watch the movie. I base this fee not on what I think the value of the movie is, but what I think ticket prices should generally be in South Africa, this survey will also be able to generate an idea though public consensus as to how much people are willing to pay to watch movies if the incentive experiment is controlled and audited properly
Good idea or Bad Idea?
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