You need to make better choices. And btw, do you want some cheese with your whine.

To put it in perspective, the last movie I was really glad to have seen first on the big screen was Lord of the Rings III. I really prefer watching at home where the snacks are cheap and I can stop it anytime for potty breaks.

If it makes you feel any better, tickets in Australia cost around A$15 (US$12). Cheap tickets are A$7 on Tuesday nights which would work out to just over US$5. And that’s just the tickets. Don’t get me started on snacks…

Enjoy them Raisinettes and Nachos baby!

I go about twice a month so as long as I fit things into my budget, it really won’t affect anything overall.

It was a shock when my husband and I started dating because he always wanted to buy snacks, and we got in the (bad) habit of doing so. On the upside, we pretty much limited our movie going to matinees, which saved some money. Of course, we blew all the savings and then some on the snacks!

Now we’ve got an almost 4-year-old and pretty much the only movies we’ve seen in the theater were at the Kennedy School, which charges $3 for adults and $1 for kid. Truly a bargain! Of course, we always blow it there because we end up arriving for shows around lunch time and everyone’s hungry so we buy food. Despite the fact that admission is only $7 for the three of us, we usually end up spending like $25 total. (Part of the problem is I LOVE their cider. Not the alcoholic cider, although that’s good too, but their regular cider. Yummm!)

I do get most of my DVDs from the library. (No Netflix here, and pretty much the only movies we buy are kiddie DVDs that the munchkin will watch dozens adn dozens of times.) I do love that they’re free — and I love the Multnomah County Library in general — but there’s two problems:

1) You only get 15 holds on your waiting list and if you sign up for too many movies that have long waitlists, you can’t put holds on any books! And your hold list is tied up for months sometimes.

2) The very popular, relatively current releases are often beat up by the time I get to them and many are just completely unwatchable. I always notify the library when that’s the case — and hope they remove them from circulation — but then my only option is to get back on the waiting list at the END of it and hope for a better copy by the time it gets through another 217 people. (Yeah, they have multiple copies, but it still takes weeks and weeks.)

We very, very, very rarely rent something from Blockbuster when we can’t bear to wait for the library DVD (i.e. Harry Potter, etc.). We do that once, maybe twice a year.

Yeah, I’m really really cheap.

If you’re interested check out some of my recent reviews: Up The Yangtzee, WALL-E, The Visitor and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Save your bucks for more important things and check out your Public Library.

Rose

My husband and I agreed that it was worth it to see Dark Knight at the Regal IMAX, but he made me wait a month before going because the theaters are so crowded when a really popular movie comes out. It was a great movie and well worth the value of the ticket price. I remember buying some candy at that one (the movie was 3 hours long!), but that was for the bargain price of $4.

Usually for health and economic reasons we don’t buy concessions or bring our own, but occassionally I sneak a little snack in. I don’t see anything wrong with it because theaters should change their selection and prices if they want me to buy their stuff. The movie is running anyway whether I show up or not, so they are still ahead $10 for my ticket.

Last night we went to the Cannes festival and saw Tropic Thunder (crappy movie, some funny parts, but mostly too dumb to be funny) and again the loud, annoying people were a total turn-off.

I put the extra $800 towards my new 47″ Philips LCD– combined with a great sound system and comfy couch, I have absolutely no reason to leave the house for movies.

And no, andrew and I are not related.

The Space Station film was very interesting, and as far as I know you can only watch the IMAX version. The other two were good, mainly for the big screen rather than any 3D effects; I particularly liked looking at the library in BatB, where the shelves went floor to ceiling!

The cinema tickets are more expensive, but there’s a fringe benefit: people who go to watch a film at the IMAX really want to watch it, so I’ve never seen any of the bad behaviour that happens at a normal cinema (e.g. kids running in after their film’s finished in a different room, or people chatting on their mobiles). I wouldn’t go there all the time, but it is nice as a special treat.

I don’t think that a movie-goer is required to visit the snack bar, but if you want to eat at the movies then that’s the price you pay. I recall an article from a couple of years ago detailing the economics of running a movie theater. The contracts for first run movies are written so that the theater gets about 10% of ticket sales the first weekend and increasing amounts after that. If the theater only gets $0.75 of your ticket, of course they’re going to try to make more on the concessions. It’s your choice whether to buy, but bringing in your own food is just WRONG (beyond CHEAP) if it’s against the rules.

We’re a society. Society only works if we respect each other. So maybe it’s not breaking the law to sneak in snacks, but it does violate our social contract with each other. Show a little class and dignity, respect your fellow humans, and either skip the movies, skip the snacks, or belly up to the bar and buy them from the theater.

JD, I liked your rant but these comments inspired one of my own. Sorry for the tirade, but, darn, it feels good to get that off my chest! Sure wish I had a local theater that serves beer; maybe I’d mellow out about BYOBing it.