Warner Bros. and IMAX opened Dune: Part Three IMAX 70mm tickets on April 6 — one show per day, December 17-20, at 19 venues worldwide ahead of general release December 18. Regal is charging $50 plus a $5 service fee and excluded its $21.49-$27.99/month Unlimited subscribers from using the pass; AMC is charging $30 for the same format. Most showtimes sold out within minutes. eBay resale prices range from $100 to $4,500.

1. This Is The Model Now (Adam Aron, Rich Gelfond, Cinema United)

Premium experiences saved theaters. People want to pay more for an event film.

People are voluntarily paying for premium, and that's what's keeping theaters open. AMC CEO Adam Aron told investors on the Q3 2025 call the chain is willing and able to raise prices across the board, and has framed PLF over-indexing as proof guests prefer premium. Premium large formats now generate 15.6% of North American box office on under 5% of screens. Avatar: Fire and Ash drew an IMAX share of roughly 14% of its global opening despite IMAX occupying under 1% of screens. Oppenheimer's PLF + IMAX combined for 47% of its domestic opening.

The IMAX 70mm experience is intentionally rare, and that's the appeal. IMAX, on track for a record $1.2 billion global box-office year in 2025, has reported north of 20% opening-share figures on tentpoles like Sinners, F1, and Final Reckoning. Director Denis Villeneuve, who shot Dune: Part Three with IMAX film cameras, told the Motion Picture Association the movie is meant to be an IMAX experience seen on the biggest screen possible.

2. This Is A Class Problem (S&P Global, Pew Research, Regal Unlimited subscribers)

Frequent moviegoers have collapsed from 39% to 17% of the audience. Two-thirds blame cost. $50 is not the answer.

Going to the movies used to be mass entertainment. S&P Global's October 2025 analysis found 66% of moviegoers attending less often blamed cost, and frequent moviegoers had collapsed from 39% to 17%. Pew Research's March 2026 report found 64% of upper-income, 57% of middle-income, and only 43% of lower-income Americans had been to a movie theater in the past year — a 21-point gap. A $50 ticket before parking, popcorn, or a date moves the activity from casual outing to luxury experience.

Excluding loyal subscribers from the biggest releases changes what they're paying for. Regal Unlimited subscribers found at checkout that their pass could not be used for these screenings — unprecedented for a new release. A monthly pass that doesn't cover the year's biggest premium screening is not really a movie pass; it's a discount on what the chain doesn't think it can sell at full price.

3. Manufactured Scarcity, Manufactured Outrage (SlashFilm, MovieWeb, Fast Company)

There are only 19 IMAX 70mm screens running this engagement because the chains never built more. The "premium experience" is a supply constraint priced as scarcity.

Regal at $50 versus AMC at $30 for the same format gives the game away. SlashFilm called the resale market an unhinged price hike on a manufactured-scarcity event. Fast Company framed the four-figure eBay tickets as a symptom of artificial scarcity too. MovieWeb said the controversy reflects a dark industry pattern audiences have seen before. When two chains charge wildly different prices for the same projection of the same movie, the high price isn't "premium experience" — it's "what we can get away with."

Sellouts in minutes prove demand exceeds supply, not that the price is fair. Globally, only about 30 venues can project IMAX 70mm at all; just 19 are running this engagement, one show per day. The collectible filmstrip per ticket and the December 17-20 limited window are choices, not constraints. eBay listings ran from $100 to $4,500. From this view, the $50 face price is doing what scalpers do — harvesting demand the chain itself manufactured.

Where This Lands

Where this lands depends on whether AMC stays at $30 or matches Regal at $50, on whether the Regal Unlimited carve-out becomes a recurring practice for tentpole releases, and on whether premium pricing is actually growing the box office or accelerating the casual moviegoer's drift to streaming.

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