Today the husband and I were spending some time with friends and they mentioned they had just seen 21 Jump Street. They told us it was a great movie, super funny, and we should go see it. We agreed and said we would go see it later.
Afterwards on the ride home my husband told me he didn’t want to go see the movie.
I agreed with him.
The thing is, we actually both want to see this movie. It probably is funny and I know I’d enjoy it. But I would NOT enjoy paying $16 per ticket to see it.
Yes, movie tickets cost $16 here! For me that’s almost double what I used to pay for tickets in my hometown and for both of us to go that is $32. To spend $32 on watching a movie just seems ridiculous to me when we are trying to climb our way out of debt on 1.5 salaries in a high cost of living area.
Plus there are a lot of reasons I don’t think movie theater tickets are worth it:
- Seats aren’t always that comfortable.
- They do assigned seating here and last time we got the front row (boo).
- Food costs extra and is over priced.
- You can’t talk during the movie if you want to.
- You can’t pause the movie. If you need a break you miss it.
- Other people can easily ruin your experience by kicking your seat, phones, talking, etc.
After talking about it we agreed that we really didn’t want to go to that movie… or any movies at a theater! While we both like the experience it simply isn’t worth it. The last two times we went we had free vouchers given to us as gifts. Unless we get more of those it is unlikely we will be visiting a movie theater any time soon.
We will stick with the $1 movie rentals at the local video store on weekdays and what we can watch online via Hulu. That’s plenty of entertainment on a much cheaper scale.
We’ve decided our stance on watching movies in theaters. I’m curious to know yours!
How much do movies cost where you live? How often do you go to see a movie in theaters?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Movies are about $13/ticket unless you want to watch VIP (better seats, restaurant food etc) then it’s $20/ticket. I don’t mind movie theaters, but I hate sitting next to people I don’t know so I usually try to watch movies at home.
Wow $16 is a lot! And that’s weird that it’s assigned.
Movies are about $13 here as well. i rarely go either, maybe about once per a year. I also often go when i’m with my family in my home town. i think tickets are a little less.
I do think i have access to some ticket deals and such through work, but i’m just not that into movies.
In Los Angeles and probably elsewhere you can get group discount tickets from the theater chain. My movie ticket cost me $6 each. In theory I am supposed to wait 2 weeks to see a new movie, but if I enter before 4 PM, I can use the tickets. We still only see maybe one movie a month because there are very few movies we want to see.
Movie tickets are $9 here, but $5 on Tuesdays – so if you go on the cheap night, it’s pretty reasonable. Of course, the theatres around here are old and musty, and quite often will go out of focus halfway through the movie. I probably see a movie about once a month, but I generally prefer to watch movies from my couch – more leg room!
16 bones a pop?!!? Yeah, that’s ridiculous. It’s only $8 here….errr something like that? I haven’t been to a movie theater in YEARS! It’s too expensive to take my family and I’d need a babysitter for my 9 month old anyway. I’ll just wait til it comes out. :)
I rarely go to the movies, even though I like the movie theater sound. The main reason I don’t like going is I like to eat while watching a movie. However, I refuse to pay $12 for a popcorn and soda at the theater. I always wonder why they have to charge so much. Wouldn’t they sell a lot more stuff if it was cheaper?
I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie in a movie theater. My university shows two second run movies per weekend in a lecture hall that gives all the positives of a movie theater experience except for free. We also love watching movies at home for the reasons you listed. My husband and I will only see a movie in a theater if we think the big screen/sound experience will be particularly worth it for that film. None have made the cut recently.