The cinema industry in Nigeria faces affordability crisis as a result of high ticket prices. On the other hand, cinemas in Nigerian urban centers are not conveniently located to potential viewers. Moreover, there is a dearth of studies that empirically established whether pricing strategy and convenience influence cinemagoer choice of cinema in the Nigerian setting. To achieve these unexplored objectives and establish a schema of the determinants of cinemagoer choice of cinema, a convenience sample of 323 cinemagoers was pooled in Awka metropolis, South-East, Nigeria. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the formulated hypotheses with the aid of SPSS Version 20.0 software at 5% level of significance. Findings indicate that the two external incentives examined, namely pricing strategy and convenience influence cinemagoer choice of cinema. More importantly, convenience has more influence than pricing strategy. Finally, the study concludes that the basis of cinema patronage is affordability and convenience. Thus, recommendations for Nigerian and, by extension, global cinema industry stakeholders were made in this regard.
Keywords: Choice, Cinema, Pricing strategy, cinemagoer, convenience
