You have absolutely nothing to do today, and you’ve just realized those free movie passes you won in that raffle expire today. They’re only good at a specific theater and today that theater is only running 3 movies: one of them is well-made but uninspired, mediocre in every way (e.g. The Wolfman 2010, Unbroken, just about anything starring Liam Neeson, etc.); the other is absolute dreck, but has “so-bad-it’s-good” potential (e.g. Two-Headed Shark Attack, Sharknado 3, etc.). The third is a good movie that you want to see, but you can’t use the passes for.
Why is there not an option to use the tickets to get in to see the bad movie, but sneak over to the screen showing the good movie?
Assuming this is not available for whatever reason, I’d probably see the bad movie instead of the mediocre one, but it depends in large part over who I was seeing the movie with and how appreciative they are of “so bad it’s good” cinema.
Pay to see the good movie. There’s no point in seeing a bad movie in a theater even if its free.
I’ll watch a so-bad-its good movie if I don’t want to go to bed and I’m flipping channels late at night. (I recently watched Sharknado II like this. It’s much better after a few bourbons.) I probably won’t bother watching a mediocre movie at all.
Since I’ll only watch bad or mediocre movies if they’re free anyway the fact that they are free in the theater isn’t an incentive.
I pay to see movies in the theater maybe twice a year. A friend dragged me to Captain America last night, and that’s the first I’ve seen in the theater so far this year. (At $18.50?! WTF?! Why would anyone pay for a single ticket what would buy them a month of NetFlix?!)
So anyway, option 3 is totally out.
I’m not a fan of so-bad-its-good movies. They’re just bad. I do still see plenty of them, but it’s often when I’m exhausted and playing games on my tablet.
Mediocre movies are OK. Oftentimes, I personally like them better than the critics or the average moviegoer liked them. Even if I still think they’re mediocre, it’s a decent way to spend an afternoon or evening. (For example, Captain America was thoroughly mediocre. If the ticket had been free, I’d have been pretty satisfied with it.)
In the end, the choice between bad and mediocre might depend on genre. When I go to a theater, I want movies that benefit from the big screen. So I’d rather see something action, sci-fi or fantasy than a comedy or drama. Comedies and dramas play just fine on my mediocre A/V system at home, so if I’m seeing a bigger, higher-def showing, I want something that will maximize that.
I’d see a mediocre Liam Neeson action piece for free, as well as a bunch of other movies I might not pay for. If it’s hot and miserable out, and I’ve got nothing to do, why not?