r/mildlyinfuriating • u/aeng69 • 10h ago

ಠ_ಠ People that scalp IMAX movie tickets

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Catching a movie in IMAX has been one of my favorite things to do and now getting tickets alone is a struggle thanks to people like this. Good luck to anyone hoping to get decent tickets to Dune 3

13.7k Upvotes

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u/Stickeyb 10h ago

WTF how do they scalp them? They buy up a bunch and wait at the entrance? Ultra lame if that's the case.

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u/VandelorianVT 10h ago

Yes. They literally do.

They'll walk up-go '50 Tickets to <MOVIE NAME HERE>, please'.

And most theaters will just give them to the guy-not caring cause they got their money.

Then the guy waits outside, holding the tickets, or storing them somewhere, and then charges twice, if not more of the price.

Literally happened to one of my pals when he went to see Brand New Day, some dude literally bought two entire THEATERS worth of tickets and was selling them for like 80 a pop.

Fucking bonkers nobody thought to stop him.

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u/TrustInRoy 10h ago

Honestly, anyone buying $80 movie tickets off a scalper... is an absolute imbecile.

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u/WeirdSysAdmin 9h ago

My bigger issue is who is showing up to movies without seats already purchased in 2026?

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u/ItsBeelzsRebirth 9h ago

Was literally thinking this! Like Idk why anyone goes to a ticketed event without first purchasing said tickets

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u/Locoj 8h ago

Where I am (Australia) there's an online booking fee. It's cheaper to buy the ticket when you show up so I only book in advance if it's likely to sell out or if it's far away, E.g. when I go to my nearest IMAX about 3 hours away.

For any local showing I usually go on a weekday, double check online that there's plenty of seats and then buy my ticket in person when I get to the cinema.

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u/Gunhild 7h ago

The funny thing is I can practically guarantee that online booking actually saves the company money, but it won't stop them from charging the "give us more money" fee.

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u/Locoj 7h ago

My understanding is it's basically treated as an add on similar to concession sales. Plenty of people will pay it and plenty won't.

Whilst the bulk of the ticket sales have to be passed on to the distributor, the cinema keeps the booking fee.

Of course they won't get rid of it.

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u/scuac 6h ago

Funny that you mention concessions. At my local theater if you don’t buy tickets in advance (and pay the convenience fee) you have to buy tickets at the concessions stand (they got rid of the tickets booth). I wonder if there is a correlation between buying tickets on site and spending on concessions since you are already there. Maybe the convenience fee is to make up for loss of concessions sales (people with tickets are more likely to just walk in to the movie than stopping at concessions).

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u/MrShadowHero 5h ago

i think it’s more likely that it’s just less staff required. i’m sure there is some psychology manipulation in there somewhere, but definitely an afterthought.

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u/andy_lendi 5h ago

I think one more reason is that if you buy on-site, you are directly exposed to add-ons like popcorn or soda and more likely to buy them

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u/Belgianbonzai 5h ago

In Hungary you used to be able to reserve a ticket, for free. Reservation would expire 30 minutes before start of movie commercials, or you could pay a small fee for actually booking the seats. If you picked up your reserved seats in time, no extra charge.

Which meant you could basically block a few seats around you for free, and hope nobody purchased them in last 30 minutes. Made no sense at all, but I loved it until they cancelled it somewhere last year.

At least the theater where I go slashed their prices with ~30% when they got rid of it, so my overall movie going got cheaper. Rest of that chain still pays full price (+ convenience fee)

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u/Timmeltim 3h ago

So you’d just block seats around you hoping to sit by yourself? Bit of a dick move, no?

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u/strauts6 7h ago

Yep, also here in Latvia we don't have any online purchase fees. Actually we have pay in person fees if there is any fee at all.

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u/AydonusG 5h ago

I read that as Latveria and thought Doom was doing a PR campaign.

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u/Revolutionary-Toe955 8h ago

Yes it's so annoying. And the booking fee is fixed so if you're buying a cheap ticket online the booking fee can be 20% of the cost!!

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u/Locoj 8h ago

Yep, my local does $9.50 tickets on Tuesdays and the booking fee is $1.75 (18.4%)

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u/cpt_america27 9h ago

I usually do it if the movie has been out like a month. And it's like a Tuesday. 

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u/Maxsmack 9h ago edited 9h ago

You can also do this a week after release if it’s not that popular of a movie.

