I live 40 miles from a theatre so normally if I’m going to see a movie it’s something I’ve been looking forward to.
Probably two or three times a month, usually the first Sunday matinee. But if we get a wide-screen HDTV with decent sound, I might just forget about the theater. Two tickets cost as much as buying a DVD; you pay for the privilege of seeing commercials; a lot of theaters don’t seem to have a competent projectionist; there’s the idiot factor, etc. Movie theaters (at least the multiplexes I’m familiar with) don’t seem to be doing much to make the patron happy about spending his money there.
All of which makes me sad. A good theater, with a really big screen, good projection and a good sound system, provides a movie-watching experience you can’t get anywhere else.
I’ll answer this b/c I had a similar answer. I live in downtown Toronto and am within walking distance of 5 theatres, all multiplexes (not including a few smaller ones). Three of these will play the limited release movies that don’t show anywhere else in Canada (besides maybe Vancouver or Montreal). Even going to this many movies there are still plenty that I miss. In fact in certain months (May, June, July, November, December) I could probably see a different movie every day and not double up (time and money doesn’t permit it, however).
Yeah, same here. As many movies as I see, I’m always missing ones I wanted to see. I do see some movies that I really like a couple/three times, and every year there are favorites that I’ll see numerous times (this year it was The Fall, which I saw 9 times in the theater, while last year it was There Will Be Blood, which I saw 8 times in the theater) but in general, there’s so much to choose from I don’t have to repeat if I don’t want to.
Another same here. It really is the advantage of being a movie lover, having a certain amount of disposable income, with no time obligations (like having kids), and living in a big city. I could see many more movies than I do, and I always kick myself when I miss something I planned to see but it left the theaters before I got my ass out to see it.
I’m so thankful I don’t have the problems others do that prevents them from going to the theater, including minding the ads and previews. I love previews! I love watching them, plus they give a cushion of time if I’m running late. I don’t understand the complaint about ads. No theater I’ve ever been to runs ads after the published start time of the film, so I’m not “paying for ads.” I’m paying for the movie, and previews have been a part of the movie experience since, well, since whenever they first started showing previews. The ads, shown in the “dead time” before the published start time of the film, are easily ignored and help offset the theater’s overhead (since studios get the biggest chunk of the box office) so I don’t mind.
I very rarely go now that my son is in high school. There are apparently aspects of my behaivior at theaters that embarrasses him, so the last time that we went to a movie, he made a list of things that I can no longer do:
- I must not complain at how long the line is to get in.
- I cannot act surprised at how much ticket prices are these days.
- I cannot be outraged at how much it costs for a hot dog, a soda, and a small popcorn.
3a) I’m not allowed to demand a receipt for the above-mentioned items. - I’m only allowed 30 seconds for condiment application.
Once I actually get inside, the rules change:
- No yelling at anyone who’s talking/texting on a cell phone.
- No falling asleep.
- If I cannot abide by rule number 2, no snoring either.
- No waking up 5 minutes before the movie ends, and still try to appear interested in whatever we’re seeing.
While I haven’t told anybody lately to get off of my lawn, I was able to tell some kids to get off my shrubs.
Hubby and I like to go to the movies, but it’s sometimes a challenge, in slow months, to find movies we both want to see. The last one we saw was Dark Knight.
Coming into the Christmas/holiday season, there will probably be more we’re interested in.
Between going to movies with my hubby and going to movies with my daughter, I’d say 10-12 times per year.
Even if we had a great TV (big screen, of course) and sound system, I dunno. There’s something about the experience of going to a movie. Maybe part of it is being a Mom. If we’re at a movie, other viewers might annoy me, but no one will be demanding my time, like a kid will. Getting out of the house and going somewhere feels good.
Possibly the last movie my husband & I have seen in the theater is Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. Even back then, unruly teens were ruining our experience. OMG, I was a curmudgeon already at 30!
We’ve been content to wait for movies on TV in the past, until we got our DVD player all of 5 years ago. So started a few years of sporadic rentals.
When we moved to the valley, we met our neighbors down the hall and have since become good friends. They (the super homebodies) prefer that we go over to their place every Friday night for pizza and a movie. The neigbors always get the movie, we get the tip, and we both split the pizza. Cocktails are poured, we smoke at will, can pause or rewind, and be chatty if we want.
For those reasons, plus that I get to play with the neighbors’ two cats every week, is why I won’t be a theater-goer in the forseeable future. 
I don’t go to the theater unless there’s a damned good reason to bother and pony up. I’m short – not only short, but a short-waisted short person, so unless the seating levels are steeply graduated, the persons in front of me tend to block my view and I end up doing the get-up-at-the-last-minute-before-the-movie-starts-to-find-an-unobstructed-view-two-step.
