What a waste of money - or is it
Before DH and I had kids, we used to go to the movies all the time. But then again, the movies used to be cheaper. So now the New Batman movie, The Dark Knight, comes out Friday night. I really want to see it. I was so sad when I heard that Heath Ledger had died just as he finished the movie. I love the series and love Christian Bale. I will miss Heath. My favorite movie he did was A Knight’s Tale. But now that it takes more than $7 per person to go to the movies, not including anything ot eat or drink, it isn’t worth it to go to the movies any more. Granted, when we went, we used discount tickets from our credit union so that we never paid full price for any movie. But still … who can afford to go see a movie any more?
Tags: movies, The Dark KnightRelated Stories
POSTED IN: budget, celebrities, entertainment
11 opinions for What a waste of money - or is it
Grace
Jul 16, 2008 at 1:28 pm
My husband and I RARELY pay full price to see a movie. If we “just have to” (his words…) see a movie right when it comes out (which doesn’t happen all that often), we use our BOGO coupons from our Entertainment Guide. Otherwise, we’re dollar theater go-ers all the way! Sadly, is that our local “cheap seats” just bumped their price up .50, but hey, $4.00 for 2 hours of entertainment for the two of us is a lot easier to stomach than $18.00! :)
Eric the Read
Jul 16, 2008 at 1:35 pm
My wife and I use our Discover card for (almost) every thing, so periodically we go to their site and redeem $20 of our cash back for a package that includes movie tickets, drinks, and popcorn. Sure, it works out to $10/person, but A) have you *seen* theaterfood prices lately? and B) hey, it’s free money, let’s have fun!
Kristina
Jul 16, 2008 at 2:06 pm
On the rare occasion I go to the movies I generally try to go to the matinée, or wait until the film hits the $2 theater in town. Other times I keep my eyes peeled for discount coupons. I recently purchased Disney’s Peter Pan on dvd at Best buy and got a $10 off coupon to see Wall-E.
Allison
Jul 16, 2008 at 4:02 pm
I agree that movies are absurdly priced these days. I think it’s now 10 dollars on the weekend here. Fortunately, weekdays and weeknights are 5 dollars for adults! And for us, that’s okay. We aren’t the most frugal people ever, but we try. And movies are something that we *really* enjoy!
NellieD
Jul 16, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Ok, this is terrible, but my husband sneak into a second movie almost every time we go to the theater. I was shocked the first time we were charged $19 for two movie tickets. On the whole the theater employees don’t care that we sneak into a second movie. On a few occasions, the employees have shown us the master schedule and made recommendations on what we should see. It helps that we rarely see extremely popular movies and if we do, we pay for that movie.
kellys
Jul 16, 2008 at 4:46 pm
We don’t have a dollar theater any more. We do have a $5 theater but it isn’t very good. And yes, on the rare occassion that we do go to the movies, we do a matinee. Don’t forget that you have to figure in a babysitter into the price of the movie if you don’t have family in town. UUGGHH!!
Lindsey
Jul 17, 2008 at 9:39 am
not to mention the price of food, babysitting and gas!
Frances
Jul 17, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Our local AMC theater just changed prices recently (probably trying to attract more people). From Monday through Thursday, all movies for everyone runs $5 a ticket. This is for first run and even at night. They also don’t have a problem with people bringing in food. I’ve seen people bring pizza, fried chicken, etc. While we don’t do this, we will bring our own popcorn and soda. I also have a moviewatchers card which rewards you with a free movie ticket every now and then. It’s the only theater I will go to anymore. Otherwise, it’s redbox.com movie rental for us! Can’t beat a $1.
Tina
Jul 17, 2008 at 11:16 pm
We vary rarely go to the movies, but on occasion we do go. Sometimes, Safeway has deals, that if you spend a certain amount on specific products you get 2 free movie tickets. We have done this and saved them for movies we really want to see. Also, since we don’t go very often, sometimes it’s nice to treat yourself.
KathyP
Jul 18, 2008 at 7:08 pm
When we go, it either a matinee or we go on Tuesdays which is free popcorn day. We take huge bowls with us and they fill them right up for us. Makes that huge expense not seem so bad then.
Dawn
Jul 24, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I keep an eye out when grocery stores run those promotionals when you spend so much on certain products, and get free movie tickets. We just saw “The Dark Knight” courtesy of this type of program. Regal Cinemas has a customer card that we earn points towards food and tickets. But we don’t go to the movies very often, not because of the prices, but the quality of movies has not made it worth it. We often just wait until it comes on pay-per-view. We just saw “Juno” that way, I can wait.
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