Cinemas becoming a rip off

I'm not a cheap skate or anything, and i LOVE going to the cinema and movies, but at my local cineworld it charges like £6.50 for a film, its ridiculous.

 

Try £7.40 at Odeon... It's shocking... but I still pay it. Sadly...

 

I remember back in 1997, I saw Gattaca for only £2.50.

Gone are the days of cheap cinema. Yet again the latest fashion trend of above inflation costs has put cinema out of reach to many low earners.

 

Does anyone know of any independant cinemas that show alternatives to the mainstream hollywood stuff in the south east?

 

There are a few dotted around, you could look online. I think independent cinemas are the way to go if you have that option, but there don't seem to be many around any more. The big chain cinemas (Vue, Odeon) have a near monopoly, keep driving prices up and feeding us crappy Hollywood pap. They rarely show the kind of films I actually want to see, quite a few new release slightly more interesting films don't even get shown where I live. Vue are like the McDonalds of cinema

 

have"nt been the flicks for years ........

 

Always enjoy going to the cinema, but even the discounted student tickets are shockingly expensive....

 

Aye, cinema prices have become silly, but I suppose they have to make their money what with rentals and DVDs coming out earlier.

 

hell, i probably only go to the show once a year, tops. there's rarely anything worth seeing, rarely anything worth the effort and money. i just rent online from netflix and you can get all kinds of awesome movies for cheap. i saw "what the bleep do we know" at the local cinema, though. i shoulda just watched it at home, since i had to reverse it a few times to get some of the points made and some of the lessons in it. i watched it probably 5 times, i still don't feel like i got it all absorbed.

we have those theaters that show past prime major releases for $2. the cheap seats.

 

Heh, that's a fun film, but I wouldn't take it too seriously, some of the stuff they quote, like the mood-affected water crystals is just blatant crackpot pseudoscience. There's a lot of really interesting stuff in it and it definitely makes you think, but I grew tired of the way they mixed pseudo- and anti-scientific junk with real science without making any distinction.

 

true. but i loved the physics. i watch physics/astronomy night on the science channel every week. i don't have the level of smarts to really grasp all of it, but it's so beautiful.

i really want to see "the pursuit of happyness." i'm a sucker for dreamer makes it big movies. and sports movies.

 

Good question, how does one go about evaluating the price of a cinema seat then ?

 

I don't understand specifically over here why there isn't a better matinee price at the cinema.

Back in the States prices were still ludicrous for a cinema ticket, but if you went to a showing before 5pm (sometimes 6pm depending on the cinema) the price would be substantially less. For instance a night ticket would be $8.50 but matinee would only be $4.75 (even on the weekends). I was annoyed when I moved here to find out the difference in a matinee price here was about £1.

When I lived in the States we used to go see a movie at least once a month ... I've lived here now for over two years, and I've been to 2 movies at the cinema because the cost is so outrageous. I would think if they made the prices more reasonable it would bolster people actually going more often because they could afford to pay for the ticket.


I must say though, in the area I lived in back in the States I was also spoiled a bit as we had a second-run theatre. Basically a cinema that plays movies AFTER they leave the major cinemas. The seats were just as comfy, the sound system just as good, just the screens a bit smaller. If you were hard up for money, you could wait until the film you wanted to see hit the second-run theatre and only pay $1.50 (on the weekends $1 during the week) to go see the film no matter what time of day it was. The place was ALWAYS packed.

The second-run cinema was owned by the same company that owned several of the major cinemas. I always thought that was a brilliant idea that should become more widely dispersed to more areas.

 

we've been going to the drive in. it's FUCKING AWESOME!! $4.75 for the whole car load of people and the kids can go to sleep in the back seat. we sneak our beer in and have a great time.

 

i hope the person that is driving isn't drinking ... especially if there are kids in the car


i have never been to a drive in but always wanted to go to one. all the ones near where i was from had shut down years ago, and i don't think they do that sort of thing over here.


love the sig, btw, kc.

 

nah, no drinking and driving. we get a whole carload of people. when i still had the suburban behemoth we had three rows of people in there and still had room for the lawn chairs and coolers. it was so cool. we'd take turns babysitting each other, since precious cargo is precious cargo.

 

that's good to hear. you seemed smarter than that, but hell ya never know sometimes.

btw do you actually own a sugar glider (the creature attached to the finger in your piccie - least i think that is what it is)?

 

no, that's a baby slender loris, and i really wish i could have one, it looks so wizened. i'd love a sugar glider, they look wonderful, but my cats would eat it and my children are small.

my latest guilty pleasure that i'm dying to see is ghost rider. i'm a sucker for sam elliot and nicolas cage...and comic book movies.

 

i like nicholas cage and into a lot of comic book movies (not going to say all as there have been several that have sucked) but i'm just not too sure about ghost rider ... i don't know ... the whole premise of the story seems a bit hokey to me

 

shameless lover of hokey over here. did you see the punisher? i love thomas jane, i just think he's excellent. it ws cute AND gruesome. can't beat that. i love the scene with the peculiar man coming into the diner and randomly singing some johnny cash style song then putting the gun down and nearly killing him. that was fun. the song was really good, too.