Movie Tickets Reach the $20 Mark

For the first time, a major Hollywood film will hit the $20 threshold at the box office, as movie-theater owners test the public's ability to absorb ever higher ticket prices.

The AMC theater in Manhattan's Kips Bay neighborhood will charge $20 per adult ticket to IMAX showings of the animated 3-D family film "Shrek Forever After," the fourth "Shrek" installment from DreamWorks Animation.

The increases weren't officially announced by the theater operators, but were reflected in prices posted Wednesday on movie-ticketing Web sites such as Fandango.com and tracked by BTIG LLC media analyst Richard Greenfield.

"With the state of the economy remaining questionable, we worry pricing is simply moving up too quickly," cautioned Mr. Greenfield in a research blog post, adding that he was especially concerned about how quickly children's ticket prices are increasing. "The danger is scaring consumers away from the movie theaters."

This weekend's price increase come less than eight weeks after theater operators instituted some of the steepest hikes in a decade. Those increases in late March—in some cases of as much as 26%—varied theater to theater and focused on 3-D and IMAX showings of another DreamWorks Animation title, "How to Train Your Dragon." The same AMC theater in Manhattan charged $19.50 for an IMAX showing of "Dragon."

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Parmount Pictures via Bloomberg News

This weekend's increases come less than eight weeks since the theater operators instituted some of the steepest hikes in a decade in late March. Above, "Shrek: Forever After" features the voices of comedian Eddie Murphy for Donkey and Mike Myers for Shrek.
.The $20 ticket may prove to be a psychological barrier too steep for some moviegoers to overcome, but the industry appears ready to take the risk, especially in the wake of a string of 3-D blockbusters, from "Avatar" to "Alice in Wonderland." 3-D movies, which accounted for the vast majority of last year's 10% jump in domestic box-office sales, also accounted for 11% of ticket sales in 2009, up from just 2% in 2008. That figure is likely to climb even higher for 2010.

While box-office revenues are up about 6% this year compared to the same period last year, attendance is slightly down—a reversal from several months of rapid expansion at the box office and a record-breaking year in 2009, when attendance was up more than 5% and revenues broke the $10 billion barrier.

Write to Lauren A. E. Schuker at lauren.schuker@wsj.com