hi there,
It all started around 2002. Movie tickets at that moment were around $8.00 (and even far lower on weekdays and matinees). But they opened a new theatre in early 2002 - The Arclight on Sunset Blvd, near the corner of Vine Street. A brand new theatre - state of the art as they say, and with a novelty : you could reserve your seat. One thing wasn't that great : the ticket price. Ticket were sold starting from $11.00 (with some exceptions at $10.00)
(Now in 2013 they are way up at around $17.00 on weekends.)
At the beginning I thought it wouldn't be a success - it was only one multiplex theatre - but people kept coming and paying those high prices. With this "success", the other theaters and chains upted their prices too. And now, every few months movie ticket prices go up and up all over LA. (there are some places where tickets are still very reasonable, among them Universal's AMC)
And those ticket prices mentioned in the question above at $30.00, it isn't a miss printing.
One example : about 2 years ago, I think, there was Disney's "Cars 2". Well, tickets for this family-oriented animated movie were at $30.00 on weekends at the El Capitan, on Hollywood Blvd. !! And for the first weeks of circulation the film was in exclusivity at the El Capitan and couldn't be seen elsewhere in LA -- so those wanting to see that movie on the first weekend of opening, or as soon as possible, were in for a nice surprice at the box office at that moment.
And you could think that with the financial crisis we're in since 2008, they would somewhat "freeze" their prices, can forget it -- American Greed is well alive !!
Mike Dennis.