Ouch, if this is true. The only thing that might soften the blow is if they give member points for parking.

What kind of control does the Arclight have over the parking lot? When I made a mini-stink about the parking fee last time it went up, the manager at the time told me the lot was owned by the City of LA and they could only control how much of their parking costs they passed on to the customers.

I’ve noticed the city seems to own (or run or something?) lots of seemingly private parking lots and structures. WTF?

From what I understand that lot is owned and operated by ArcLight cinemas and has been from the start which was one of the reasons the parking was free for so long.

The City does own the parking structure… I don’t have anything more official handy at the moment, but this is from a Commercial Real Estate News piece on Arclight refinancing:

“The tenant mix at the property today includes ArcLight Cinemas, 24-hour Fitness and Kitchen Academy. Parking for the complex is provided by an adjacent parking structure owned by the City of Los Angeles.”

http://www.cityfeet.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?PartnerPath=&Id=13143

I would imagine the City and Arclight have some sort of a discount deal for the people getting validation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Arclight has to pay money to the structure for them. -e;

To be honest with you, after my 3rd crappy experience watching a movie at The Bridge in the Howard Hughes Center (due to very rude ghetto trash being VERY LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS), I can’t say that I’m that unhappy about prices of tickets going up in higher end theaters. At the expensive of sounding like an ass, if this will keep rude audience members out of the theater (where, hopefully, people who can afford to be there know how to behave, and the money goes to having more enforcement of appropriate behavior in a movie theater), then I’ll pay that price.

Sorry, this was just the 3rd time at the Bridge I’ve had this experience (my first time, the fire alarms were pulled by some kids in the middle of Lord of the Rings), and another time with a drug overdose resulting in a fight between audience members in the middle of a movie.

The Bridge…great theater, TERRIBLE audiences.

Your update hits it dead on. Arclight wants to pass on more of the cost of the structure to the customer.

I do love the Arclight…for many reasons…and was willing to pay higher prices….but they’re about topped out. I hate paying so much for parking…just one more little ‘fuck you’ by the management.
If they upped the cost, I would seriously think twice about going there.

If you’re sick of movie theatres, buy a Plasma sc TV. Kidding (somewhat). The Arclight is fantastic, but at somepoint they will have to raise their prices to maintain their “exclusivity” as an elite movie theatre. I might not agree with it, but maybe this is the first sign of it?

Though I would of course not like to see Arclight raise its prices, we can’t be TOO picky about paying $2.50 for parking. Though I may still be scarred from the ultra high price to park in Chicago (and valet). Maybe there will be even less asshats at the theater now.

Given that part of Hollywood is getting some serious attention from developers, is hardly surprising that prices are going up.

While $2.50 is a bit of a jump from the current $1 for 4 hours, we should be thankful that parking at the Arclight isn’t as bad as some places in LA. Try parking in a lot near Cedars Sinai and you will get hit for around $2 per 20 minutes (max around $11).

But I do think that the Arclight experience is worth paying the extra simply to avoid all the mess that you get at other cinemas.