Midnight release? No thank you, I’ll wait.
Posted: May 9, 2012 Filed under: date, movie, random | Tags: date, movie, random 24 CommentsSo this last Sunday, my boyfriend and I went to see the Avengers. (I won’t say anything other than I really, really loved it) Before that, we were invited to go to the midnight showing on Friday morning (or Thursday night or however you want to look at it). My first thought was “umm no” and it wasn’t because I’m not a big superhero movie fan. Because I’ve realized I’m a total geek and love that about myself. My reasoning behind not going to the midnight showing was that as much as I really wanted to see it, I didn’t want to pay full price for a ticket.
Instead, we got up on Sunday, had a breakfast and then went to the matinee showing at 10:30. When we got there, we paid about $25 total for the movie tickets and snacks. And that to me meant it was awesome. Normally the tickets alone are about that price and I am one of those people who REALLY love popcorn with movies. I will say that I had a slight hang-up when I realized that I have given up soda (or pop as the lovely Midwest people say for some odd reason) and the theater didn’t really have anything besides that. So I bought an overpriced bottle of water but I have now been soda free for 2.5ish weeks so what’s not awesome about that?
But on Saturday, before we went obviously, we were talking about the movie with the friend of ours who had invited us to go to the midnight release. He didn’t understand the choice we had made to not go—in his mind, if we had really wanted to see it, we should have gone Friday/Thursday right? I don’t think so. Nothing happened when we didn’t go to see the movie at the midnight release—we got up, went to work and continued our day as normal. Actually, no—something did happen! We got to have a really nice steak dinner at home. We bought the two steaks and the fixings for $25 which came out of our date money as well. If we would have went to the midnight release that would have been it. Unless, of course, a miracle happened and I didn’t get popcorn—not going to happen by the way.
Would you have made that same choice? Or did you go to midnight release?
bogofdebt 
I’m not really into superhero movies, but matinees are usually way cheaper! Congrats on being “soda” free for the last few weeks 😉
Thank you, thank you! I must say, it’s been easier than what I thought and remembered from past experience. It might be because its my choice this time….
And I love matinees–cheaper and usually less people. I’m short so I hate having taller people sit in front of me (which ALWAYS happens).
I’m not a fan of lines. I waited one time for a midnight release (it was Transformers). There were literally tons of lines. Everyone was handed a card for letters A through Z. A couple thousand people and all 18 screens in the theater were for the one movie. It was insane.
I’ve went to a few midnight releases and agree: I really hate the lines. Or the way to “avoid” lines by being there so many hours early.
I’m a fan of getting two date nights for the price of one. Good job watching both your wallet and your waistline! Giving up soda can be tough so hang in there! 🙂
Thanks! And yes, the two date nights were awesome. I always like when I don’t have to cook 😉
I’ve never been to a midnight release and I never will. I don’t understand why my friends go. First there’s the overpriced tickets since you have to buy them in advance online. Then there’s the line, and traffic is horrible afterwards. Also, I don’t think I can fully enjoy a movie when I’m watching it during my normal sleeping hours
That was another huge part of it–I don’t work odd hours anymore so my sleeping scheudle is fairly set in stone now.
That made me laugh hard when you said people call it pop “for some odd reason”
I was thinking to myself before reading that. Why does she keep saying soda…..I’m one of those oddballs I guess. Only being from Canada, no one here ever says soda. If we do it’s soda pop. Anyways, loved the post. I love going to the movies and it is one of my fam things to do but it is crazy expensive. We bring our own snacks, yes I know it’s not allowed to save as well.
I know a lot of people who bring their own. I have a guilty complex though and a very small purse! And I get my “soda” remarks corrected all the time–so many people look at me like I’m an alien.
We say “soft drinks” over here 😛
I can’t even remember when I last saw different prices for matinees… The theatres in my small town definitely stopped it by the time I was a teenager. Downtown movies are always 13.50$ +tx except on Tuesday and popcorn usually runs about 6$ a bag? Maybe? My debit card gives me movie points which I use to get free tickets/popcorn. I know that BF spends about 25$ on popcorn/Pepsi/Slushees for us when I “pay” for tickets
Congrats on being off soft drinks though! It’s a really hard habit to quit but it’s soooo much healthier and cheaper to just drink water
They do a weird practice here too–anything before 5pm is a matinee. I’m used to only the first two showings being a matinee or at least nothing after 1pm.
I don’t think I’ve ever been to a movie on opening night, though I do like the enthusiasm of those who go and dress up and have a great time. To each their own. In my town, you can usually enjoy your movie with a beer, which is better than soda, to be sure.
Wow my boyfriend would love to have the beer with his movie.
I’m not a huge fan of midnight releases either but I did go to one right before I graduated college to go with my friends. I also would wait to go to a matinee unless there was some other reason like seeing friends I hadn’t seen in a while. Big congrats on being soda free. It must have been hard to pay for overpriced water when the soda was right there.
It was really hard–it was actually the first time I hesitated. But I chose to pay the for the overpriced water especially after doing the math and still coming out ahead by not getting the first combo which had 2 sodas.
And I think that I haven’t seen a lot of movies out of the matinee times except once and like you said, that was to go with some friends I hadn’t seen in awhile.
Good for you! We took the kids on Saturday night – but we went to Costco, where we purchased combo packs: 2 adult tickets, 2 drinks & 1 popcorn for $28 after tax. We got two of those, plus 1 kids combo pack for $12. We figure we saved at least $25 doing it this way! And we loved the movie too – I’m a big geek too!
Wow that was a really good deal! I can’t wait until the second one and I’ve now been watching all the superhero movies leading up to it 🙂
I took one of my kids to the midnight showing in 3D. Gratefully, it didn’t cost us a thing because we had been given free movie passes. I cannot watch a movie without popcorn and a Coke. Our local theater sells refillable popcorn buckets twice a year – they’re good for 5 months and you can get it filled twice per movie. So once we buy the bucket, we’ve got free corn for months.
Wow–that would be such a good deal for me. I wish they did it out here. Good find on the 3d free passes! I have only seen one movie in 3d and it wasn’t that great :S
I don’t think I’ve ever been to a midnight release and I haven’t seen a movie the day it came out since high school. Seeing movies in theaters, and especially jumping through hoops to do it, is just not a priority. Plus, I’m too ooooooold to stay up that late!
I’m too old to do that too 😦 Making it to midnight on New Year’s Eve meant an energy drink and falling into bed at 12:01
Last time I did a midnight showing, it was Star Wars, episode 1, and it was actually the 12:30am showing because the guy I was going with didn’t get off work until 11:00pm, and we knew there was no way we’d get into the midnight showing.
I will say that having that experience was totally worth it. For that movie, the crowd energy was perfect.
Would I go to a midnight showing now? No thank you, I’ll be in bed. But now, I rarely see any movie in the theater, and almost never on opening weekend. We haven’t seen Avengers yet because we still haven’t seen Iron Man 2, Captain America, or Thor.
I did go see John Carter in the theater, though, because I read the entire series 3-4 times as a kid.
I’ve seen a few midnight releases but not in a few years. It just hasn’t been worth it for me–I like my sleep! I don’t like huge lines and all that so that’s a factor too. I haven’t seen a lot of movies in theater actually in the last few months. I just don’t find them all theater worthy–instead. I add them to Netflix or go to my video store.