A Pass On The Movie Theaters

Going to the movie theaters was always such luxury as a kid. I would see all the movie trailers on TV, but that would be the end of it. The only movies I ever watched (over and over again) as a kid were Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story – because we had it on VHS tape. It’s no wonder I was so excited when I heard about MoviePass a few years back – for only $89.99/12 months ($7.50/month), I could watch a movie a day for a year (there was a Costco deal)! There are lots of people who are afraid of being seen at the movie theater alone, but with MoviePass, I didn’t mind it at all.

My friend and I both got a MoviePass subscription together and even started a spreadsheet to track all the movies we’ve seen – and how much each movie came out to be. The final cost? $4.09/movie. I didn’t end up watching as many movies as I would’ve liked (it does take up quite some time when you’re just sitting in the theater for two hours!), but I was pretty satisfied with the nice deal. Here are the 22 movies I watched:

  • Coco
  • The Greatest Showman
  • Jumanji
  • The Shape of Water
  • Phantom Thread
  • The Post
  • Paddington 2
  • Peter Rabbit
  • Black Panther
  • Red Sparrow
  • Game Night
  • Death Wish
  • A Wrinkle in Time
  • Love, Simon
  • Pacific Rim Uprising
  • Rampage
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Ocean’s 8
  • Incredibles 2
  • Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
  • Mission: Impossible – Fallout
  • Small Foot

With movie theaters opening back up, it would be nice to finally set foot into a movie theater again after over a year, but would I be better off subscribing to one of the streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, The Criterion Channel, and Disney+? I would only have to pay a set monthly fee, similar to MoviePass, instead of paying almost $15 for a single movie ticket! Movie enthusiasts like The Perfect Boredom can easily watch a few movies a day in the comfort of their own home on those platforms, so invites to the movie theater are probably a hard pass for them. 

Are streaming services the new luxury for me now?