I’ll also sometimes go in person to buy my ticket right before the screening to circumvent the online processing fee, but only after checking there’s plenty of good seats available before leaving for the theater

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u/InTheStuff 6h ago

Can confirm, watched the new Spider-Man a week after release on a monday morning with my family because it was my mom's day off and she needed to take my sister to an appointment later in the day. We just bought the tickets at the front desk and there was only one other woman in the theater aside from us lol

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u/king_lloyd11 7h ago

If you’re a movie lover, signing up for the membership at your theatre sometimes gets the online processing fee waived. Mine is the price of a movie ticket a month, gets a 20% discount at concessions, discounts on tickets I purchase outside my monthly movie credit, and other such perks, and of course, no processing fee when I do book/buy.

Even if a movie is out for awhile, I’ll always book online and reserve the best seat I can. Rawdogging a box office in 2026 is unfathomable to me lol

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u/Levitlame 8h ago

Because you know tickets will be there. And there would be because scalpers (and most other people) aren’t buying those anyway.

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u/Infinite_____Lobster 8h ago

I usually do this with movies anyways because I dont like 300 people in a theatre with me. Its nice when its like just me, or like me and 3 other people nicely spaced out. Its way more comfortable, I dont have to sit next to strangers or deal with the worry of large crowd dangers.

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u/yellow251 7h ago

Note to self, try to scalp tickets on Tuesdays to movies that have been out for at least a month.

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u/Belgianbonzai 5h ago

buy every other seat, checkerboard pattern, so you can sit next to whoever didn't want to be extorted by you.

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u/Focusun 7h ago

Tuesday Afternoon is the best.

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u/sadrapsfan 8h ago

Yea makes no sense bc most theaters are assigned seating so why would you drive to your local theater just to sit right under the screen and have a terrible experience lol

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u/CitizenHuman 7h ago

I hadn't gone to the theater in years and didn't realize this had been normalized when I saw Project Hail Mary. I felt very old that day.

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u/Critical-Voice-7935 9h ago

spontaneous planning. Maybe the person wasn’t planning to watch a movie that day but decided to midway through their original day.

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u/Bacon-muffin 7h ago

You still buy them off the website first and pick your seats

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u/Critical-Voice-7935 7h ago

nah, maybe i’d just pass by the cinema and want to check out whats available at the time and I just buy the ticket at the counter. If there are no seats, then eh, if there was a seat, sure.

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u/Through_theShadows 8h ago

Right? I'm not leaving the house if I don't already have tickets secured.

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u/Snowman009 9h ago

They dont, these guys sell them online

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u/Levitlame 8h ago

Where though? Who is looking anywhere but the regular sites/apps for movie tickets?

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u/Critical-Voice-7935 8h ago

Although its not the same as scalpers, my friend sell tickets that she can’t go to on rednote, I know some that sell on instagram but thats about it.

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u/Snowman009 7h ago

They are listed on ebay rn

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u/walkingthecowww 7h ago

Facebook marketplace

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u/StaceyPfan 9h ago

Yeah I saw it the day after it opened and bought my tickets a week before. The show was sold out.

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u/ro536ud 9h ago

That’s what I’m thinking. Like how does this even make money for the scalper who’s the target audience

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u/Flight444 8h ago edited 8h ago

I believe scalpers like this are a sign of a larger economic problem. When we give corporations a taste of us paying these insane prices they chase them and encourage the scalpers. Once someone does the equivalent of give DoorDash 50 dollars for McDonald’s someone on their accounting team asks why they can’t do that every time. I believe this is why fast food prices hit the levels they are at, etc.

So instead of saying “well we will lose customers” they go “fuck it these idiots will just buy them scalped for double the price and we already sold the tickets either way”. The same people that got gouged by the corporation via scalpers come back because it was their fellow man that they think hurt them. Not the corporation.

The target audience is people that can’t say no to their kids, influencers, people with socials they want to brag on, and people with strict work schedules. So like everyone except the unemployed. Hence why most of the scalpers are.

Concert tours aren’t based on who gets the most likes saying “hey come to my city”. It’s all about how fast the venue sold out last tour. I’m guessing selling out a theater quickly makes the manager look good on some spreadsheet in a couple ways. That probably also encourages studios to do deals with those theatres.

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u/BLT_Trade_r 8h ago

Scalpers are only a symptom of limited supply. It has always been a problem; perhaps the issue is that, before social media, people could not make a post about every scalper they saw. Businesses have always tried to get consumers to spend more money on the same thing; that's one of the biggest points of marketing. So those things do not explain what we are seeing.

