Hi,

I will respectfully disagree.

First, to compare the Guthrie, Orpheum, and State Theaters to the Norshor is unfair.  The Orpheum and State host traveling shows analogous to those at the DECC.   The Guthrie shows regionally- to nationally-respected performances with a professional staff, on stage and backstage.  We have nothing like that in Duluth, nor should we.  I don't mean to disrespect what we do have;  I don't think my colleagues would disagree that the Guthrie operates at a different level.

Despite those differences, tickets to the Guthrie and to the Norshor start at the same price point, about forty dollars.  Even if their quality were identical, there is a median income difference of thirty thousand dollars a year between Duluth and Minneapolis, but the Norshor and Guthrie start at the same price point.  

...

As to whether or not classic movies should be free;  I don't remember claiming that, at the Norshor, they should be free.  I said instead that they should be free on my TV at home.  

But as to whether they _could_ be free at the Norshor:  theaters make money two ways:  through ticket sales or through concession sales.  It's a choice to decide to meet the licensing fee by tickets or by concessions.  It is at least conceivable that at six dollars, with more people coming and with stronger concession sales, the Norshor might reach that license fee.  

When the Zinema would cancel its Sunday movies and replace them with free showings of The Walking Dead or Doctor Who, they were gambling that they would make more money on concessions from a packed house from a free show than they would from six people seeing "Weird Movie of the Week" for ten dollars.  The principle here is not identical, but it is similar.

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I've not been "disingenuous";  I just didn't spell out the math.  I am "intelligent and artistic," with no desire to prove that in my original post [which was about seeing a Spider-man movie] or here.  

I was arguing that a classic theater experience should be available to people with twenty bucks in their pocket.  
--Twenty bucks will get me a rush ticket at the Guthrie.  
--If I don't see a show, twenty bucks will get me an app and two pops at the Guthrie restaurant.
--Twenty bucks will get me two cocktails to drink on the balcony overlooking the river at the Guthrie.
--Twenty bucks gets two people into the West, or one person, a beer and a popcorn.  EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR. 

What does twenty bucks get you at the Norshor?  Twenty dollars doesn't even let me into the lobby most nights.  My Duluth icon is inaccessible to me and many other Duluthians.  That is "shallow and moronic."