Since when did dinner AND a movie turn into dinner OR a movie? Over the holiday break Mr. MMM and I wanted to give the gift of a Star Wars movie theater experience to Mini Monster. We obviously needed to get our tickets in advance in order to get good seats. Also, the theater that is close to us has assigned seats. Assigned seats means you can’t wait until you go to the theater to buy your tickets. If you do, you’ll be sitting in the front row and driving directly to a chiropractor. In order to avoid this, we picked our seats and purchased our tickets in advance through Fandango!
Oh, The Horror
The morning we woke up to see Star Wars we were all VERY excited! We hurriedly jumped on the computer to pick our seats and get our tickets. As it turns out, adult tickets were $12 EACH and children tickets were $9 EACH. What?!? And, this was a matinee, folks! Oh, did I mention there was also a $4 CONVENIENCE FEE for purchasing them through Fandango? Grrrrr.
Okay, we were $37 in before we even left the house. But, this was Star Wars! We were looking at it like an investment 😛 And yes, Mr. MMM and I could’ve and would’ve waited to see it at home in a few months, but we really wanted to give Mini the Star Wars movie theater experience we remembered as kids.
We finally arrive at the theater! Yay! Oh wait, I cannot sit down to watch a movie without some popcorn and a soda. I just can’t. It goes AGAINST the experience. Add on another $12! Yes, we spent $49 on Star Wars (excluding Star Wars-related gifts from Santa) this holiday season. Whoa, what a franchise!
The Skyrocketing Cost of Entertainment
Giving Our Cash To Disney!
We did factor in the cost of this entertainment expenditure into our December “budget” before taking the movie theater plunge, but it was still a shock. I can’t even tell you the last time we frequented a movie theater. Like most of America, we have a large-screen TV in our house and are just as happy to sit at home and watch a movie on Netflix for free. Oftentimes we fire up some grocery store popcorn and dim the lights to recreate a cozy, at-home theater experience. But c’mon… this was STAR WARS! Give us a freakin’ frugal break 🙂
Did you fall into the costly entertainment trap over the holidays?
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25 Comments
We did! Like you it had been a while since we went so it was a bit of a shock all over again. Star wars was worth it! So glad we saw it in theatre 🙂
We love the new movie going experience with the leather business class recliners & megascreens. Our chain (Marcus) offers $5 Tuesdays. According to their investors presentations, the midweek discount promotions have been successful and are going to be expanded with a Student night & Seniors day. That gives you some more money saving options.
Whoa! That makes our experience look frugal! It really does floor me at how much tickets have skytocketed since I was a kid. But, some movies (think Star Wars) are worth it 🙂
I totally agree — the price of movies (and concessions) has become outrageous. There’s a similar theater near me that has assigned seating (and a VIP section for those willing to pay even more), but I always try to steer my friends towards the cheaper theaters. Luckily the Mall of America has matinees for $6 so I was able to see Sisters for a reasonable price on New Year’s Day!
Awesome frugal score with Sisters at $6! My mom used to take me to the movies every Saturday when I was a kid. I think tickets were $2 each. How times have changed!
Mall of America?! I’m right down the 94 in Eau Claire, WI. It’s been years since I’ve been to a movie at MOA. Anywho…sorry to interrupt this convo…just got excited to come across another midwesterner 🙂 Go Vikings!
I have never understood the appeal of movie theaters. Like you said, we have a ginormous TV and sound system in our living room already, with free or nearly-free access to anything we’d want to see. Paying to see a movie out of the house adds no value to my experience.
That said, I think Daniel is dragging me to the theater tonight for Star Wars. I’ll bite my tongue!
Ha! You just might enjoy it 🙂 Yeah, we went out of nostalgia for the franchise and to bestow the Star Wars experience upon our Mini Monster. Other than that, we watch everything at home.
Exact same thing! Well, not exact-no kids here, yet.
Husband and I were both off for two weeks in December. He is a massive Star Wars fan and I enjoy them as well. We recently got a new theater in town that is self serve soda and popcorn along with reclining seats (oh, sweet heaven)! Like your theater, we had to purchase online, in advance, to reserve our seats. We also went to a Matinee showing. It was just my husband and I; we spent $33.75. Which, for us, that is more than we typically budget for entertainment each month. Thankfully, we budgeted for it!
Extra paychecks are nice. But in the end, it all equals the same amount over the course of a year. 🙂 $60 was a good guess for the movie! Hope you enjoyed it!
Loved it! Reclining movie seats should be standard!
Ha! Yep, not only did I splurge my entire Entertainment budget category on seeing Star Wars with my kiddo … I did it *twice*. Remember when people used to see movies over and over again in the theater, because that was the only way you were going to see it again until it came out on tv edited for commercials? TBH, I’ll probably see it a couple more times in the theater, expense be damned. This is my childhood we’re talking about. 😛
Of course we had to see Star Wars over the holidays, even if Mrs. Lewis Senior chose to talk through the movie. Mr. Lewis and I reside in CA where the cost of two adults in a theater with nothing but their seats will run us $22.00 at least. In Good ole Utah two adult tickets only set us back $14. It was glorious! We hadn’t enjoyed a theater movie in over a year (the last time we were in Utah) and probably won’t again this year. It’s $1 redbox for this frugal family.