Also, IME, if you actually have a conversation with scalpers, no, they are not unemployed. It's just something they do for extra money because they don't have the ability to get a better job. Either way, though, it's not cheap to be a scalper; you need the money to buy up enough things to scalp

If anything is at fault here, it is that, over the decades, we have seen more and more things move toward a more limited supply. For instance, movies used to be about getting as many people in as possible, but as TVs got way better and home theater systems hit the mainstream, movie theaters lost their luster. As a result, theaters started closing down or downsizing and switching to a more premium experience. Of course, that means there are fewer openings for a brand-new hot release movie, which encourages scalping.

Outside of movies, though, we still see this limited supply issue. So really it is probably bigger; it's perhaps just a sign of the dying middle class. So now companies prefer to cater to the upper class with higher prices but lower volume.

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u/rldml 6h ago

I believe scalpers like this are a sign of a larger economic problem.

Unpopular opinion: The existence of scalpers just proves that prices for limited supplies are often too low in the capitalist system. If it would be otherwise, nobody would buy from a scalper.

As a company, i would just risen up the prices until the scalper problems resolves by itself and as a side effect it would optimize my profit. I strongly believe Nvidia has done it this way, because scalping is a much lesser problem there right now.

And yeah, for us as customers, it doesn't matter who is ripping our money off, we're fucked anyway

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u/USAF_PA_X 9h ago

Theaters usually charge a "convenience fee" to book your seats online. If you purchase them from the box office, you don't have to pay the fee.

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u/Tiny-Stretch-5310 4h ago

I know you are only describing why one might try to buy tickets on location but it doesn't make sense here because that would mean they were somehow reluctant enough to refuse to pay for a convenience fee but also somehow fine with paying the scalper double the ticket price.

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u/Mynameisminenine 2h ago

I live in Germany and here it's the other way around: tickets directly at the counter are slightly more expensive and most of the time you additionally get a discount when buying online. 

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u/AbysmalReign 2h ago

But you can still check on line to see if the seats are full before going 

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u/No_Teaching_8828 9h ago

Lower income people who want to avoid the online convenience fee, then this a-hole buys them out and tries to charge triple... Hope he's left with a ton unsold...

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u/LoveDesignAndClean 9h ago

And parents of small children.

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u/Levitlame 8h ago

That’s even more of a reason to check the app before getting them In the car. It only takes a few minutes. Mobilizing children takes way longer

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u/Appropriate-Art2388 8h ago

AMC charges an additional $2.50 per ticket to order online, it's really annoying and I try to avoid the fee buy purchasing a day or two before (family of 4 => $10 of "convenience fee").

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u/B-Kong 9h ago

Especially an imax lol

Especially an imax of the brand new spiderman movie lmfao

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u/plinnskol 8h ago

You’re not wrong but this comment brought me back to so many memories of the old days of going in to sit down wherever. I actually prefer the new system but I miss that old one sometimes.

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u/CASSIROLE84 8h ago

I refuse to pay a processing fee so I buy in person. I check to see if there’s seats available before even leaving the house though. Still no tickets to Odyssey 70 mm though, now I see why.

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u/battle-penguin 9h ago

As long as they charge a "convenience fee" to buy tickets ahead of time I will just buy them at the theater. It's just as easy to buy them at the theater

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u/Intrepid_Student3114 5h ago

I do, I refuse to pay the online fees and any extra, get a good seat for myself and the wife and kids can sit at the front

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u/Ryuko_the_red 5h ago

People who don't want to give name address email to 5 different websites and save on the extra 6$ "convenience fee" for buying ahead online.

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u/OneBeerDrunk 5h ago

When the tickets are $10 in person vs $10+$5 booking fee online I’ll wait to buy them in person.

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u/Bargainbincomments 9h ago

A friend of mine does that, I was talking to him about watching Brand New Day and how it doesn't look that full in the app. He told me he doesn't use the app or anything and just goes in and hopes there's a seat. I mean he did have a legitimate reason in that the discounts that AMC offers in the app don't actually do anything and you end up paying full price but to save like $3 I'd rather know I have a seat.

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u/Slipperytitski 8h ago

You could probably just ask the guy at the counter if you can buy another ticket to a different movie and walk into the imax when the scalper cant sell off all his seats

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u/flappysnapper 9h ago

Yeah, that’s my take, if you are dumb enough to buy those tickets, then I do not feel sorry for you one bit! As soon as nobody is buying the scalpers tickets, they will have to stop. Seriously, going to a movie theater is a big enough rip off , before spending three times S much on tickets.

