Captain America 4

[Disney Irish]

What? Disney’s animated features are one of the few film types that have maintained popularity in different generations. Certainly people in their mid 30s were exposed to early hand drawn titles.

I think you're missing the point, if Disney is releasing it new today in today's market with the likes of Minions, Sonic, and other animation features most of the public would find it boring and slow. Its a classic in the sense that it was the first of its kind back in 1937, that is not the case in 2025. So this is not to take anything away from it, it just shows how different the market is today compared to 1937.

 

[Chi84]

Sorry It seemed like you were implying that.

I was stating that it is not a movie made for current day audiences and would never be released as an original film today.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad film; it’s a great one and exists in its original form for anyone interested in seeing a groundbreaking masterpiece of animation.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I think you're missing the point, if Disney is releasing it new today in today's market with the likes of Minions, Sonic, and other animation features most of the public would find it boring and slow. Its a classic in the sense that it was the first of its kind back in 1937, that is not the case in 2025. So this is not to take anything away from it, it just shows how different the market is today compared to 1937.

Bingo.

 

[TP2000]

Which is funny because if you actually calculate it out, if Titantic did actually sell the same amount of tickets today using today's average ticket price of $10.78 it would come out to $1.401B.

On what planet are you going to see a first-run, mega-studio Summer/Christmas blockbuster release for $11 in 2025?

When I took my family to Barbie at Cinepolis in Del Mar, the tickets were north of $20 apiece. Plus cocktails and cheesecake and caramel covered popcorn delivered to our seats.

It must have been at least a $300 movie outing, compliments of Uncle TP2000, that loveable old moneybags.

I get it, not everywhere is as expensive as coastal San Diego County to see a blockbuster movie a week after it came out, in an upscale theater with reserved lounge chairs and seatside waitress service.

But an $11 ticket to Barbie in July, 2023? Maybe in a small town in Maine, with a coupon?

 

[BrianLo]

TP, you’ve gotten a bit side tracked. It’s not that it is completely irrelevant, it certainly is somewhat relevant. It just that it doesn’t define the current market.

Expectations are set by the current theatrical landscape, which has shrunk relative to Inflation. No one expects the next James Cameron film to make 5 billion dollars. It’s a ridiculous sum that’s larger than half of the entire domestic market. No one expects any Disney animated film to make 5B either. Cutting down the Frozen franchise because it made a third of Cinderella doesn’t really say anything meaningful. Kids weren’t watching Cinderella for the twentieth time that month in the 50s.

So defining expectations by inflation adjusted movies from 20-30 (or more) years ago starts to lose the plot a bit. Particularly because of the inflation shock, even going back a decade starts to become murky when we compare and define things.

Often it’s presented in an inflammatory way, even though the production budget is there for all to see in a sometimes over inflated manner. Titanic in an inflationary sense was riskier than Avatar Way of Water. But that’s certainly not how James Cameron saw nor frames it. Because we are living in our current environment, not the 90s.

 

[Disney Irish]

On what planet are you going to see a first-run, mega-studio Summer/Christmas blockbuster release for $11 in 2025?

When I took my family to Barbie at Cinepolis in Del Mar, the tickets were north of $20 apiece. Plus cocktails and cheesecake and caramel covered popcorn delivered to our seats.

It must have been at least a $300 movie outing, compliments of Uncle TP2000, that loveable old moneybags.

I get it, not everywhere is as expensive as coastal San Diego County to see a blockbuster movie a week after it came out, in an upscale theater with reserved lounge chairs and seatside waitress service.

But an $11 ticket to Barbie in July, 2023? Maybe in a small town in Maine, with a coupon?

It’s an average of all ticket prices across the nation, not just coastal states that tend to pay more for most things.
Everything from the cheaper matinee showings to ticket discounts go into the averages too, not just premium seating that you might have paid.

You can see it on your favorite website Numbers here -

The Numbers - Movie Market Summary 1995 to 2025

Overall movie market summary for each year 1995 to 2025

www.the-numbers.com

Not to mention like @brideck mentioned, an average ticket price in 1997 would have been ~$4.57 (see Numbers site above), if we're really doing a true inflation adjusted number that would have been ~$9 in 2025 dollars. So even less than the average ticket price of today, so I was even being generous when I calculated based on today's ticket prices rather than the real inflation adjusted number based on 1997 prices.

Which is why you cannot just do an apples-to-apples comparison like you're trying to do.

 

[LSLS]

The problem using inflation is it doesn't account for other factors. Titanic hilariously is a great example. I remember in high school going to see it on Christmas cause my friends and I wanted something to do and figured why not cause it was like $5 (i remember because someone in the audience legit stood up and clapped at Leos death). Now, I just spent $20 to see Captain America. Sure inflation is up. But I believe average income is only up like 10% since the mid 90s. So movies went from a "Eh, there's nothing else to do" to a legit financial consideration. I can tell you as I'm out of town right now, I'd go to another couple movies if the price was less. After spending $40 between a ticket and popcorn/drink last night, I will not be spending any more nights on this trip at a random movie.