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

Men in Pink Pull Profuse Paychecks

Men who wear pink shirts earn £1,000 more, a new study finds.

Photo from photoXpress

Pink is unusual for men, isn’t it? It is a question of a man’s masculinity. The color is too pretty for a gallant character he portrays.

But it takes confidence to wear light colors. Men in pink don’t have insecurities having a pink bearing above his skin.

A new study reveals that men who wore pink earns £1,000 more yearly. Compared to those who wear the traditional colors, these men are better qualified yet half of them take the public transportation to work, leaving a lower carbon footprint.

The same study reveals that men in pink are twice as likely to hold a Master’s degree. 10% of pink wearers have a PhD extension on their name.

And the ladies love the pink color. Men in pink get more compliments and romances from female colleagues.

Pink is historically a man’s color. Men, for centuries, dress more elaborately than women.  The noble knights and celebrated kings wore exaggerated clothes. In the late 18^th century, pink was common shade for a man, says Bronwyn Cosgrave, author of Costume & Fashion: A Complete History.

Today, men are coming back to a freer fashion.  One in four men feels more attractive when in pink. “Pink is a colour more men have been embracing recently and it’s encouraging that they are not afraid to experiment with brighter colours”, added Stephanie Thiers-Ratcliffe, International Marketing Manager for Cotton USA.

Another color deemed feminine before was purple. But in today’s society, men in purple shirts get the most pay raise, and are more likely to drive a car worth £20,000 or more.

The generalization that “pink is for women and blue is for men” is diffusing. Pink, blue and any other color is now for men and women.

What color of clothes you look best with?

Sources:
Men in the pink; BBC News
The power of pink: Men who wear shirts of that colour earn £1,000 a year more than those who don’t; Daily Mail UK
Men in pink shirts are “better qualified and have more office romances”, says study; London loves Business

The Psychology of 9.99, 10 and 1200

People think an item is way cheaper when priced at $9.99 rather than $10.

Photo from Photoxpress

Price tags ending with .99 rule the stores. They are prevalent wherever you shift your view. Ever wonder why retailers do that? And you can expect certain category of products and services with price ending in 0, like $10 or $400. Even the emission of the comma in 1200 is a result of pricing studies.

9.99s

9 has a pricing power. Any item that ends with .99 speaks out “great value”, “sale” and “discount”. Buyers think that it’s the lowest price it could ever have.

People round $9.99 as $9 instead of $10. Researchers call this the left-digit effect. Everybody that has a brain is susceptible to think that way because that’s just how human minds work. And we are more led to round prices on the left digit because we see .99 innumerable times.

William Poundstone on his book Priceless analyzed eight different studies on .99 prices and found that sales increase by 24% on .99 prices compared to the 10s. Kenneth J. Wisniewski from the University of Chicago conducted another study at a local grocery chain:  sales of margarine increased by 65% when price was dropped from 89 cents to 71 cents; but it increased by 222% when dropped to 69 cents!

People buy more when the price ends with 9. That’s why we see a lot of .99s.

10s

A tipped polo from Neiman Marcus is priced at $150, while a Dolce & Gabbana leopard print bag is priced at 3,425.00. Both prices are ending with 0, and both products are high end. An item whose price ends with 0 communicates premium quality.

People get satisfaction on owning an expensive product. People are convinced that prices ending with 0s are upscaled; and prestige brands love it that way. Companies wanted to keep the reputation on their products so not all can buy it and those who can buy it will love buying it.

1200s

How they write it affects how you buy it. The longer the price appears, the more expensive we perceive. This is the reason why restaurants minimize the price on their menu with 29 rather than $29.99.

Commas and cents make the price longer; hence, increasing the magnitude of the price (at least according to our brain). 1200 seemed to appear cheaper than 1,200.00. There are less words in “twelve hundred” than in “one thousand two hundred”, so we think of 1200 as less.

Did .99s lured you?

Sources:
The Psychology Behind The Sweet Spots Of Pricing; Fast Company
Pricing Psychology: 7 Sneaky Retail Tricks; CBSNews
5 Psychological Studies on Pricing That You Absolutely MUST Read; Kiss Metrics
Party Like It’s 19.99: The Psychology of Pricing; Wise Bread
An Easy Way to Make Your Prices Seem Lower; Neuromarketing

Future of Money: Papers and Coins will be Missed

Electronic money is replacing papers and coins.

Photo from mangpages’ flickr

We get more incentives when we use our debit/credit card to pay for our purchases. Points accumulate to discounts and even cash. It is more convenient as you only have to scan your card, no counting of paper money and no burden of the clinking coins. I don’t see why we won’t use this.

Apple is rumored to be developing “Near Field Communication” feature in their devices. When brought to fruition, people can use their iPhone and iPad to do the paying for them. The latest software of Apple though has Passbook. It has the all the coupons you need. Another coupon managing application that is more accessible to most smartphones is Groupon.

75% of the world’s population has mobile phones (Fitzpatrick, 2012). As smartphones increase in popularity, its functionality of being a wallet is emerging. You can now use PayPal for store transactions, a leap from their famous online paying platform. Google Wallet keeps the record of your debit and credit accounts for in-store and online use. All you need to do is tap your phone to pay.

Money has changed many times, and maybe we’re seeing another cycle right now. It is argued that the oldest form of money is cattle, around 9000 to 6000 B.C.. Then money, well, became easier to tame as people used the “most widely and longest used currency in history”, Cowrie shells. And through the course, it became bronze, copper, leather, paper and gold (NOVA, 1996).

It’s rather queer that the modern money is transitioning from tangible to abstract. The future of money is imaginary but still agreed money. People would have to believe that they’re working for money that will go directly to their bank and accessible via their phone. They won’t have to see them. Oh, I guess neither will we see our wallets.

Do you like the future’s electronic money?

Sources
The History of Money; Nova
Apple Plans Service That Lets IPhone Users Pay With Handsets; Bloomberg
75% of World Has Access to Mobile Phones; Mashable
Inspired by BennyBuzz’s Future of Money 

Privacy, a Commodity

Everybody’s public unless you buy your privacy.

Photo from stock.xchng

I looked for opportunities to sell my phone online. eBay and Craigslist are good options but I did my research to know if there’s another way to sell it faster. After that, the ads in the webpages I visit are by gazelle.com, a website that buys gadgets. This happens to you as well.  Our activities online were tracked and the ads we see are customized according to our interests.

It’s not only online where we are scouted. Go to a store and see yourself in the monitor as you move in the CCTV camera. Travel abroad and they’ll require your photo for the immigration. Apply for jobs, sign up for a service, download anything – almost in everywhere you’ll have records of what you did and where you’ve been.

Researchers from the German Institute for Economic Research and the University of Cambridge investigated whether people will pay more money for privacy. People are willing to give their phone numbers when buying movie tickets as long as they’re paying less.

Carnegie Mellon University researchers countered this study. Their results show that people will pay 60 cents more for a $15 item to protect their privacy.

Products like Evernote, a terrific notes software, will ask you to buy premium just to get rid of Ads. If you’re poor, you wouldn’t pay for premium. You’ll stick with free and get used to the parties tracking your activities for relevant ads posting. If you can afford, you can buy and disappear just like that.

In this time where privacy was becoming a luxury commodity, are you willing to pay for it?

Sources:
What Would You Pay for Privacy?; The New York Times
Study: Shoppers will pay for privacy; CNet