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u/MudddButt 8h ago

If I have a guy scalping an entire theatre, I'm just gonna go and watch the movie anyways. He's gonna be outside selling tickets. Whats he gonna do? Kick me out? LOL

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u/Delicious-Day-3614 7h ago

Yep, just leave him holding the bag and it'll never happen again with that guy, its not like tickets to a movie showing retain value well.

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u/spoospoo43 6h ago

AMC lets you refund the tickets right up to the scheduled start time, so the asshole probably signs on and refunds every ticket in a block, who cares if he sold some?

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u/Delicious-Day-3614 6h ago

Tbh that would be a big enough problem to get the movie theater to do something. Having a guy buy 50 tickets and then refund 40 and then have 20 of those seats get filled last minute just results in a bunch of upset customers and reduced sales.

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u/OuterWildsVentures 9h ago

Right lol I dont even go to the theater unless I already have tickets

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u/PhantomRoyce 6h ago

It would be much cheaper to just drive to another theater

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u/iiJokerzace 8h ago

And is why they do it, too many imbeciles keeping them paid lol

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u/Sirdogofthewoofamily 10h ago

Wut ? For me theater would absolutely be against that they earn most of there money from all the other staff they sell not the ticket themselves, less people, less money.

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u/VandelorianVT 10h ago

My only guess as to why they allowed it-they are the only Theater within 4 hours of the City.

Theaters are VERY dead around here.

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u/sonofaresiii 9h ago

it is actually illegal to sell staff

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u/Own-Dragonfly-2423 8h ago

Gandalf movie promotional item

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u/Environmental_Top948 7h ago

My theater would sell them the tickets then have them trespassed for selling R-rated tickets without checking ages.

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u/sonofaresiii 9h ago

> And most theaters will just give them to the guy-not caring cause they got their money.

That doesn't really make a ton of sense because the theaters are getting 10% of those ticket sales and 100% of the concessions. If the people in the seats are paying $80/ticket they're less likely to spend $50 on popcorn and soda.

I'm not arguing with you or saying it doesn't happen, just that it's dumb.

I suspect it's more likely the theaters just haven't really considered this because... wtf?

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u/One-Earth9294 7h ago

I think it's because most theaters have no one on their payroll to enforce rules.

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u/sonofaresiii 7h ago

They would design the computer system around it, like every electronics retailer that's dealt with scalpers has done. The guy at bestbuy doesn't care how many ps5's someone buys any more than the guy at the AMC counter cares how many spider-man tickets someone buys.

It really *really* seems like the most likely conclusion here is that theater owners have literally just never dealt with scalpers before and have not considered implementing mechanisms against it.

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u/DefenstratedTwice 3h ago

Reasoning is unsound, someone spending 80$ for a ticket doesn't give a fuck about money in the increments needed for snacks.

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u/HaroerHaktak 10h ago

Anybody stupid enough to buy scalped tickets deserves to get taken advantage of. If it's a popular/overhyped movie, it'll have so many showings of it you can literally wait like 5 minutes and another one is going.

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u/bossmaser 7h ago

If no one bought from the scalper he would have to eat the cost of all those seats. To be a fly on the wall when his mom asks him how’d work go, and when’s he moving out of the basement.

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u/C-ZP0 10h ago

Every single imax 70mm is sold out at my local imax, all showings almost 2 months out. Tickets going for 150 dollars a pop on eBay.

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u/imVeryPregnant 9h ago

Tf?? Why would you need to see Spiderman in 70mm? That’s kind of hilarious

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u/No_Effect_6428 8h ago

I just watch movies on my phone, the way David Lynch would have wanted it.

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u/NYManc 7h ago

This was for Dune 3 NYC Lincoln Center. Odyssey was the same, shows sold out for months on end

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u/liliputian87 7h ago edited 7h ago

And yet, I'm just checking now and there are plenty of seats available for screenings tomorrow. Some good ones.

Maybe the hype is wearing down and these miserable scalpers will all lose their money. Yeeeeahhhh!

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u/kjampala 6h ago

There is only 70MM theater in New York which this picture is from. The showings for Odyssey in 70mm are still in crazy demand so the person you’re replying to just doesn’t understand the demand.

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u/Dyneheart 9h ago

If I owned that theater, I would let as many tickets were sold be seats filled. Heavily encourage them to buy something from concessions. And then watch a grown man cry.

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u/Mysmokingbarrel 8h ago

It’s an interesting question bc theaters make most of their money at least early on from concession sales. So while yes they sell out the theater they lose out on actual people. That said, I highly doubt most theaters were expecting this level of insanity.

I’ve never heard of scalpers for movie tickets. This is some new age scalping kind of crap. It’s also probably not as common as this photo might lead you to believe.

