VILLAGE Cinemas has backed down on its divisive surge pricing policy just one day after news of the trial made headlines.

Yesterday, News.com.au reported the company had kicked off the trial at Christmas at selected Victorian locations including Crown, Fountain Gate, Doncaster, Jam Factory, Southland and Werribee.

Under the model, the price of movie tickets and snacks and drinks rose by up to one dollar per item after 5pm on Friday and Saturday nights, traditionally the busiest period for cinemas.

The trial was supposed to be in place until the end of the month, meaning it would have been active for the majority of the summer school holidays.

But in a shock backflip, the company announced today that the pilot had ended.

A statement sent to News.com.au revealed the trial had now been scrapped, effective immediately.

“Village Cinemas acknowledges that some documents that appear to contain internal pricing information for cinema tickets have been posted on social media and in turn via the press. We are currently investigating the authenticity of these documents,” the statement read.

“Village Cinemas confirms that we were running pricing variation trials over the summer period which we appreciate may have caused angst and concern to our customers, we can now confirm that all pricing variation trials have been stopped effective immediately.

“Village Cinemas is committed to providing customers with value via a range of attainable prices and promotions for the variety of experiences and concepts available ... Our goal is to ensure movie going remains as an affordable entertainment choice for our guests.”

Surge or dynamic pricing is a business tactic already used by ride share companies Uber and Lyft.

The pricing strategy allows businesses to set flexible prices for products or services based on current demand, which means prices are raised at the busiest periods.

However, critics of the Village Cinemas trial pointed out that it wasn’t true price surging, as the company was simply raising prices at predetermined times.

There was also no mention of whether prices would be cut during quiet periods.

The news broke yesterday after a Reddit user posted what appeared to be the new Candy Bar price list and a memo to staff on the site.

The price list showed that a range of snack combos would increase by one dollar while some popcorn sizes would increase by 50 cents.

Readers were outraged by the decision, which was described as “greedy” and a “rip off”.

Social media users said the decision would lose the company customers and indirectly encourage pirating.

alexis.carey@news.com.au