by Tricia
My husband and I haven’t been to a movie theater in over 5 years. My son, being 4, has never been to one. That is…until today.
We decided to take our son to the “big screen” to see the Pixar movie, Cars. Since we haven’t been to one in a while, we were unsure what to expect with prices. For the three of us, the matinee tickets cost $14.50. Wow. Then, a large Coke and a medium popcorn was $7.50. Double wow. Total cost of outing, $22.00.
Our particular theater was a disappointment as well. The picture was projected slightly crooked and the sound quality was horrible. I couldn’t believe that with the roar of race cars I couldn’t feel it. I guess for the amount that I paid I was expecting to feel the hairs on my arm rise with the roar of a race car’s engine. I’m sure that’s what Pixar had in mind with the movie, but our movie theater didn’t deliver that experience.
We will happily be renting movies and watching them at home from now on. They sound better and we can be more comforatble. And to think…I know going to the movies costs more in bigger cities. Triple wow.
$22.00 for three people to eat and be entertained for an hour and a half is only $4.88 per hour. That’s not bad if you ask me. About the same price as renting a movie from Hollywood or Blockbuste – but you got food too.
Tricia, it’s no wonder why the movie industry is going down hill. Crappy movies…high prices…bad theater experiences…improvements in home viewing quality (dvds)…cheaper home theather systems…
By the way, tim mmf, actually, for $7.00, they could’ve had rented the same DVD, got a bag of popcorn, and soda…would’ve been $2.33/person…not to mention no gas…although you’d have to pay for electricity. Although, that price for a movie outting really isn’t that bad. It’s $6.50/person matinee, so 3 people would’ve costed around $19.50+popcorn/drink=$28.00, around $6 more…
That outting would’ve costed $6.00 more here where I live anyway…
where I live, matinee tickets are usually about $8 per person, plus popcorn combo (8.99)!
so i only go to the theatre once every so often…
-S
I guess for perspective, I should add that when we rent a movie, it costs $0.99 (we usually rent older releases), a 2 Liter of Pop runs around $0.99 (usually someone has them on sale) and a bag of popcorn would cost $0.25 (4 bags for $1.00 for the off-brand). Total of a movie at home $2.23 (about $0.75/person).
I guess what it boils down to is that the experience for us wasn’t worth the price. The money could have been spent more more efficiently. But I think it was good for us to do it since we haven’t been to one in quite a while. It definitely got it out of our system 🙂
We took our 3.5-yo daughter to Cars for her first theater experience, too. Our outing cost a tad more than yours ($28), but the sound was good and the overall theater “experience” was okay.
Kid still can’t stop talking about that movie. It was worth it, I’d say, just to see her be so happy and enthralled for those few hours.
Michael – if that happened with my son (seeing him happy), it wouldn’t have felt like a waste of money. He wasn’t very impressed, but I think it was the theater. When you’re from a small town, you have to live with what you have. It probably would have been a better experience for him in a better theater.
Until we get one of those theaters with cushy rocking seats and DTS sound, we’ll just stay home.
Our matinee experience cost of $40. The ticket price for 2 adults and 2 chilren was $22. Then we told the kids we could have popcorn. Luckily the movie was great (as was the theater) but we can’t afford to do that too often. We do have a dollar theater here (actually $2) so we just have to wait a few months when we want to see hot films. Gotta remember that.