NYC Meets The $20 Movie Ticket

All these 3D/IMAX movies have pushed ticket prices to near $20 in NYC.

The cost of movie tickets is rising this weekend, with seats for the IMAX 3-D cartoon "How To Train Your Dragon" soaring to $19.50 for adults at one Brooklyn theater. And movie fans say it's Hollywood robbery. "It's pretty absurd that in this economy, they want to charge that much for a movie," said Yelena Mandenberg, 20, of Brooklyn. Some New York theaters are boosting the price for IMAX 3-D movies by $5 a ticket, according to a survey by analyst Richard Greenfield of BTIG. The jump wasn't that steep at the AMC Kips Bay on Manhattan's East Side, but patrons there will find a top price of $19.50 for adults and $16 for kids. That's $71 for mom, dad and two kids to see one film - not counting popcorn - up from the previous cost of $59.

Regular admission tickets at most houses in NYC hovers around $13.

RELATED: It should be noted that most of the "IMAX" theaters in NYC are what critics call LieMAX, regular sized auditoriums with slightly bigger screens and the IMAX aspect ratio. The only "real IMAX" house in Manhattan is the AMC Loews Lincoln Square. There was somewhat of a riot at the AMC in Times Square on the opening day of the most recent Star Trek after fanboys waited in line for hours only to find a regular house once inside. It appears that IMAX will license their name to anybody willing to make slight tweaks to the presentation.