Seeing movies used to be a weekly ritual of mine; In the past few years, I’m lucky to find a movie worth going out to see. If I strike that luck and find a movie, going to the theaters then becomes a big event, like a party, and no longer a casual Friday night. Unless I want to empty my wallet, spending money at the theater on a microwaved hot dog, soggy popcorn and soda that goes flat before the movie starts is not an option. These reasons and more are why no one wants to go to the theaters anymore and would rather wait for the movie to release on streaming. In short, movie culture is dying.
A typical price for a movie ticket on a Friday night can cost around $18.00, if not more, depending on the movie. Likely, you would want to have something to eat and drink when you’re watching the movie, such as a soda and popcorn. If that’s the case, then a combo of a large drink, large popcorn and candy will cost $24.87 at AMC. Adding all of this together, this will cost a single person over $40, and when you’re able to cut this cost down a staggering amount by watching a movie and eating at home, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to be going out to the theaters.
The starting time for a movie depicted on the theater’s website is often misleading. Realistically, the movie won’t begin until about 30 minutes after the said time, with the commercials that run for the early arrivers often continuing for a few minutes past the start time. Once the commercials finally end, it’s time for the countless trailers to run. I personally enjoy trailers, but when there are 15 of them, ones I’ve seen countless times, or trailers just completely unrelated to the movie that I came to watch, I feel like I’m wasting my time and start to regret even going out to the theaters.
With all these negatives, it feels as though there’s no point in going to movie theaters, but that isn’t the point I want to make. There are solutions out there; you could still see a movie without the extreme price, it just takes searching and accommodations. AMC Theaters offers a “AMC Stubs Insider” membership that is free to sign up for. With Stubs Insider, movies on Tuesday and Wednesday are 50% off. Also, with membership, popcorn refills are free, and from my experience, you can ask for your “refill” before you finish the first bucket, getting another large popcorn on the side. Therefore, if you’re with someone else, there’s no need to buy a separate large popcorn, which would save you money.
AMC also has a point system within Stubs Insider, like almost all other places nowadays, so if you visit the theaters frequently, receiving more discounts won’t be difficult. These promos are just a few of the discounts offered, and while a cheap Friday night movie may be hard to find, making accommodations in your schedule can help you get into the theaters more often. If waiting through a series of movie trailers isn’t something you want to do, don’t be afraid to arrive a little later than the movie’s stated start time.
Streaming is still far more accommodating to people than going to the theaters, so even with these solutions, it may seem there’s no point in going to the theaters. Why I care so much about getting people back into the theaters is because movies are a major part of who I am, so much so that it’s become the industry I want to enter after I finish schooling. With AI creeping into the arts and attention spans shrinking due to social media, the success of movies is at far greater risk than ever before.
The box office profits that come from theaters are where most films make back a majority of their costs. For original films or smaller-budget films, it’s far more important that they see popularity in theaters, as it can decide whether the creators of that film can achieve future success or not, and if original films can still receive a well-sized budget from studios. Thus, by going to the theaters, you are supporting artists, and films won’t degrade to only sequels or remakes that go straight to streaming.