The cost of a theater movie is insane. I can’t believe it is something that now needs to be budgeted for. Times sure have changed. Ugh. We sure enjoyed the movie, too. It was worth the expense 🙂
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25 Comments
We did! Like you it had been a while since we went so it was a bit of a shock all over again. Star wars was worth it! So glad we saw it in theatre 🙂
I completely agree. We definitely looked at it as investing in a family memory 🙂
We love the new movie going experience with the leather business class recliners & megascreens. Our chain (Marcus) offers $5 Tuesdays. According to their investors presentations, the midweek discount promotions have been successful and are going to be expanded with a Student night & Seniors day. That gives you some more money saving options.
We LOVE it, too! It is such a memorable experience these days. I’m not sure if our theater offers discounts, but it’s definitely worth investigating.
Here in Sydney adult tickets are $26 each 😳 needless to say we normally go once a year with movie vouchers from our inlaws!
Whoa! That makes our experience look frugal! It really does floor me at how much tickets have skytocketed since I was a kid. But, some movies (think Star Wars) are worth it 🙂
I totally agree — the price of movies (and concessions) has become outrageous. There’s a similar theater near me that has assigned seating (and a VIP section for those willing to pay even more), but I always try to steer my friends towards the cheaper theaters. Luckily the Mall of America has matinees for $6 so I was able to see Sisters for a reasonable price on New Year’s Day!
Awesome frugal score with Sisters at $6! My mom used to take me to the movies every Saturday when I was a kid. I think tickets were $2 each. How times have changed!
Mall of America?! I’m right down the 94 in Eau Claire, WI. It’s been years since I’ve been to a movie at MOA. Anywho…sorry to interrupt this convo…just got excited to come across another midwesterner 🙂 Go Vikings!
Ha! Isn’t it awesome to know other frugal folks are just around the corner? 🙂
I have never understood the appeal of movie theaters. Like you said, we have a ginormous TV and sound system in our living room already, with free or nearly-free access to anything we’d want to see. Paying to see a movie out of the house adds no value to my experience.
That said, I think Daniel is dragging me to the theater tonight for Star Wars. I’ll bite my tongue!
Ha! You just might enjoy it 🙂 Yeah, we went out of nostalgia for the franchise and to bestow the Star Wars experience upon our Mini Monster. Other than that, we watch everything at home.
My husband spent $27 for one Star Wars ticket during the matinee, but it was for a reserved VIP balcony seat and included a drink and popcorn.
We can all make an exception for Star Wars 🙂
Exact same thing! Well, not exact-no kids here, yet.
Husband and I were both off for two weeks in December. He is a massive Star Wars fan and I enjoy them as well. We recently got a new theater in town that is self serve soda and popcorn along with reclining seats (oh, sweet heaven)! Like your theater, we had to purchase online, in advance, to reserve our seats. We also went to a Matinee showing. It was just my husband and I; we spent $33.75. Which, for us, that is more than we typically budget for entertainment each month. Thankfully, we budgeted for it!
I know! The expense really ate into our entertainment funds. Fortunately, we budgeted for it and I get 3 paychecks in January 🙂
I get paid once a month from both districts I work at and husband gets paid twice a month. We don’t get those extra paychecks lol! Oh, poo!
I think I threw something like $60 bucks into the category because I had no idea how much it cost to actually go to the movies!
Extra paychecks are nice. But in the end, it all equals the same amount over the course of a year. 🙂 $60 was a good guess for the movie! Hope you enjoyed it!
Loved it! Reclining movie seats should be standard!
Ha! Yep, not only did I splurge my entire Entertainment budget category on seeing Star Wars with my kiddo … I did it *twice*. Remember when people used to see movies over and over again in the theater, because that was the only way you were going to see it again until it came out on tv edited for commercials? TBH, I’ll probably see it a couple more times in the theater, expense be damned. This is my childhood we’re talking about. 😛
Some things are worth the money 🙂
Of course we had to see Star Wars over the holidays, even if Mrs. Lewis Senior chose to talk through the movie. Mr. Lewis and I reside in CA where the cost of two adults in a theater with nothing but their seats will run us $22.00 at least. In Good ole Utah two adult tickets only set us back $14. It was glorious! We hadn’t enjoyed a theater movie in over a year (the last time we were in Utah) and probably won’t again this year. It’s $1 redbox for this frugal family.
The cost of a theater movie is insane. I can’t believe it is something that now needs to be budgeted for. Times sure have changed. Ugh. We sure enjoyed the movie, too. It was worth the expense 🙂