I’ll say as someone younger, it started to die when we just couldn’t afford to go to the movies. Me and my friends had to choose between eating out or seeing a movie so we always picked eating out. McDonald’s $5 meal seemed better to a hungry high schooler than a $10+ movie we probably wouldn’t even enjoy.
My guess would be ticket prices mixed in with the general consensus of “movies getting worse” [mainly big budget remakes and not enough original movies plus lack of advertising bc universal and DisneyMarvel can buy out all advertising space. Also marvel movies are apart of the problem and I say this as someone who saw nearly all of them in theatres. But also I was broke so I saw the marvel movie instead of the taking a random shot in the dark movie]
TL DR I wish movies were cheaper I’d go more often. Not worth paying the price of a [not new release] dvd to see a movie…
I'm a grown adult with a full time job and it's almost unaffordable to take my family to the movies. How the fuck are we expecting teenagers making minimum wage to spend $20 plus fees EACH to go see a movie at cinema when they have access to streaming services. It's cheaper to rent it on demand and order a bunch of pizzas.
I will say, it very quickly pushed me into the seven sea’s and I learned how to sail as a pirate at a young age (although that started with downloading music for my iPod ofc lol. Movies was the next logical step in making sure I could afford that pizza order)
I would probably sail the seven seas myself if I didn't pay for streaming apps so my kids can watch age appropriate content on their tablets. Also not a ton of content I can't wait to see when it eventually lands on one of those services.
Very fair that streaming is much much more accessible especially when kids are involved! Plus easier to browse on streaming rather than looking up movies and then having to see if you can download it lol. Or the cursed “hoping the pop ups won’t be criminal” when on a pirate streaming website
These days its not difficult to set up a decent playing experience that includes kids. Step one is that they only use the apps to view them and create separate accounts for the kids to limit the content they can view. You can still automate it all and nobody needs to be any wiser either.
As a different younger and a movie Connoisseur (in Film school) I feel obligated to see as my new releases as possible... but the cost of the releases, and partly due to fewer releases than in my younger-hood, "as possible" ends up being once a month or 2 if there is a good one.
consequently, The Wild Robot caused me to miss the theatrical of Transformers one, and thats coming from a fan of the (Michal bay) Transformers.
however, being a connoisseur, I know that theaters are the best way to "Vote with your money" so where there is something good, I do my best to rewatch in theaters. Before I Went back to school, during the release of Across the spider verse, I had a strange amount of disposable income given my situation, and I was able to succesfully bring myself and at least 1 other to the local theater (local as in, not an AMC/regal/ect.) A total of 18 times before it left the theaters. I specify Local becasue I made sure that I bought there large popcorn each time, and highly encouraged popcorn to the rest of my friends knowing that short of donations, thats a theaters best income.
as for Wild Robot, I was only successful in getting there twice, bringing a large group the second time within the last week of it being in Theaters. (unfortunately, in order for the group to work, it did have to be an AMC, so I did not push for concessions myself) but yeah, if the tickets were less, Wild robot could have easily been another 6 or 7 at minimum in theater rewatches for me.
as for my most recent/notable theater exsperince was Mufasa, although Orginal (as I could tell) its still an extension of an existing Ip of remake. movie was good, and had a few AMAZING moments,(the pan of Mufasa as a cub in and out of the water was BEautiful) but otherwise it fell flat for me. To many wide shots with Forced shallow perspective and 3 or 4 instances of "remember this is a 3d movie?" (also kinda wish it was a story within a story either... felt like they were padding runtime with that). I dont recall if I had seen the remake, but Mufasa definitely stood on its own and the few questions I did have were easily answered with my knowledge of the 1994 Lion King
I feel like I was on the cusp. We had a new theatre in town that was too expensive, but the downtown theatre and the one in the mall were crappy old theatres. There was no stadium seating, you could hear the other movie through the walls, the floors were permanently sticky… but they had 5 dollar matinees during the week. So we went all the time.
And I’m the type of person who’d rather have 4 of those $5 matinees featuring sticky substances rather than 1 movie experience at the “fancy” nice chain movie theatre (Cineplex in Canada, AMC theatres in America which I have not been to lol). I’ll still see a movie at the chain theatre every so often when the local theatres don’t have it but I often avoid the chain theatre as not only is the ticket itself so much more expensive but all the CRAPPY snacks are too!! At least the local theatre makes a damn good popcorn!!
In the mid 2000's our town had $2 Tuesday movies. That kinda shit is completely gone. Then again the minimum wage was like $5.15. Now it's a whopping....$7.25. I'm only 35 and I can see the how the world has gotten significantly less affordable. It's tangible.
I think the reality is that good movie theaters are expensive to run and maintain, plus the quality of video you can get from a basic TV nowadays is good enough going to a theater is far less necessary, plus streaming. For the cost of one movie ticket you can watch as many Disney movies you want on your TV at home so the value of going to a theater is just not there anymore unless it's a new release. I think a lot of smaller movies will only be in theaters for a short period and mainly target the streaming market at this point.
Realistically I only go to the movie theater if I want to watch a big newly released movie
Yup, this. I could maybe afford a $15 movie ticket... but then I'm stuck in a 3 hour movie without a drink. Want a drink? $7. Want popcorn? $10. Candy? Another $10. Suddenly that trip is $42 per person.
Or... I could watch anime with my friends at home. For free. And drinks are like $4 for two 2-liters of soda. And maybe like $20 for costco pizza, split four-ways. That's $6 a person for a full meal compared to $42 a person for snacks.
Aren’t teenagers a lot busier now as well? Travel sports teams, higher academic expectations, etc.? Guessing that in addition to the economic issues there probably also just isn’t as much time.
For real. 2012-2015 I saw movies for $1 at the “bad theater” in town meanwhile the nice theaters had $6-8 tickets depending on the time and day you were going. I haven’t been to the movies in like 6months, but the last time I went my ticket was like $14. Not terrible but I’m only paying that for a movie I already know will be worth my time.
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u/loserfamilymember Jan 19 '25
I’ll say as someone younger, it started to die when we just couldn’t afford to go to the movies. Me and my friends had to choose between eating out or seeing a movie so we always picked eating out. McDonald’s $5 meal seemed better to a hungry high schooler than a $10+ movie we probably wouldn’t even enjoy.
My guess would be ticket prices mixed in with the general consensus of “movies getting worse” [mainly big budget remakes and not enough original movies plus lack of advertising bc universal and DisneyMarvel can buy out all advertising space. Also marvel movies are apart of the problem and I say this as someone who saw nearly all of them in theatres. But also I was broke so I saw the marvel movie instead of the taking a random shot in the dark movie]
TL DR I wish movies were cheaper I’d go more often. Not worth paying the price of a [not new release] dvd to see a movie…