Isn’t it surprising that movies, with tickets that cost around $10, often use vastly more economic resources than stage plays where tickets can easily cost $100?
Compare, for example, a live stage performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with a movie of Hamlet.
a. In which field is the marginal cost of one more showing lower: on stage or on screen?
b. “Bundling” in a movie or stage performance might show up in the form of adding special effects, expensive actors, or fancy costumes: Some customers might not be too interested in an Elizabethan revenge drama, but they show up to see Liam Neeson waving an authentic medieval dagger. Is it better to think of these extra expenses as “fixed costs” or “marginal costs?”
c. In which setting will it be easier for a business to cover its total costs: In a “bundled” stage production or in a “bundled” movie production?