My friends and I don’t have the same taste in movies, so when we do have a movie night it’s usually me renting a few more mainstream flicks that I think we might all like, and there’s lots of food, booze [not available in most theaters] and snacks/sweets.
The last three movies I saw in the theater were the last two Star Wars prequels and The Aristocrats; the former for the awesome digital projection on nice, large screens, and the latter because I needed a laugh and wanted to support something that tests the limits of propriety and free speech. The problems with waiting to rent something like The Aristocrats are that chances are very good that the library won’t buy it, and Blockbusters, etc. might end up stocking a bowdlerized version. [This turned out to be an unfounded fear WRT to Blockbusters, but I was right in guessing my library wouldn’t buy it.]
But bottom line, I have a brand-new HD widescreen TV and an upgraded digital DVD player, so I’ve no complaints on the home front. I’m also a cheap dork who really loves cheap library rentals and most DVD extra features.
Speaking of large screens, it seemed to me that screens were larger when I was a kid. But I wasn’t sure, it had been so long since I’d watched a movie on a screen I considered huge that I thought I was just misremembering.
But when I saw The Dark Knight at a theatre I’d been to a dozen times before, it was on a huge screen. So they do still have them, but most screens seem to be smaller around here.
The smaller screens and the damned commercials when I pay $10 for a ticket do much to keep me out of theatres.
Maybe once a year.
Exact opposite for me. At home I can concentrate on the film, in a theater I am distracted by other people. I quit going to theaters regularly about the time people decided it was perfectly fine to talk through the film.
I go about once every other year.
I just got back from the theater.
Saw Righteous Kill (pretty dumb, but worth it for the performances) and Ghost Town (funny and moving). I saw these as matinees at Kansas City’s Ward Parkway 14.
And in both cases, I was one of two people in the entire theater. I sat up front, the other guy sat in the back. Neither of us texted, used a cell phone or talked to friends. The ticket price, Monday through Thursday, all shows, is $5. I didn’t take advantage of it, but they offer a drink & popcorn special on those days as well - $5 for a large drink and popcorn, free refills on both.
As I said earlier, it’s all about knowing what theater and when.
I generally go about twice a month.
We might have seen 5 this year, plus-or-minus. We have trouble finding a baby sitter, since we have 8 kids–4 still at home. It’s a challenge. 
Not as often as I’d like; maybe once every 6-7 weeks.
So far this year I’ve seen the following in the theaters: Atonement, Baby Mama, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Dark Knight, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Tropic Thunder and The Visitor. So that’s a total of 10 movies. Before I moved to Austin last year, I’d see 2-3 movies a month in theaters. But between grad school full time and two part-time jobs, I don’t have much time. Even when I do, my schedule rarely matches up with my friends’. Most of those movies I saw when I was on vacation.
I think going to the cinema is the best way to see a movie. Like others have said, you just have to be careful when you see it. Matinees, weekday late nights, non-blockbusters and movies just about to leave theaters are always good choices.
ETA: I’m a huge movie buff. I’ve seen 156 movies so far this year. Most of these I record off digital cable onto my DVR (though sadly right now the only good movie channels I have are TCM and Ovation).
Yep.
My son is 2 years, one month old.
The last movie I saw in a theater was 2 years, 3 months ago.
During the summer, frequently. Apart from that, I’d say I go to the theater occasionally. On an average year there are four or five theater-worthy Hollywood films produced - all others I’d watch on disc, if at all.
I think the last movie I saw in a theater was Mars Attacks.
I hate the smell of popcorn, hate crowds of noisy people, can’t imagine a movie that would be worth 12 bucks. I would much rather watch movies at home where I can pause the TiVo and waz or get a beer any time I want to.
Bangkok Dangerous has been playing here for a week or two now, and even we won’t go to see it. By all accounts, it sucks bilge water. I’ve met no one here who has seen it and liked it. One interesting note, though: Filming was going on at the time of our September 19, 2006, military coup. I understand the movie studio airlifted Nicolas Cage out! Although filming was disrupted for only six hours, I’ve heard. It was a very peaceful coup, with no violence. If you do go see this godawful mess, I’ve heard there are some shots of the Soi Cowboy bar area at the beginning, one of my nighttime haunts.
But the wife and I usually almost always pick a weekend day and see one and often two films in a cinema. Cheap here, usually just a little over US$4 for a ticket, about $3 at our favorite cinema, the grand old Scala Theater, in Siam Square.
Many features open simultaneously with the US, some a few weeks later. It used to be it took everything months to appear here. They also used never to go away. I distinctly remember Jurassic Park playing at the Scala for six months! These days, they come and go quickly.