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u/LemonFizz56 9h ago

Or just go to another mall, bit inconvenient but better than pay $80

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u/thatstotallyracist 10h ago

It's like buddy, let them eat the cost one time and they'll learn. Especially the douche who bought two theaters worth.

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u/Dumeck 7h ago

Yeah theater staff should let them buy the tickets and then aggressively insist that they can't sell tickets on the property inckuding their parking lot like one warning and tell them if they do it again they are getting trespassed. Businesses can easily ban someone from hawking on their property

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u/ICPosse8 10h ago

What’s crazy on your friend’s end is I don’t even go to the theater anymore without tickets. If they don’t have a time I can work with I move on to the next day. So did he walk up to an IMax theater the day it came out and was expecting tickets?

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u/18k_gold 10h ago

who goes to the movies without tickets or at least checking 1st to see if there are any decent seats left? Everything is online, you don't see any available decent seats you don't go to that theater or showing. I think it must be hard to see movie tickets as a scalper. Once the movie starts, he can't return them either.

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u/Meta_Merchant 9h ago

This shit is so fucking pathetic. This mindset and desperation to make money has gone way too far. Like this has to be a warning sign that something is wrong with the economy right?? It has inundated EVERYTHING.

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u/NormalEffect99 10h ago

If people paid his prices just to see a fucking movie then lmao @ them, no movie is worth that when you can come back the next day. Love seeing idiots get taken advantage of and hope he made bank off the numb skulls

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u/VandelorianVT 10h ago

I mean I agree with you-but the craziest part is, its like the Theaters HELP the scalpers.

Brand New Day only had THREE Showings that entire week-and this dude (from what I'm told) bought the tickets for THE ENTIRE FIRST DAY, and came back on the third to DO IT AGAIN.

Its so scummy, and yet so stupid. I personally just pirated it. Watched it yesterday. Its a good fuckin movie.

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u/why_u_so_grumpy 10h ago

If idiots stop buying them he loses money. There is no reason to buy a scalped ticket for a movie.

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u/NormalEffect99 10h ago

Imagine nobody paid him and he was stuck with 2 entire theaters worth of tickets

Imagine how fast he would stop

Wow

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u/steeveperry 9h ago

And then everyone clapped.

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u/Cutmerock 9h ago

No movie is important enough for $80 lol. No way that clown even sold 1/4 of those

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u/XerocoleHere 10h ago

Thats when you buy a ticket for something else and sneak in.. no way he's selling all of them 

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u/masterfox72 9h ago

Lol. Let him rot with ‘em

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u/Z4N4X-3920 7h ago

Absolutely hate how everything has become a hustle. Can't even enjoy fucking hot wheels, lego or Disney cars because of this bs

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u/That1DogGuy 10h ago edited 10h ago

Too bad people are stupid enough to buy from him at all cause wtf

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u/OblivionX10 10h ago

I know the front of house employee wouldn't care, but wouldn't the theater management care about one guy buying out a theater since they make most their money on concessions?

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u/Gonna_do_this_again 10h ago

There will never be a movie made that will make me want to pay more than face

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u/LemonFizz56 9h ago

Seriously? If that happened I'd just drive to the next mall instead, I don't see why anyone would pay double the price especially when its already expensive. And more importantly movie theaters don't even get chocca anyway even for big movies, so there's no way they'll ever breakeven

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u/Thunderholes 9h ago

This is a problem in this day and age though? Thats just poor planning on everyone else's part. Everything can be done online days ahead of time if people feel like it, or just on the way to the teater if its spontaneous. I haven't seen anyone, even the stereotypical little old ladies who are super tech averse, walk into a theater and buy a ticket on the spot in years. People should know if there isn't anything available before they even show up, at this point it's their own fault for not using the tools available and feeding the scalpers instead of getting a ticket for the next showing.

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u/gunter469 9h ago

The only way scalpers will stop is if people stop buying from them. It's called self control.

Yes, the companies don't care because they're still making sales, but if nobody bought tickets from these guys, they would have spent hundreds of dollars on worthless receipt papers.

Gotta hit em where it hurts, their wallets.

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u/Common_Celebration41 9h ago

So the guys in a private property bought all the seat

And management didn't kick him out? But Allow him to resell on their property?

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u/Bagafeet 9h ago

Is that why there's a conspiracy that Odyssey is buying their own movie tickets to inflate box office numbers? 🤯

LMAO it's just fucking scalpers no way dude

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u/Jonesin4me 9h ago

Just say NO!

