Average US movie ticket price

As the price of a movie ticket has climbed steadily toward the point where you begin to question whether cinema is a luxury good, Americans have spent correspondingly more money on frozen pizza, a correlation that suggests either that movie inflation drives comfort eating or that both industries have independently decided that charging more for the same product is a viable business strategy. The correlation spans eighteen years and sits at 0.965, which is tighter than most pizza crusts and considerably more consistent than most movie franchises.

Movie ticket prices rose from about $6.40 in 2005 to over $10.50 by 2022, driven by IMAX premiums, 3D surcharges, premium seating, and general inflation. Frozen pizza sales grew from roughly 4.5 billion to over 7 billion during the same period, pushed by the same inflation, improved product quality (frozen pizza in 2022 is genuinely better than frozen pizza in 2005), and the economics of staying home—as movie tickets became more expensive, the calculus of a night in with a frozen pizza and a streaming service became increasingly favorable. Both metrics are, at their simplest, inflation-adjusted consumer price indices in different categories, rising together because the dollar buys less of everything each year.

Eighteen years of movie tickets and frozen pizza prices climbing together is a story about inflation told through two different lenses, neither of which knows the other exists. The movies get more expensive, the pizza gets more expensive, and the consumer makes a quiet decision about which one to buy on any given Friday night. The correlation is just the economy, doing what it does.