A NIGHT OUT AT AMC MOVIES JUST GOT A BIT MORE EXPENSIVE.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

The $10 movie ticket looks more and more inevitable.

On Friday, AMC became the first chain in Los Angeles to reach the $8.50 milestone for movie tickets, jumping over the $8.25 price at several Cineplex locations with a 75-cent boost at four of its top locations. Most other local chains held to $7.50 and $8, although Mann Theaters - with no fanfare whatsoever - hit $8.50 last week at its flagship Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

AMC's move was far more sweeping, amounting to a 10 percent hike at 57 of its top-grossing auditoriums. It imposed the new admission prices for adult customers after 6 p.m. at the Promenade 16 in Woodland Hills, the Santa Monica 7, the Century 14 in Century City and the Rolling Hills 20 in Torrance.

AMC, of Kansas City, Mo., also hiked prices to $8.50 at several other top-grossing theaters in San Diego and Northern California.

``This is our normal course of business,'' said AMC spokeswoman Brenda Nolte. ``We review prices every few months and determine the level for each theater on a market-by-market basis. We only went to $8.50 at some of our trophy properties where we have outstanding amenities.''

Los Angeles prices still lag well behind the top price in the nation: $9.50 per ticket at Loews Cineplex Sony Lincoln Square in Manhattan, following a 50-cent increase in February.

``Practically speaking, $8.50 would be considered among the least expensive in Manhattan,'' noted analyst Stewart Halpern of ING Barings Furman Selz. ``It isn't out of line in the context of what you see in New York. In an environment in which monthly cable charges are going up as fast as they are, going out to the movies is going to look like a bargain.''

Robert Laemmle, owner of the Los Angeles-based art-house specialty chain of the same name, said Friday there were no immediate plans to boost prices beyond the current $7.50 top. ``We're just watching,'' he said.

Price hikes inevitable

But price hikes will be inevitable, according to entertainment industry consultant Kevin Skislock of Laguna Research Partners in Irvine, and could hit $10 soon because of unique pressures faced by chains.

Theater operators are being squeezed on two fronts - they face a continued need to open expensive state-of-the-art megaplexes but have been unable to negotiate better terms on dividing box office revenues with studios in the crucial early weeks, when studios receive most of the split.

``Exhibitors are in a very tough spot right now,'' Skislock said. ``They've made a very major investment in plant and equipment, which means that more people are seeing movies early on, where the payout is higher for studios. But the studios have been very reluctant to change the split with exhibitors, so the chains are going to be getting more aggressive on pricing.''

AMC warned last month that earnings for its fourth-quarter ended March 31 would be lower than expected, and analysts have projected a loss of $14 million for the period, more than triple the year-earlier period. Its shares have been down about 25 percent in recent weeks from its 1999 high, although the issue rose 56.25 cents to $15.4375 on Friday.

Movie-ticket prices have generally not posted the same acceleration as tickets for sporting events and concerts over the past decade, with the top Southern California price rising only a dollar in the last nine years. ``The price increases tend to happen in little spurts,'' noted Jim Kozak, spokesman for the National Association of Theater Owners.

Additionally, the average ticket - which includes all discount prices - went up a mere 11 percent between 1990 and last year, rising from $4.22 to $4.70. Kozak noted that professional basketball and football tickets jumped more than 50 percent during the same period, while Halpern asserted that the exhibition business should have been boosting its prices further in recent years.

``There's no question that part of the motivation of what they're doing now is to balance higher costs, but the fact remains that the industry has not been as aggressive as I believe they should have been,'' Halpern said.

Studios nervous

AMC's move is certain to reverberate at Hollywood studios, since the chain traditionally has not been a leader in raising prices, Skislock noted.

``AMC has always aimed to be the king of the midmarket, but given the huge investment exhibitors made, there is going to be more of this,'' Skislock said. ``In a noninflationary environment, people will raise an eyebrow about increased prices and think twice about it, so impulse moviegoing may decline for a while. This has got to make Hollywood studios very nervous.''