A long time in a small town far away, I grew up to love movies.
My Aunt Susie would take me every Sunday afternoon to the matinees. I saw George Bruns in Oh God multiple times. Star Wars. at least ten. My mother stood in line with me to see Empire Strikes Back on opening day. Movies were a big deal. A family deal.
This was before cineplexes and multiple screens. One theater, one screen. It was, like a big thing, when the neighboring town of Celina got two....count'em...TWO screens. Two movies to choose from. It was AMAZING!
Flashforward to the late 1990s. I still love movies. I still go every week. If there is nothing new of interest, I repeat one I have. I saw the 1998 debacle of Godzilla three times. Medium popcorn. Large soda. Ten bucks and I had two hours of escapism.
2008. As Mark Wills says in his lyrics for "19something", I have a mortgage and an SUV now. Yet, somehow I still make it to the movies every week. My extensive VHS collection are now DVDS and Blu-rays. The perfect evening includes a movie somehwere. I still love movies. Still rent them if I miss them in the theater.Even if I'm not that interested in the movie, I still catch it in the theater. Is it expensive? Sure. Dinner and a movie by myself is twenty five bucks.
Now it's 2014. My expenses have increased. I work two jobs and write part time just to make less money than I did six years ago. Money is tight. Yet I still love movies. I just don't go very often.
Why, you might ask?
Let me take you to December 2013.
I get off work a little early and head to AMC24 at Downtown Disney. I hadn't seen the Hobbit yet and wanted to. What the hell? I was already there. It was a short walk. I deserved the splurge. I only had to wait a bit for the next showing, which was 630. Otherwise I would have to wait until 745. I go to buy a ticket and the showing is in 3D and IMAX, so the ticket price was 18 dollars WITH MY DISCOUNT.
I was already committed so I paid it. Then I realized I hadn't eaten since breakfast. A large soda and popcorn cost me over 20 bucks. This movie was costing me 40 dollars.
Now I understand inflation and all, but when a movie night costs 40 dollars for one person, it doesn't become a viable source of entertainment any longer. And repeated views are limited to favorites only. I saw Winter Soldier and Guardians twice this year. I might've seen them more. But I missed alot of other movies that I would've gone to like Transformers 4, Gone Girl, Fault in our Stars, Neighbors and Maze Runner.
Annual movie grosses seem to be increasing, yet ticket sales are down. When a movie night for a family of four costs 100 dollars, it eliminates a good portion of the country. Just imagine if theaters discounted bulk sales, say four tickets, large popcorn and four medium sodas for 60 dollars. Still a steep price, but much more affordable for the average joe.
Or, say half price tickets for movies that have been in the theaters for more than two weeks.
There are options, ways to increase attendance and that increases profits. Yet AMC, Regal and the others seem to content to leave the moviegoing experience to the middle class and above. Well, at least you have Star Wars and Age of Ultron this year, theater owners. JJ and Joss have me hooked so I'll come, but I'm not buying popcorn.
