Vue's Founder and President Tim Richards

What’s the Biggest Barrier to Cinema-Going?

Oct 18, 2025

Film industry researcher Stephen Follows published an article in his “Big Ideas” series, which analyzes the consumer attitudes on what discourages them from going to the movies. After reviewing results from a number of recent surveys, Follows sees a clear pattern of responses that point to the perceived high cost of the ticket as the #1 reason holding them back from going to the theatre more often.

Follows concludes that exhibitors would be well advised to offer lower-priced options to encourage more frequent moviegoing. He points to new pricing approaches at Vue International, one of the largest exhibitors in the UK and continental Europe. After opposing ticket discounting for years, Vue’s founder and CEO, Tim Richards, came to see a problem with the traditional approach to pricing.

“We were very aggressive on pricing and just kept pushing and pushing. And it’s not often you have that kind of eureka moment where you look at things and think: there’s a better way of doing this.” Vue now offers a dynamic pricing model, which Richards sees as very successful in bringing infrequent moviegoers back to cinemas.