I think I'm just lucky that I get to go to cinemas that are really cheap and don't have unruly audiences - the only real catch being a matter of traveling distance and also the fact that, while I can see the big releases and select small ones for cheap, most of the foreign/indie/arthouse ones are at more expensive cinemas (if they screen in nearby cinemas at all). My main concern has always been with the range of distribution and accessibility more so than the cost, though cost is definitely a factor if it's a toss-up between a max of $15 for a movie ticket and paying $20-$30 to buy a DVD (especially since video stores are dying out and being replaced with these vending machines that, like the cinemas, carry the big releases and little else aside from that). Such is the way of things.
The theater I have usually only plays the big mainstream films, but I have a theater that's about an hour-and-a-half away I occasionally watch films at. I saw La La Land and The Witch over there. They have better seats too, and the theaters are double the size.