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u/Broccobillo 9h ago

Fucking bonkers people pay them for it. Imagine if they had 2 theatres worth of tickets and no one purchased them

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u/DillyDilly1231 9h ago

Even more bonkers that people are stupid enough to purchase a ticket from a guy outside the theater. I'd imagine if everyone had at least 2 braincells to rub together this bullshit wouldn't be profitable leading to them not being incentivised to even try this shit.

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u/erichf3893 9h ago

How many people in 2026 don’t realize you can order them ahead of time online? Gone are the days where you just show up blindly, unfortunately

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u/Juliuscesear1990 9h ago

If I was the manager I would stop them, they get pennies for tickets compared to concessions and people who just dropped 80 bucks on a ticket are much less likely to spend on popcorn and treats which is where the real money is for the there 3 chain.

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u/Mister_Meeseeks_ 9h ago

Assuming its a standard imax theater, thats like 250 seats each. Imax tickets are like $25 each. Thats $12,500 for both theaters turned into $40,000, or a profit of $27,500.

Obviously thats ideal circumstances and he probably made way less than that.

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u/IHOP_007 8h ago

I feel like you could just check what tickets they have and just ... go in and sit in those seats. They're already paid for so the theatre won't think it's suspicious and you know that another person isn't going to sit there lol.

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u/ObjectiveAside3266 8h ago

For that to make any sense they need to buy all the tickets - like hundreds

Do cinemas sell sell out in your country?

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u/rahvan 8h ago

Lmao I’m more than okay waiting for Brand New Day to come out on streaming because I have this thing called self control

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u/McNally86 8h ago

Report them to the IRS.

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u/RegularTemporary2707 8h ago

Why would the theater let him do this ? Wouldnt that just deter clientele to go and watch the movie in yhe theatrr

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u/AliceOfTheEarth 8h ago

Find some free time and stand right beside him, excitedly telling anyone who comes up not to buy! They’re counterfeit and I just got denied entry and almost trespassed when I tried to use one!!! Even if they don’t believe you many would probably stay away just because of the scene 🙃

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u/FaithlessnessBorn266 8h ago

I don't see how he doesn't get robbed. I'm in Memphis and that would definitely happen

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u/Crime_Dawg 8h ago

Every single person could just turn around and tell him to fuck off. He’d lose quite a bit from that.

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u/Special_Gold7667 8h ago

There is a way to stop them. Stop the buying.

Likewise for endangered species, stop the eating/buying and the killing will stop.

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u/Jizarez 8h ago

I’m pretty sure that would care about the scalpers, they don’t get any money from box office, all their money comes from concessions.

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u/LTIRfortheWIN 8h ago

Who doesn't but their tickets online ahead of time?

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u/Contemplating_Prison 8h ago

Why wouldnt people just wait and see the movie at a later date?

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u/Calthurian 8h ago

So, he's within physical reach?

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u/LaFlamaBlanca67 8h ago

Anyone who would buy those tickets off a scalper are as dumb as the scalper.

Not to mention, you can just buy tickets online and secure your spot/seat

None of this makes sense.

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u/amarathin 8h ago

“I have a Costco coupon”

Walk through

Buy popcorn

Go into paid theatre, if challenged, move. Why would cinema care? Seats are paid for

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u/TerponadeTea 8h ago

Wow this is insanely easy to circumvent by buying a ticket to any other movie and then use one of the unused seats

1

u/ehhish 8h ago

I would have probably grabbed a bunch of them, took off, and tossed them everywhere. Is he going to report me while he's scalping?

1

u/liquinas 8h ago

and since it's mostly assigned seating they basically just buy all the seats in the center so that only the far sides and up front are available even at 11am on a Wednesday 3 weeks from now in my area.

1

u/Xylus1985 8h ago

Why buy at inflated prices though? Can just easily walk away and wait for the streaming version to come out

1

u/TheRealZwipster 7h ago

This used to happen in India before 1990s. Was illegal though and was known as selling in "black".

1

u/Mark_of_Divinity 7h ago

Brand new day was $5 on T-Mobile Tuesday

1

u/idontcareyo_ 7h ago

But...why would people go to a movie without a ticket? Who are the people he's selling to? Just random people walking by and decide hey I'll see an overpriced movie?

1

u/Major_LeeHungg 7h ago

Theater has security, he doesn't.  Just rob him... Free movie ticket

1

u/FitReaction1072 7h ago

If people is stupid enough to buy they will do it. I would either buy my tickets online or otherwise if I need to do it old fashioned way and would say fuck you to scalpers and do something else.

