Highest, Lowest Price of Movie Tickets in 2012

A movie ticket in Tokyo Japan is $21.5, but the cheapest in the world is just $4.95.

Photo from mconnors’ morgueFile

The number one movie in the world, as predicted, is The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part Two. The last stretch of the popular vampire series snagged $340.9 million in its worldwide debut. Depending on one’s location, the price for seeing the movie in the big screen could be heavy or light.

While a small continent in Asia sits atop the 10 most expensive cities to watch a movie, five cities are in Australia. The other four cities are in Europe.

Watching Bollywood movies is a bargain basement recreation. In the top 10 cheapest movie tickets, five are found in India. The cheapest is in Hyderabad. Seven are in Asia, two are in Europe and one in North America.

Top 10 most expensive movie tickets in the world

1. Tokyo, Japan: $21.5
2. Zurich, Switzerland: $18.5
3. Geneva, Switzerland: $18.5
4. Perth, Australia: $17.5
5. Sydney, Australia: $17.5
6. Adelaide, Australia: $17.5
7. Melbourne, Australia: $17.5
8. Oslo, Norway: $16.5
9. London, United Kingdom: $15.5
10. Brisbane, Australia: $15.5

Top 10 cheapest movie tickets in the world

1. Hyderabad, India: $4.95
2. Tehran, Iran: $6.23
3. Belgrade, Serbia: $6.76
4. Pune, India: $7.16
5. San Salvador, El Salvador: $7.43
6. Mumbai, India: $7.45
7. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: $7.61
8. Bangalore, India: $7.62
9. Delhi, India: $7.78
10. Cluj-Napoca, Romania: $8.15

Data from Expatistan.com; cost of living index

Any of the US cities did not fit on both lists; but since 1995, the ticket prices have risen steadily. The movie ticket price hit the all-time high in the second quarter of 2012, averaging at $8.12. The average price in 1995 was lower than the cheapest of today, $4.35.

Premium 3D theaters, higher cost of movie production and general inflation affected these prices. Do you think the price of movie tickets is justified?

Sources:
Top 10 most expensive movie tickets; Expatistan
Top 10 cheapest movie tickets; Expatistan
Movie Ticket Prices Reach All-Time High in Q2 of 2012; The Hollywood Reporter
Box Office Report: ‘Breaking Dawn – Part 2’ Bites Off $340.9 Million Global Opening; The Hollywood Reporter

Made in China

Why is it we so distrust products made in China, or Japan?

Photo from Martin Abegglen’s flickr

For example cars. It isn’t cool to drive a Japanese car. Why? A Japanese car costs less, is more reliable, more innovative. Yet we don’t want those cars. A German car costs more, is less reliable, and looks like the German cars 20 years ago.

There are multiple explanations I can think of. A car is no more just a means of transportation; it is a symbol of status. The bigger your Mercedes, the richer you are. This is logical, we (yes, ‘we’, the cool guys from the western world) produce cars for the wealthy, they produce cars for transport. It is a different market, in which Japan conquers, who can afford a 50, 000 dollar Mercedes and who just needs a means of transport, a car that fits a parking spot.

The other explanation is that we are afraid for change. Which is logical too, we like the old-fashioned expensive cars. They worked 20 years ago, we can’t say that of a Japanese car. And a car produced in Germany or the US sounds safe. The world that we know. China is too far away.

But what if Mercedes suddenly lets its cars be produced in China, because of the low wages? It won’t keep us from buying them and this seems strange. As long as the brand is western, it doesn’t matter where it really comes from. An iPhone is made in China, yet we buy it. The Meizu, a mobile bigger, faster and better than an iPhone, doesn’t sell in the US. We like the Chinese wages, not the Chinese brand.

What is your honest opinion about products made in China?

Is Asian Horror Better Than its American Remakes?

American remakes of Asian horror films tend to be overly explanatory.
by Deborah Bell of Seshat Travels

Photos are screenshots from Ju-on, Ringu and The Echo

For a good part of the last decade much of Hollywood devoted itself to cranking out remakes or adaptations of successful Asian horror films less well known on our own shores. Prompted by the success of “The Ring” starring Naomi Watts in 2002 – Gore Verbenski’s remake of Japan’s highest grossing horror film to date, the 1998 film “Ringu” — the marketplace was flooded with Americanized versions of East Asian flicks. Unfortunately for Hollywood, their attempts to cash in on this trend proved wildly uneven and produced far lower box office revenue than was anticipated.

Thus the flood of remakes dribbled to a slow leak. One trouble with these movies was that filmmakers on this side of the Pacific seemed to (wrongly) think that American audiences wouldn’t understand the subtleties and symbolism that permeate Asian horror. They replaced creeping tension with jump scares and offered slam-bang CGI instead of psychological shudders, and so ended up stripping their scripts of the very elements that made the originals work so well. But even a truckload of visual effects and a hot Hollywood actress in the lead can’t save scripts that lack true chills at their heart.

American remakes of Asian horror films tend to be overly explanatory, and usually resolve according to traditional Hollywood standards: with most of their plot threads tied up neatly at the end. Such ready explanations do not always exist in the Asian horror originals, where plots are often a lot more complex and sometimes told in a non-linear fashion, thus making those films all the more fascinating to unravel.

With endings that can be interpreted in multiple ways and containing cultural themes or ideas outside of our more familiar Hollywood horror standards, Asian horror challenges its viewers to pay attention and use their brains to try to figure out the plot twists and turns for themselves. This results in a much more involved movie experience than what the majority of the remakes provide.

The wise horror fan knows to avoid those carbon-copy American remakes and head straight for the originals. It really doesn’t take much effort beyond accepting the idea of subtitles in order to “get” Asian horror. “Ju-On” (2002, Japan), “The Echo” (2004, Philippines), “A Tale of Two Sisters” (2003, South Korea) and “Pulse” (2001, Japan), are all are excellent and incredibly scary films that deserve a worldwide audience.

But beyond the obvious first selections, there exists a slew of other fantastic Asian horror flicks out there that luckily Hollywood hasn’t touched yet. “Audition” (1998, Japan), “Infection” (2004, Japan), and “The Maid” (2005, Philippines) quickly come to mind as offering first-rate scares and/or psychological shudders aplenty. The Internet abounds with lists of dozens of really excellent Asian horror flicks that American fans may not have seen, but would greatly enjoy. I invite horror fans who may not be familiar with these films to take a look, it’s definitely worth it!

What is the creepiest horror film for you?

I’m a Tampa Bay Pop Culture Reviewer for Examiner.com, and a contributing writer at SciFi4Me.com, where you will find a vast array of sci-fi news and reviews, interviews and cool links to other science fiction sites.