Tag Archives: Movie cost

The True Cost Of A Family Movie Night

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Yes, now that school is out, the kids wanted to have a family movie night yesterday (Tuesday), so my wife caved (probably she caved because my daughter asked, and it’s hard to turn her down when my my beautiful 6 year old daughter’s face is all scuffed up from her accident yesterday).  We both hurt when we look at her, I know I would have caved too 🙁

So, thinking about it, I decided to post the cost associated with our displaced family movie night (it’s displaced because it’s usually on Fridays).

Costs of Hosting Our Family Movie Night:

  • The movie media (DVD):  I usually go to the library to get the movies (although lately, we have been going to red box) during lunch.  Of course, when it is from the library, the cost is free.  It’s free because I typically go to the library every workday to work on this blog.  When it’s Red Box, it’s a buck plus gas…
  • 1 bag of Popcorn (4.00 for a package of 3), so since we only use 1 bag, it’s runs us $1.41 (this number includes taxes).
  • Reeses Pieces and other candies:  oh lets say 75 cents.
  • Pop for my everybody except my daughter who drinks juice still: $1.25
  • Electricity: Whoa!  I’m getting way to detailed, besides the cost for electricity would be the same since the TV would be on anyway… we’ll skip this cost!

So all told, if we average the movie media (DVD) cost between the library and Red Box, the total cost for “Family Movie Night” comes to….:  $3.91!!!  This number contrasts to my previous calculations where I underestimated that the total costs came to only $2.00

Not as bad as going to a movie theater, but still not free either!  I can honestly say, that before we just did this exercise, I just had a guess with respect as to how much we spent for a “family movie night” event!  My previous estimate was too low…

However, the $3.91 cost is well worth the family bonding & snuggling times, and laughs that the entire family encounters as we watch the movies together.

My favorite part of Family Movie Night is hearing the honest laugher from my son when he finds something funny.  It’s truly heart warming…

What is the cost of your favorite near free family activities?  Most have hidden costs that you don’t often associate with the activity itself… like gasoline cost to go to the park, etc…

Enjoy the summer!

 -MR

Iron Man II Was Great But It Cost Us $50.00

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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