The hard truth of the film industry is that as prices go up, attendance drops. This puts movies like World War Z in a fairly tough place: It has cost, depending on who you ask, anywhere from $200 to a whopping $400 million. The studio is trying to manage bad buzz and get butts in seats by any means necessary. And that, apparently, includes making World War Z part of an odd experiment.
First, the details: These “mega tickets” are only available at five theaters, located in Orange County, Houston, San Diego, Atlanta and Philadelphia. They cost $50, and you get for your money:
- To see the movie two days early, in 3D.
- Custom RealD glasses.
- A limited-edition poster.
- An HD copy of the movie when it arrives on home video.
- And a small popcorn, so, hey, between that and the ticket, that’s $50 right there.
We wish we were joking but these screenings are being held in huge flagship theaters and the sad thing is, $50 is pretty easily the cost of going to one of these theaters solo; for example, the Philadelphia theater (The UA King of Prussia IMAX, for those in the area), charges $18.50 for a 3D IMAX presentation. Throw in the HD copy of the movie likely running $30 MSRP and this actually isn’t that bad a deal.
And, what, precisely, will your $50 get you in theaters? Paramount has put up a few clips, like this rooftop escape:
Also, Brad Pitt isn’t that great of a motivation speaker in this movie, apparently:
Although at least it gives us plenty of cheap jokes about “cities not doing well”. World War Z arrives June 21st.