Why We’ve Lost Interest in Going to the Movies

Going to the movies used to be one of my favorite weekend activities. But as an adult with a busy life and family, heading to the local movie theater has lost its appeal for me. Between the lack of time, high costs, and increasing disinterest on my part, the movie theater experience only provides the enjoyment it once did. We’ve lost interest in going to the movies.

The Hassles and Time Commitment of Going to the Movie Theater

As working parents with a five-year-old at home, free time is hard to come by these days. With our weekends filled with family commitments and errands, it isn’t easy to justify spending nearly half a day trekking to the movie theater. Between travel time, 20 minutes of previews, and the 2+ hour runtime of most movies, going to the theater takes a massive chunk of my weekend. And if we aren’t taking the little one, it is also an enormous chunk out of our babysitter’s weekend.

Our little one isn’t really ready for the theater yet. She has an aversion to loud sounds. We have taken her to the movies twice. She did well with Super Mario Bros but was miserable with The Little Mermaid. With her, we would much rather spend together at home, where we can pause movies for bathroom and snack breaks.

Rising Prices Make Movie Theater Trips Too Costly

Along with the substantial time commitment, movie ticket prices have made theater outings far too expensive. With ticket prices now averaging $10-15 per person in my area, a family movie trip can easily top $50 or more when you add snacks and drinks. And if you aren’t getting popcorn and milk duds, are you really having a movie experience?

I’d much rather wait to buy the movie once it is released to buy. Related, we completely support the Writers and Actors’ Guild strikes. We know we are part of the problem in that we only go to movies a little, but we also consume a lot of streaming. The studios must adjust to ensure creatives are paid for the streaming services!

Fear of Missing Out

One issue we used to have as a nerd couple is the fear of missing out. We might not have seen the movie on opening night, but we usually did opening weekend. We did this cause we wanted to be part of the event but didn’t want to be spoiled online.

Lately, we have slowed down a bit. Priorities changed. We can wait. Of course, we still want to see some tentpole movies in the theater, but we can also wait for others.

I still love the movies. I still love the movie theater. Our little one may become a movie person when she gets older, and we will be there every week.

But for now, we’ve lost interest in going to the movies. And, we are ok with that.