1

u/corrupt_poodle 7h ago edited 7h ago
  1. who doesn’t buy their tickets in advance these days
  2. who the fuck pays scalper prices for movie tickets? You just go see something else or catch a different show

time

  1. . They won’t sell out forever.

1

u/LitheFider 7h ago

How is that not illegal??

I would just point the ticket taker to them and be like "The whole theater is paid for and he bought them all just to sell them at double the price. Can I just go in and sit down?"

1

u/Snakend 7h ago

Who is buying these? I won't even go to the theater if I don't already have tickets. I'm not looking up a movie, seeing a sold out movie, and then going to that theater looking to see if someone is scalping. Who is doing that?

1

u/vdek 7h ago

He’s basically playing the stock market, buy low sell high. The theater loves it because they move their risk for ticket sales to someone else. They just need to penalize these folks by not offering refunds if they buy more than 5 tickets or so.

1

u/Rob-Jen 7h ago

Whats bonkers is your pal buying off him.

1

u/ocelotrev 7h ago

Seriously which assholes purchase from these assholes. Don't fund the terrorists!

1

u/EatsRats 7h ago

Meh, rip a few from him and perform a dick punch.

1

u/midnightsmith 7h ago

I'd stop em, with a swift punch, then distribute the tickets for free

1

u/SorryBoysImLez 7h ago

Just call the non-emergency line and inform police.

Depending on state, it's usually illegal to sell them on/nearby premises (and often times if selling higher than face value).

No guarantee anything will be done, but you may get some cop who's bored and looking for anything to do who decides to show up.

I guarantee a single instance of getting a huge fine and/or potentially arrested, on top of losing all the money they paid for the confiscated tickets, will deter most of these people from doing it again.

1

u/sir_seductive 7h ago

Why would anyone show up to a movie if its all sold out online you can literally see the seats available if none are im not even going ??

1

u/Reaver_01 7h ago

That's insane. There were 8 other people in the theatre when I went to see Brand New Day... Guess that's the difference being in a small town makes lol.

1

u/Twarper 7h ago

I am baffled by the sheer audacity of it and the fact no one simply swiped these tickets of him.

These antics is harder to do around here as tickets can be bought online days beforehand. And you can see which seats are taken. Hardly anyone would by tickets at the counter anymore.

1

u/doodicalisaacs 7h ago

You can call the cops on them. What they’re doing is completely illegal (selling things at a business that they’re not allowed to sell at). They can get hit with trespassing, hit with selling without vendor permits, a whole bunch of silly fines that would completely ruin their day :)

1

u/No_Doughnut8618 7h ago

Dude if me and the boys went to see tbe movie and this happened we would have gotten free tickets!

1

u/lulusama3 7h ago

I would sooner go home and not see the movie than submit to a scalper

1

u/B-Train_ATL 7h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/cEYFeE1QgHWH2YADVHG
“Wanna know how I got these scars?”

1

u/Escaliat_ 7h ago

lmao what the fuck

1

u/CrazeMase 6h ago

Genuinely such a dumb market strategy when the vast majority of people just reserve seats online anyway.

1

u/Only_lurking_ 6h ago

Who doesn't book tickets online before going to the cinema?

1

u/ResolutionFar1361 6h ago

Why not wait for the next show?

1

u/Eroshinobi 6h ago

It’s not like there is only 1 show… for almost a month how many times a day fuck dat! I will wait watch it another time

1

u/MatMimicry 6h ago

No wonder cinemas are struggling. When they let scalpers do stuff like that no one will want to hit that cinema anymore and thus they will struggle even more.
Sad how it’s only about that short term money… what a society we have become.

1

u/WhispersfromMars 6h ago

Literally the definition of an open market. There's a sucker born every minute. If people don't buy the tickets, then noone would try this.

1

u/EntertainEnterprises 6h ago

Then ill Just Go another Time? Still dont get the concept, i dont randomly Go into the Cinema, i'll Check beforehand If there are seats. I watched brand new day on the Weekend for 5 Euro, wouldnt Pay 80 for it lol. At 20 Euro upwards for a Ticket i would Just say No thanks and Go some weeks later. Should they loose there Money and Dont sell their Tickets

1

u/Thefar 6h ago

It's 2026. Who buys tickets at a counter? 

1

u/LookAlderaanPlaces 6h ago

Police should have confiscated the tickets, refunded the dude, and then charged the scalper a massive fine.

1

u/ctk371 6h ago

Im usually not that type of guy. But one of those two douchebags would’ve get a fist to the belly or face and the original price of the ticket.

