As the holiday season came upon us and the weather went from tolerable to unbearable, I found myself seeing more movies than I would have the rest of the year. I suppose it is a good time to see movies, as the potential Oscar winners are released, so the quality of films should be greater, but I found myself wondering, is it really worth going to the movies? Not only in money, but also time, which I feel as just as valuable. If you go to a first-run, primetime weekend show, it is $10 a person, so for a couple, $20 to get in. Add in another $25 for two alcoholic drinks (still $12 for a couple of soft drinks), then if you want popcorn or candy, another $10 or so. So for a two hour experience, was it worth $50-60? It probably was not. Of course you could do a matinee show, sneak in your own pop, or alcohol shooters to put in, and skip the popcorn, and maybe see a movie for $10 total, but what is the fun in that? I am not sure what the correct price point should be to see a movie, maybe $8 a person or so, which is not much of a difference, but the amount it costs of popcorn, candy, or pop, is just ridiculous.
There are so many bad movies that get released every week, alone in a year, so I do find myself going to less movies, not only because of the price, but also I find it more and more hard to sit through two hours of a bad movie, only to leave and say “eh, it was alright”. To me, that is not entertainment. Of course not all movies are bad; I do enjoy comedies, and I do make sure I see the potential award nominated movies, and of course I had to go on opening night to see the new “Star Wars” movie. I know movies are made to make money, so the endless amounts to sequels that come out, and the majority of the movies that are released are some form of a super hero, so unless people stop going, we can look forward to years and years of super hero sequels, reboots, and entirely new casts playing the same characters. For my money, I think I will wait for most to arrive to rent On Demand or showing on the streaming services.