Last night we had a great time when we went and saw Iron Man II.  I thought it was well done and overall was a great movie!

But calculating the cost, it ran over $50.00 for the entire experience.  Here’s a break down of the costs:

• tickets (2 adults, 2 kids): $30
• Popcorn, drinks and candy: $15
• gas driving to the supreme theater: $5

Now contrast the cost of going to the theater vs our typical movie watching experience:

• DVD from Library: (free)
• Popcorn and Candy: $2.00
• Gas: (lol, supplied for free by the dog)

So $50.00 vs $2.00… hmmm… 

Of course with the $2.00 route, we have to wait a month or 2 to see that movie but for a savings of $48.00…  I think it’s worth it.

Another great route is via Netflix.  You pay a set amount a month and can get 1 or 2 movies shipped to you a week.  And if you use their online download services, the deal is even better (I believe it’s unlimited downloads).  This is another great way to go, but this is pretty common knowledge now…  Red Box is another great route, but I haven’t tried that yet.

The idea of Red Box is that you go to a box that looks like a vending machine outside of popular stores, and pay $1.00 for a video for 1 night’s worth of view, then you return it the next day.  Although, this may seem cheaper than Netflix, I’m not so sure about that.  After all, it really depends on how far the Red Box machine is from your house…  The gas prices add up more than people think!

It was still nice to go to a quality theater once or twice a year, if the movie is a great one!

-MR