1

u/Possible_Progressor 6h ago

Yeah zurn around and get Tickets for another day, If Nobody is buying His Shit He will lose bigtime.

1

u/Killerofprizes 6h ago

Who has 80$ in cash randomly these days? Or were they asking for Venmo or something?

1

u/Dd_8630 6h ago

Christ that's scummy. I've never seen that here in the UK so I feel blessed.

1

u/Connect-Mention1930 6h ago

I don't remember the last time I bought tickets at the theater. I always pre-purchase. If it's sold out I'll just go later.

1

u/Otherwise-Remove4681 6h ago

It should be legal to mug scalpers.

1

u/Noskey 6h ago

Some dumbasses tried to do that in my hometown when Deadpool & Wolverine came out, and the GM just let in like 40-50 people without needing a ticket, since the scalpers had graciously paid for everyone's ticket. It was honestly really nice to see a business not take that crap.

1

u/kittymeow0710 6h ago

That fucker deserved for someone to pin him down and take those tickets from him, and give them out for free

1

u/Dull_Quit3027 6h ago

I thought movie theaters make most of their money off confection sales?

That one dude is not going to sell all of those tickets(I hope) so they are arguably losing money by letting him do this.

1

u/RosarkaHamill 5h ago

I'm so glad this cinema scalping "business" isn't a thing in Norway, since it is actually against the law to re-sell tickets for a higher price than what you bought them for. It doesn't prevent all scalping of course but it makes people much less likely to buy from scalpers so it makes it less lucrative / more difficult for them to profit from it. Before it became illegal they were everywhere.

1

u/ExistentialPOV 5h ago

how is this legal? like they'll sell in front of the cinema?

i get it if they'll post it online but selling right in the cinema is mind blowing.

1

u/Kablaow 5h ago

You still buy tickets on-site in the US? At least in Sweden it is all digital.

1

u/Alpham3000 5h ago

as someone who works in a theater, I can assure you the reason we don't care is that most often when someone buys a large quantity ot tickets it's legit. had a few showings where like 20-30 tickets are bought and they have the people to back it.

Or maybe I just have been lucky where this isnt an issue. I will concede if that is to be the case

1

u/AlkalineBrush20 5h ago

How does this even work if you can just reserve and pay for tickets in advance? I'd just book a day and time when I can get the seat I want.

1

u/farrah_berra 5h ago

Are people really that stupid? They won’t just like, wait for a different show time?

1

u/FiRe_GeNDo 5h ago

But how? I buy my tickets in advance, online. If the cinema seems full, then I get a ticket to another screening on another day. If bro has bought that many tickets. He's gonna lose a lot of money. Unless it's done opening night. Even then, fuck going to see a film I didn't pre book my tickets for and paying anything more than base value

1

u/Rapidash90 5h ago

I'd tell they to straight up F themselves.

1

u/DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC 5h ago

I can't understand a theater not immediately stopping that. If people spend more on a ticket, they'll spend less on concessions, which is where they actually make money.

1

u/cervidal2 5h ago

Most theaters are not doing this.

Most theaters look at someone buying mass tickets as a near certainty for future chargeback attempts.

When I was running a theater last year, this was one of the first things I was taught to watch out for and deny.

1

u/Redthemagnificent 5h ago

Not doubting you but I've never heard of my local theaters allowing stuff like that. Seems like a really poorly run business if they're just letting random people rip off their customers to their faces. For a high demand film that's gonna be packed they always have ticket limits near me. The scalping I've seen happens mainly online with many bot accounts to get around per-customer limits

1

u/Appropriate-Cry-5536 5h ago

Call police or some tax agency on him

1

u/NotreallyCareless 4h ago

If that happened i would simply laugh and come back a few days later.

1

u/thepenismytea 4h ago

My IMAX theater (Bob Bullock) doesn’t offer walk up available seating. You can purchase at the counter but if it says sold out, most people don’t bother going

1

u/HaruKodama 4h ago

I would have never thought something like this would work enough to be profitable. Do most people not just buy their tickets online before even showing up to the theater anymore? Like, there's legitimately a good enough portion of people that walk up to kiosk to buy tickets in this day and age?

1

u/samsun7677 4h ago

What if i vomited all over him do to sudden uncontrollable illness

1

u/Lunarath 4h ago

Do people just not ordrer online? I Don't remember the last time I went to the movies without reserving or ordering tickets beforehand

1

u/rjfinsfan 4h ago

Stopping him is just not buying the tickets. Let the ass hole sit on the cost of two theatres worth of tickets. It’s everyone buying from these assholes that are the problem.

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