When I tell people that I do a minimum of 2 - 3 movie reviews a week for my #isawthatmovie blog, apparently the month of June 2017 wanted me to move past my limits. I did see a lot of movies in June; 18 in one month, but what might still surprise some people is that these are films that I actually went to a theater to see. These are after all newly released movies that aren't exactly available to watch online yet (legally that is).
I'm far from being what the average movie goer is, and because of that I usually get asked these three questions...
How do I find the time to go to the movies that often?
Well it helps that I don't have kids, and my wife doesn't mind. However, what it also means is that I do spend less time on other forms of entertainment, like video games, or reading, and even my TV viewing habits have decreased (honestly, not by that much). After all, I have to write the non-spoiler reviews as well, and that too takes some time from me.
Doesn't it cost a lot of money to see these many movies in theaters?
Well let's look at the range of movie ticket prices right now. The cheapest that I can find is $6.00, and that's usually in a budget theater, or during a special pricing period (be it a specific time of day, or a specific day itself). The most expensive price I've encountered is $13.99, and that isn't counting 3D or IMAX screenings either. Ideally, I would always go to the budget theater for that fantastic $6 per ticket pricing. However, several of the movies I want to see aren't available in that condition. What does help is that I am still a member of Moviepass; which gets me six movies for $40 a month, as well as a loyalty member of Regal Cinemas and AMC; which gets me at least a minimum of 1-2 free movies a month. Doing the math for those 18 movies that I saw in June, the price for each of those films comes out to about $7.02 a ticket for me. It's not as good as $6, but it's much better than $13.99. The lowest per ticket price I ever pulled off was $4.96 per movie, and I would love to repeat that again more often.
Isn't most of those movies not worth watching anyway?
This is where the subjectivity factor comes in. Some people would argue that there are movies that I see on the big screen, that only truly deserves to be seen on the small screen. While I can admit that it can be the case for some, I truly feel that the movie theater experience does indeed add positively to every movie I see. As for the quality of the films, out of those 18 I saw in June, I would say about 6 of those were a disappointment. That is the problem of going to a lot of movies, it's that you will come across some duds. That's also the problem of having a movie review site, it's that I have to watch even the bad movies on occasion. With all that said, I see more films worth checking out than the bad ones anyway.
If it isn't obvious, I am a huge advocate of going to movie theaters to see a film. Despite some issues with the occasional rude people that I encounter at theaters, or the occasional battle for a good seat, I still love going to the movies enough to look past those issues. Either way, it looks like June 2017 is the one to beat for me, in terms of the amount of movies I have to see in one month. Let's see how the rest of the year goes.
- Albert