I think it’s a given that most people reading this blog are home theater fans. We’ve dedicated ourselves to obtaining the best quality movie presentation in the home. I’m sure that we all also have plenty of horror stories about the current state of the filmgoing experience in professional movie theaters – whether they be about sticky floors, obnoxious audiences, or movies projected badly out of focus. Nonetheless, most of us still trek out to the theaters on occasion. How often do you go?
My personal results are skewed by the fact that Mrs. Z and I have attended the Toronto Film Festival for the past three years. (We’re there as you read this.) If you count that, it puts a big spike in our theater attendance numbers. But if you exclude festivals, we don’t go too often anymore. I’d probably put us in the 10-20 times a year category, though I feel like last year may have been closer to 10. This year has been busier, for some reason.
How about you? Do you still bother with movie theaters?
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Thulsadoom
I clicked 10-20 a year, but sometimes probably less. To be honest, the way the cinema going experience has been lately it varies. Sometimes I go fairly regularly, wanting to see a few new movies before DVD/blu ray, other times I’ll go for months with hardly a visit, because I get so annoyed at the the experience (Poorly calibrated sound, annoying idiots in the audience, absurd prices, etc).
August Lehe
While I was once a movie theater usher, so I saw nearly everything 3-4 times weekly and booked reserve-seat engagements in NY’s Time Square about twice monthly, now it’s 1-2 times a year. Sad. but I miss the 65/70mm epics. Back in the early 1960’s even the anamorphic 35mm Guns of Navarone and The Longest Day were MAJOR events!
When they got to neighborhood theaters like mine (in Ft. Lee, N.J.) they were a pale shadow of their former selves! You could literally SEE, HEAR and FEEL the difference!
Shannon Nutt
I go MAYBE 10 to 20 times a year now, and most of those trips are lumped into two periods: summer movies I really want to see, and Oscar nominees I want to see.
Now, you’re talking to someone who used to go to the movies EVERY weekend in the 80s…sometimes twice a weekend. And while movies haven’t gotten particularly better or worse in quality (although it may seem that way…beacuse we always remember the good ones and forget the really bad ones), the quality of the movie experience has taken a nosedive. Now, I’ll only go to early matinees or times I know I’m going to avoid the biggest crowds.
Super-VHS
NOOOOOOOO!!! You have taken my precious avatar!
Dail Whiteley
i put 1-10. i would go once a week if i had the money and time. i have a 3$ place i live 10-15 minutes from any theater i haven’t been there in 13 years when it was the place to see movies. it ‘s also the showtimes. its seems like they give you 4 showings and its at 1 4 7 or 10. i like going during the week and if i go to the 1 i wont get out til a little after 3 then i hit rush hour traffic. the theater i like going to is less than a half mile from the second worst intersection in the state. then its the ads and ads and ads then the place i like going to loves to tell you how great the place is. that runs on and on then 5 more previews then we have to tell where the projector is from and the sound. then you forget what your seeing. this same place is opening up a huge 24 screen with a couple IMAX screens closer to me like 5 min away i may go more when that opens up.
Aaron Peck
On average I probably go once a week. Although, mine are press screenings so it’s a little different. If I had to pay for the movies I’d go a lot less.
Super-VHS
In years past, I’d say less than ten. This year it’ll be 10-20 at least.
I went nearly every week during the summer. The theatre near my house has a $5.25 early morning special on any movie before noon. And you get a free coffee/espesso/hot chocolate ($4.25 “value) with purchase. Kinda stupid not to take them up on that deal. Even more so because my local place shows a lot of indie/foreign stuff, and even those are part of the morning special.
Javier Aleman
I enjoy the movies at home way more. They look and sound better, and I get to keep the movie when I’m done. I only go to the theater now when I take my daughter to watch something and even she says she wants to watch them at home instead. She’s barely four!
Chaz Dumbaugh
I went to the theater almost every weekend when I was in high school, still went quite a bit with my wife since we’ve been married, but with a kid coming very soon and it just costing way too much to see the movies in the evenings (thats usually when we can go with friends) the number of films has decreased quite a bit, Summer always affords some good ones to go see, I usually like the fall cause we get some decent horror flicks and such (but SAW is done so not much I’m looking forward too each year anymore ;))
I just wait and rent it or what have you when it comes home, now that I’m up to almost 400 Blurays in my collection I usually just wait for a good price deal on the ones I want to buy and just buy them, when you can own it for the same price as paying to see it once in the theater, its hard to bother going anymore unless its something I really cant wait to see, some movies lend themselves so much better on the big screen (like Transformers 3) but I’ve been so disappointed in the IMAX at my local theater that its cut down on me going there too, almost every movie I’ve seen has been zoomed in and harder to see whats going on, not sure whats up with that, but I’m thinking we have one of those IMAX theaters that isnt in the right aspect ratio, but who knows, oh well it saves me some money 🙂
EM
I picked 1–10. I’m choosy about the movies I see in the theater—the visit is too expensive for a lackluster experience, plus sometimes there are logistical issues. I wouldn’t be surprised if this year I exceed 10, though; in an unusual move, I saw Super 8 either 3, 3½, or 4 times, depending on how you count (I went to the movie four times; my second visit was cut short by a lengthy power outage about halfway through). It’s quite rare that I see a movie theatrically more than twice, and even a second time is fairly uncommon.
Julian
I’m a big lover of the theater experience, but I only go 5-10 times a year. Different reasons: I never go alone (I like to share thoughts about what I see and hear, but sometimes friends don’t have time to go), prices have become outlandish (almost $10/ticket) and, most importantly, I only go when I feel a desperate urge to go. Some movies grab you, speak to you, demand you to see them. That doesn’t happen all too often anymore. “Tron Legacy” and “Super 8” are two recent examples of movies I felt I couldn’t miss on the silver screen.
William Henley
I chose 1-10, but think I need to qualify that I am probably RIGHT AT 10 a year. I still love the theater experience, although that is probably because, living in a major city, there is no shortage of good theaters (there is also a fair number of crappy theaters, if I am honest). But yeah, I go probably about once a month, sometimes a bit less in the fall and spring, sometimes a bit more in the summer, so it averages out to about 10 a year.
I plan to go see Lion King next week after I get paid. Yes, I am ordering it on Blu-Ray, but I just LOVE the theatrical experience, and I missed it at the theater the first time around, so I definately want to see it this time
William Henley
*quantify, not qualify. Although I don’t think that is the right word either. Should have just said “Let me explain”