I Never Thought I'd See The Day...

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All this BS with Disney charging people numerous times to see a movie... an idea which saw Mulan (2020) spectacularly bomb at a loss of $400m... got me thinking.

Disney+ is £6 a month in the UK.
Plus, this new greedy ploy of charging an extra £20 to watch a movie on their site.

That's £26... plus say, buying in some snacks from the local shop.
Let's round it up to £35.

£35... to watch a movie at home.

Going to the cinema, it's around £10 for a ticket depending on the time of day you go, then I admit, you do get stung for the food.
If you buy food from the local shop though and sneak it into the cinema, you can get away with around £20.
Buying food AT the cinema, maybe stick £15 on the £10 ticket.
So, maximum £25 if you buy a comfy seat and snacks from the cinema's overpriced shop.
But, you get the big screen experience. Big screen, big sound.

I've never been a fan of online movies. Dodgy JPG-artefact-riddled picture with tinny digitised sound...

... but I never thought I'd see the day when going to the cinema was cheaper than watching a movie at home.

Thoughts?



^^ Which is worse than online.

The JPG riddled picture and sound is even worse.
I prefer to actually be able to see and hear the movie I've put on



While I think the fees for watching this are a bit steep, it is actually a lot more cost-effective for a lot of families to watch it this way than it is for them to go to the theater, especially if they already had Disney+ anyway. I think it's $30 to watch the movie in the U.S. Theater tickets in my town are somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 even for the matinee so unless you're watching by yourself it's not a huge price difference.

I don't pay for any of the streaming services (except Prime, but I pay for Prime for the shipping not the streaming) and have no interest in seeing Mulan, but the actual cost is really going to depend a lot on how many people are watching it with you.



^^ Which is worse than online.

The JPG riddled picture and sound is even worse.
I prefer to actually be able to see and hear the movie I've put on
I think you're doing something wrong (or I'm legitimately blind and deaf)
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You could also just wait for it to become part of the regular Disney+ service or buy the DVD/bluray when that becomes available.



Totally different cost proposition for a family than it is for an individual, for sure.

I dunno, this is a weird mental trick, I think: if it were just "it's $30 instead of seeing it in theaters" that feels very different than "we couldn't put it in theaters, and it'll be free with this subscription a bit later, but it's $30 to see it early." Whether you frame something as a special exception, or an early adoption thing, or an expensive early preview, changes how reasonable it seems sometimes. I think in this case the fact that there's two "levels" of payment has a lot to do with how it feels.



I've never been a fan of online movies. Dodgy JPG-artefact-riddled picture with tinny digitised sound.
Never had these problems. I love watching movies either on my tv or on my iPad. Both ways look great IMO.
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The trick is not minding
I love going to the movies. I’m still waiting on mine to re open.
There’s this feeling I can’t explain. Perhaps it’s just a comfort thing.



While I think the fees for watching this are a bit steep, it is actually a lot more cost-effective for a lot of families to watch it this way than it is for them to go to the theater, especially if they already had Disney+ anyway. I think it's $30 to watch the movie in the U.S. Theater tickets in my town are somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 even for the matinee so unless you're watching by yourself it's not a huge price difference.

I don't pay for any of the streaming services (except Prime, but I pay for Prime for the shipping not the streaming) and have no interest in seeing Mulan, but the actual cost is really going to depend a lot on how many people are watching it with you.
Exactly. Around my neck of the woods the very cheapest tickets you can get are late-run matinee tickets for like $5 each. Regular tickets are in the $10-$12 range. If I drive in to the city nearest me, it's more like $14. So for a family of four to see a film in my area it's $40-48, and that's without any snacks/treats.

And especially if you have kids, renting a movie for 24 or 48 hours has the advantage that you can take bathroom breaks, or just stop if the kids get cranky. You can also watch the film as many times as you want in that window, can't you?

There's also the fact that going to the theater right now comes with an un-priced cost, namely the risk of catching a potentially deadly disease and/or dealing with the anxiety of how other people will behave. I saw The Invisible Man in the theater in like late January or early February, right when COVID was becoming a thing in the US, and I remember a person seated just a little bit in front of me several times just coughing and hacking, not covering his mouth. If given the option, I would have split the $30 with my sister and her husband (the same cost of the tickets we bought) to watch it at home.



Totally different cost proposition for a family than it is for an individual, for sure.

I dunno, this is a weird mental trick, I think: if it were just "it's $30 instead of seeing it in theaters" that feels very different than "we couldn't put it in theaters, and it'll be free with this subscription a bit later, but it's $30 to see it early." Whether you frame something as a special exception, or an early adoption thing, or an expensive early preview, changes how reasonable it seems sometimes. I think in this case the fact that there's two "levels" of payment has a lot to do with how it feels.
I guess there is that.
Going as a family, say 2 adults and 2 kids... it's £40 for the tickets alone. Then the food on top, anywhere from £55-£65 for a family trip to the cinema.
Still though, £35, and paying twice, to stay at home? What do you have at the end of it as well?
"I paid £35 to watch a movie at home"

Sure, after being at the cinema, physically all you walk away with is a used ticket, and maybe a plastic drinks cup with a design printed on it... but you carry the experience with you... and the cost is only just a bit more.
If you go to the cinema alone, then the cost of staying at home just doesn't compare.



We were gonna spend the dough, just to do something fun or whatever but then I found out they changed the story. Mulan is one of the few Disney flicks I like so it's a hard pass now. But I wasn't shocked at the 30 dollar price tag. Is it the same for everyone in the US? 30 bucks? Are we all pretty much on the same price scale now?
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I guess there is that.
Going as a family, say 2 adults and 2 kids... it's £40 for the tickets alone. Then the food on top, anywhere from £55-£65 for a family trip to the cinema.
Still though, £35, and paying twice, to stay at home? What do you have at the end of it as well?
"I paid £35 to watch a movie at home."


You're paying for the privilege of watching it as soon as it's available. You're not obligated to do that in order to see the movie. As I said before, you could just wait for it to become a regular part of Disney+ or wait for it to be available to buy or rent on a hard copy and watch it then.