Comic-Con Selling One-Day Passes Only For 2014

Remember how hard it was to get weekend passes to San Diego Comic-Con International last year (and every year, frankly)? Convention goers won’t have to worry about that this year, because there won’t be any to buy.

In a move that seems to have caught the comics world off-guard, Comic-Con is selling only single day passes this year. On top of that, anyone wanting to attend the preview night on Wednesday must have single-day passes for all four regular sessions, Thursday through Sunday.

Ticket prices have gone up too. Passes for Thursday through Saturday will cost $45 (up from $42 last year), and $30 for Sunday ($24 last year). Put it all together and it’s going to be more expensive than ever to attend the most prominent pop culture convention around.

If there is a silver lining, it might be that more people will get to attend Comic-Con. CBR’s Robot 6 blog thinks the show might be following the lead of the New York Comic-Con and intentionally making it harder for people to go for the entire event in return for an increase in the total number of fans who can at least experience part of it.

The official word from the show’s Toucan Blog is that since there was no longer a discount for purchasing the four-day badge, even having that option was repetitive, and people would but the full weekend pass despite not attending every day.

Reaction online seems to be mixed so far. We’ll have to see how it all plays out, but one thing’s for sure: demand for Comic-Con badges continues to be crazy, and that shouldn’t change no matter how they’re sold.