A day before The Batman finally gets its theatrical release, AMC Theaters has announced the film will be part of a variable pricing experiment resulting in higher ticket prices. According to Entertainment Weekly, AMC is charging an extra $1.50 on adult tickets for The Batman in Los Angeles.

　　The experiment was announced by AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron on an earnings call said that admission for The Batman will come (as transcribed by Variety) at a "slightly higher than the prices… for other movies playing in the same theaters at the same time." Adds Aron, "This is all quite novel in the United States, but actually, AMC has been doing it for years in our European theaters… Indeed, in Europe, we charge a premium for the best seats in the house, as do just about all other sellers of tickets in other industries--think sports events, concerts and live theater, for example."

　　However, the timing is likely to draw ire among fans as this announcement comes within hours of release of a repeatedly delayed movie--and as the COVID-19 situation in North America has started to apparently progress. It also is the dawning of a shift that both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg signaled would be coming in Hollywood a decade ago. In a panel discussing the film industry, Lucas warned in 2013, "What [we're] going to end up with is fewer theaters. Bigger theaters, with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies is going to cost you 50 bucks, maybe 100. Maybe 150. And that's going to be what we call 'the movie business.' But everything else is going to look more like cable television on TiVo."

　　The Batman hits theaters on March 3, and early reviews are indicating that critics so far are polarized. GameSpot's Mason Downey scored the film 6/10 in our The Batman review.

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