Universal Wants Cheaper Tuesdays : * Movies: The studio asks theater operators to offer half-price tickets to its films one day a week. Some chains will comply.

Universal Pictures is asking theater owners to cut ticket prices for the studio’s movies in half on Tuesdays.

The studio said the aim is to encourage midweek attendance, which has been severely depressed in the current economic slump, by “reaching out to consumers whose entertainment budgets have been squeezed.” But the policy is something Universal can only suggest to theater owners.

Three large national movie theater chains indicated they will go along with the proposal. The 1,700-screen Cineplex Odeon circuit, which operates in the United States and Canada, said it would begin “half-price Tuesdays” nationally next week. Universal said the Pittsburgh-based Cinema World Chain and the Columbus, Ga.-based Carmike Cinemas chain will begin the policy soon.

The Cineplex chain is 49%-owned by Universal’s parent company, MCA Inc., but Howard Lichtman, Cineplex executive vice president of marketing and communications, said his company’s adoption has nothing to do with that. “We’ve had this policy for years in our Canadian theaters, where it has been a success,” he said. In Canada, Lichtman said, the policy is uniform for all chains and movie distributors.

The initial reaction from elsewhere in the theatrical exhibition community was cautious. William F. Kartozian, the president of the National Assn. of Theater Owners, questioned how multiple-screen theaters would be able to charge one price for movies from Universal, while at the same time charging full price for movies from another studio.

In virtually all of California, full-price tickets for first-run movies are generally in the $6.50- to $7.50-range for evening shows, while on certain days, some theaters offer bargain matinees. If prices are reduced on Tuesdays, the expected cost would be about $3.50 all day.

In the past, lower-price tickets have been a point of contention between theater owners and movie distributors, who receive a portion of the theater’s receipts.

At Orange County-based Edwards Cinemas, which operates 300 screens throughout Southern California, a half-price Tuesday policy has been in operation for years.

“We are the circuit that pressured all the studios to let us show first-run movies at discount prices on Tuesday,” said Edwards spokesman David Fernandez. The result, over the years, has been a jump in Tuesday attendance, nearly comparable to weekends, he said.

At some Edwards locations, in Riverside and San Diego counties, the bargain day is Wednesdays.

In their announcement, Universal executives Tom Pollock, chairman of the MCA Motion Picture Group, and Fred Mound, president of studio distribution, also encouraged theater operators to lower concession prices, as a lure.

At heart, the proposal for discounted tickets was greeted favorably by theater owner association president Kartozian. “Anything done with the intent of increasing attendance is a good thing,” he said.

But in an interview, Kartozian said the half-price policy is “not sustainable” in multiplex theaters. “I’m not sure all the film companies feel the same way as Universal.”

“The problem is that people won’t begin to feel they’re getting a great bargain if they get a low price,” he said. “Instead, they’ll think they’re being taken advantage at the higher price.”

There was no immediate indication from other major studios about whether if they will follow suit.