Sort of off topic, but almost the same can be said for music concerts. During slower or softer songs, people can be heard talking and laughing loudly. I get it, they paid their money, same as us, but we didn't pay to hear them.

With current TV setups or projector technology I basically have cinema in my living room.

As a kid who grew up in 90’s I would say it is easily better than what cinema had back then.

I don’t have that high expectations of sound/video as many people will point out that streaming kills the quality but for all its worth still much better than what I need to enjoy a movie.

The last time I chose to watch a movie in a theater instead of the comfort of my home, I went for the raucous audience aspect of the experience.

> These same people wouldn't bat an eye at paying $14 for a food truck grilled cheese and leave a tip.

This seems weirdly condescending, especially since I think these two things are very related.

There are two types of $14 food truck grilled cheese in my experience:

The first type is usually found at farmer’s markets or free city events where the cheese will be local and artisan, and the bread will be local and artisan, and it’ll be pretty freaking good, and remind you that you can make incredible food with simple ingredients.

The second type is where there’s a captive audience, like a music festival or a brewery patio. This is no free market: you are hungry, and you’re about to be exploited.

I find American society increasingly reflected in the second type of $14 grilled cheese. Movie theaters, sporting events, music events, video games, tipping culture, hidden fees, etc. etc. Exploitative business practices to extract profit at the expense of the customer. It’s like walking around being shown the middle finger at all times. And people complain about the breakdown of the social contract…

The reasoning doesn't particularly matter to me, honestly. Whether or not it they need to charge a second mortgage to cover the cost of the theater isn't really my problem; these are for-profit companies, I don't need to do them any favor.

Popcorn cost basically nothing to make at home, especially if you buy the raw kernels and pop them yourself, and I can rent a 4k version of a movie for like three dollars on Amazon. My 85" 8k TV cost me $1200 (refurbished, but still). For the cost of going to the theater with my wife 15 times, I can buy that TV to watch movies but also use that same TV for many other things.

Even cheap shitty TVs are pretty ok nowadays, certainly better than the stuff when I was a kid, and after I have to question the point of going to an expensive physical theater where there's a risk of some teenagers talking over the movie and I can't pause if I need to use the bathroom. The theaters might not like it, but regardless of whether its fair, they are competing with TVs now.

I don't know with whom you're arguing. I drive a cheap used car for which I paid cash. I rarely ever eat out because I resent paying more than $5 for a meal and inflation has largely made such meals disappear.

I don't particularly care about "living wages", don't leave yelp reviews, don't use reddit, don't much care if the bathroom isn't spotless, and couldn't care less about how the theater and studio divide revenue amongst themselves.

I do not go to the movies, except perhaps rarely as a date, because I don't care to spend that kind of money and better screens and sound systems make viewing them at home a better option.

Correct, you can't give customers a horrible experience at the theater and expect the theater to do well.

And you'd lose that wager.

I complain about movie costs while I watch movies at home, drive a VW that was under $40k new, live in a state with a minimum wage over $17 an hour, and refuse to pay $14 plus tip to a food truck that doesn't provide seating when I can pay $12 and no tip at a fast food restaurant that does provide dine-in eating.

Some of us live our principles, we're not all just whinging hypocrites.

Why can’t I have it both ways?

If all of those things are true, then the conclusion is that theaters can’t operate in a way that wins my business. That would be unfortunate, but it’s not contradictory. It also seems to be that pretty much true, as I see a movie in a theater maybe once a year.

I thought tickets had more standard pricing across markets. For a standard ticket here in SF -- (I know we're comparing probably the highest end to the lowset end here) -- its $22. For IMAX its about $30, at your standard AMC. Indie theatres are not cheaper and are often more expensive.

7 dollar tickets I haven't seen since elementary school

Not op, but in Norway, so includes 25% VAT.

IMAX opening week is a lot, $25-35. After a while it can drop to $20 or so. Regular is more like $20-25 opening week and drops to $12-15.

I don't bother with popcorn and soda, it's grossly over priced. Like $10 for a small popcorn the size of a pint. I buy a 0.5L bottle at the grocery store next to the cinema and some M (our M&Ms), maybe $10.

Though lately I've been going a lot to the local cinemateque. Not only are tickets around $7 regardless, they mostly show classic movies so seldom worse than the new stuff. They show popular movies too, recently saw Heat there, first time I saw it at the big screen since the premiere. Still packed a punch.

Google claims the average price in the USA is $16 with Wyoming being $9 and NYC being $23. It's $18 at my local theater

And worse, it's not even consistent, they show different amounts of trailers based on the movie/showing! If you show up 20 minutes late, you might miss the start for some movies and yet still have another 15 minutes of trailers for others.

Well at least it's not Amazon prime where they now interrupt the movie for the same ad/trailer 3 for weeks unless you pay extra again.

Fwiw I always enjoyed the trailers at the movies, no the other ads I could very much do away with (and I used to purposefully come late to shows to miss the ads).

Calling them trailers is a bit of a stretch; and only 3 minutes of ads? We go to different screenings!

Now that reserved seats are the norm, I leave my house at the specified starting time and never have missed even a minute of the feature film.

I hate this. Like the ticket is not expensive already, they also feel like feeding you ads.

And then wonder why people don't go to the cinema and wonder if they can increase the amount of ads to compensate...

Do they get first-run releases? Around here AMC has some sort of exclusive on that. And their theatres are disgusting. Sticky floors, dirty seats, just gross.

I haven't been to a movie in a theater in at least 10 years.

If they exist. None exists the in 15 mile radius of where I live.

unfortunately they are dying faster than malls… I live in urban area and my small theatre options re dwindling

I think it's more relevant to talk about theaters showing current new movies because that's kind of what Hollywood is focused on. I'm in a more expensive city where a weeknight non-matinee will run $20 a pop for a current release. Comfort is average but food is pretty solid. Not Alamo, but similar service level. Not unusual for a couple to leave paying more like 80 after concessions.

Avatar is a good example.

I enjoyed each one in the theater but I tried watching Avatar: The Way of Water at home and despite having an entire media room devoted to good sound, proper lighting well calibrated projector and such it was not all that great. The movie fell a little flat without the theater experience to go with it.

I saw the limited run in advance to the 3rd one coming out in theaters again and it was good in that setting, as a reference point for my experience

German here. I have never not had popcorn when going to the movies in my younger days. It is just part of the experience.

But in my days it was around 12€ for a ticket, popcorn and a coke. And there were cinema days with special deals. Or cheap sneak previews.

I would never go when paying for me and my SO is equivalent of one of my subscriptions for a year.

Good point! At home you can watch a movie without being judged on your choice of snacks.

There's nothing unhealthy about plain popcorn with a little salt. The added "butter" or other toppings may be problematic.

I mean you can stay home and have zuchini slices with cottage cheese instead of nachos too; that's not really the point.

Do Europeans know you can watch soccer without drinking beer? It's cheaper and healthier. Absolutely bizarre obsession you lot have with it.

Honestly the stench of theatre popcorn, and all the masticating around me, grosses me out. Fortunately it usually subsides.

That's not what fraud is.

Unless you have a private theater room its not quite the same thing as watching first run movie in a darkend crowded theater - and even that misses the social aspect for an anticipated picture

The communal experience is special

On top of that most people don't have the attention span to sit through a film without opening their phones - film is supposed to be about capturing your attention not just entertainment

Otherwise watch it on your laptop for all I care