Maximizing Movie Revenue

Author David Graser, Yavapai College, Prescott, AZ (David_Graser@yc.edu)

Abstract

The data in this project comes from the National Association of Theater Owners. The goal of the project is to have the students find the ticket price that leads to the maximum amount of revenue. This is done by modeling the demand function for the admissions as a function of price.

  • Content Area – Quadratic modeling
  • Time Frame – 2 to 3 weeks with mini-lectures
  • Published – August 6, 2010
  • Keywords – maximum revenue, optimization, quadratic model

Project Content

Project Letter (DOCX | PDF)

Scaffolding Resources

Technology Assignment: Demand Model (DOCX | PDF)

Technology Assignment: Revenue Model (DOCX | PDF)

Notes

  • The National Association of Theater Owners (www.natoonline.org) updates the data each year. The link to their statistics page is http://www.natoonline.org/statistics.htm, I add the data for theater admissions and average price at the end of the data set each year and take off the initial data to make the numbers of rows of data more manageable. You could include the entire data set if desired.
  • The tech assignments are geared toward a calculus class, but this project could be used in a college algebra class as a quadratic modeling or polynomial modeling project.