Big movie ticket price hikes in South Africa

The prices of movie tickets from the two biggest South African cinema chains have more than doubled and even tripled for certain locations between 2014 and 2024, an analysis by MyBroadband has shown.

Ster-Kinekor and Nu-Metro are the two major cinema companies in South Africa.

These businesses have struggled to keep their heads above water in the last few years.

While the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns played a significant role in their financial distress, the rise of video streaming services had already severely disrupted the theatre business.

Netflix, Amazon, and Disney have invested in direct-to-streaming blockbuster originals, with monthly subscriptions available at a fraction of the price of a movie ticket.

However, 2023 saw a resurgence of the cinema blockbuster, with excellent ticket sales for movies like Barbie and Oppenheimer, which raked in over $1.4 billion and $950 million at the box office, respectively.

Both these titles also performed well in local cinemas.

Dune: Part Two‘s performance in 2024 has shown that there continues to be an appetite for watching major movie releases at the cinema.

The critically acclaimed Denis Villeneuve adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel has already surpassed $684 million at the global box office since its release around a month and a half ago.

The movie had a reported budget of $190 million and needed to sell around $500 million in tickets to break even after adding marketing costs and theatre cuts.

Apple and Amazon have also seen value in putting some of their biggest productions in theatres first, before bringing them to their respective Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video services.

Nevertheless, the South African cinemas have acknowledged the odd blockbuster hits might not be enough to sustain their businesses, instead they need to adapt their strategies to fill seats.

This includes exploring new entertainment areas — including screening live music performances and sports events.

MyBroadband looked at how the prices of movie tickets from Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro have changed between 2014 and 2024 to show the role that pricing has played in chipping away at the popularity of a night at the movies.

We found that ticket prices had increased by substantially more than the rate of inflation.

For reference, if prices only went up by inflation between 2014 and 2024, the overall increase would be about 62%.

However, this does not consider how much the rand has weakened since 2014.

According to the South African Reserve Bank, the rand was trading at R10.53 to the dollar on 17 April 2014. Yesterday, the price was at R19.11 per dollar — an 81.5% decline.

Ster-Kinekor

A regular undiscounted movie ticket at one of Ster-Kinekor’s 42 cinemas will cost between R64.90 and R220.00 in 2024, compared to the range of R21.00 to R110 in 2014.

That works out to increases of between 100% to 209%, depending on the type of ticket.

The most affordable price is only available at Ster-Kinekor’s Sterland and Mimosa Mall cinemas, while the most expensive applies to all 2D screenings in Prestige cinemas.

Most Ster-Kinekor cinemas charge R104.90 or R124.90 for a regular 2D ticket, ignoring promotions or discounts on certain loyalty programmes. In 2014, tickets at these cinemas were priced between R50 and R62.

The table below shows how Ster-Kinekor’s latest movie prices compare with those of 2014.

Nu Metro

NuMetro’s ticket prices start cheaper — R50 at a handful of “Price Freeze” locations. However, this is already a substantial R11 more expensive than last year (a hike of 28.2%).

The most expensive Nu Metro tickets are for its 4DX 2D or 3D screenings, priced at R210 per person — R15 more than in 2023.

MyBroadband only has records of four ticket types from 2014 — regular 2D, regular 3D, Xtreme, and VIP 3D. We therefore focused on these categories for our comparison.

In 2014, the tickets in these categories had prices ranging from R51 to R95 in 2014. They are currently priced between R110 and R210, well over double their prices from a decade ago.

The table below compares the prices of four of Nu Metro’s movie ticket categories in 2014 and 2023.