Cinema Chains Hike Ticket Tariff : Price Boost Comes Just as Hollywood Begins Releasing Summer Blockbuster Films

Several county movie theaters have raised prices, just days before the kickoff of what Hollywood predicts will be a summer of blockbuster films, but admission remains below the $7 ticket announced Monday by Mann Theaters in Los Angeles.

Mann, which bumped prices today from $6.50 to $7 at Mann’s Chinese in Hollywood and four other theaters in Westwood, last week increased admission from $6 to $6.50 at four Mann screens at Brea Plaza, according to Bob Miller, assistant to the chairman.

Both the AMC chain, which operates 24 screens in Orange County, and Century Theatres of San Francisco, which operates the Cinedome 8 in Orange, also raised prices last week.

Orange County-based Edwards Cinemas--by far the county’s largest movie exhibitor, with more than 80 screens here--is raising general admission from $5.50 to $6 at its Newport Center Theaters, starting today.

But Edwards’ increases are not chainwide, according to James Edwards Sr., the company’s board chairman. Two of his other theaters will be increasing admission prices from $5.50 to $6, but just for the run of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” he said. Some Edwards theaters will be showing the same feature for $5.50.

“We haven’t had any recent (chainwide) increases, and we’re holding the line,” Edwards said.

“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” the first in a wave of major summer films that also includes “Ghostbusters II,” “Star Trek V” and “Batman,” opens nationwide today.

AMC’s adult evening admission went to $6.50 at the theaters at MainPlace/Santa Ana and to $6 at the Mall of Orange. Mark McDonald, an AMC spokesman, declined to disclose previous admission prices or the amount of the increases. All seats at the chain’s Fashion Square screens in La Habra are $1.50.

Century Theatres’ evening adult admission went from $6 to $6.25 Friday at the Cinedome, while evening admission for juniors--ages 13 to 17--went from $5 to $5.25, according to Jack Myhill, the company’s general manager.

However, he said, evening prices at the company’s City shopping center theaters in Orange dropped from $1.99 to 99 cents, and prices at the Stadium 6 Drive-Ins in Orange have remained the same.

A spokesman for United Artists Cinemas, which has 27 screens in the county, said the company has no plans to raise prices.

The last major price increase in county movie houses was in the fall of 1987, when AMC opened its upscale MainPlace complex and a handful of theaters hit the $6 ticket mark for the first time in the county.