Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

A few years ago, the brother president at that time, in one of his start of the new school year speeches, talked about our school pricing itself outside of the market with the yearly tuition increases.

I'm not going to be talking about that today; it's just a take off point of discussion.

In the same way, music CDs have priced themselves outside of the range of a significant percentage of the population and their spending habits, which explains the proliferation of piracy.

DVD sales have a parallel track, although the continuance of discounts for undersold items in the video shops shows they are suffering.

Now it appears that cinemas are not learning from this trend, as they are persisting on raising their ticket prices without raising quality.

Why have a locally made film available in a high quality sound theater when walking distance away the same film is available in a relatively low quality movie house for twenty pesos less?

They can't even fill one of those theaters on a weekend, so why waste the space and power?

Maybe in the end they make up for it by placing highly anticipated films in several of their most expensive theaters with reserve seating (does that really justify the high price? no).

But the fact that even those cinemas are full (and there are still lines at the ticket booths) means there is a higher demand than supply.

I believe that's it's also a vicious cycle that these crowds willing to put up with a little inconvenience of lining up and a little more expense for their entertainment that is making the greedy theater management think they can raise prices and still make money.

For me though, it's just not worth it anymore to have to suffer through far travel, long lines, high prices and bad angled seats to watch moves at those places, when I know and can choose to patronize cheaper, more convenient alternatives.

And, no, I'm not advocating piracy. I mean theaters that are a little out of the way but have cheaper ticket prices (to cater to the neighborhood) and no long lines and crowd (again, since the residents of the place are not as fanatically gaga about watching as those in the bustle of the metropolis).

If I want to meet up with old friends, I won't suggest a movie anymore, at least not in the malls. Maybe in a home theater, where the quality of the company can be more appreciated as well.

Session 1743 doesn't think that word of mouth about bad movies of popular themes will hurt his ticket sales. Class dismissed.