In 2012, the average cost of a movie ticket in the United States was $7.92.
This doesn’t include all of the (expensive) extras that you usually get roped into buying when you hit the theater, such as popcorn, pop and chocolate bars. We are just talking about the actual ticket.
In 1910, the average cost of a movie ticket was $0.07. Adjusted for inflation, a movie ticket in 1910 would work out to about $1.71 in 2013 dollars.
This is why the Motion Picture Association should have been measuring movie popularity in tickets sold, not in dollars.
In defense of Hollywood, the product is generally a better product in 2012 than 100 years ago. Maybe not in the stories, or certainly not in the moral message. But it’s hard to argue that movie makers haven’t learned some things in the last 100 years…