Less than a year ago, if you'd asked me my least favorite theater, I'd've told you AMC theaters at Southdale. It wouldn't even have been a question. The stories I could tell you about just about every experience I had at that theater are ridiculous. You wouldn't BELIEVE the crap that theater tried to pull over on me. Actually, to be fair, when I really hated them, they weren't AMC. They were Megastar or some such nonsense.
Since AMC took over, they've really cleaned up their act and gotten a lot better. Still, it's a little further than I normally like to drive, so I don't go there much unless I'm meeting a friend or something. Normally I head over to the Regal cinema which is less than five miles from my house. I have a club card there and get free stuff from time to time. It's also generally not too busy and it's a decent cinema with the amenities of a state of the art theater.
Now, in 2006 I saw 97 movies in theaters and I'm on pace to top that in 2007. So you can imagine how dismayed I was to find that Regal upped their ticket prices by $0.75 to a price of $9.25 per ticket. Doesn't seem like much, but if you consider that'll cost me close to $75 over the year, it's kind of a big deal. But whatever; I just figure it's inflation and that how things work.
That all changed for me this evening. I met a friend for a movie at AMC theaters. I was surprised to learn that my ticket only cost $6. Apparently that is now the standard price for all movies on Mon-Thurs at their theater. I remarked on this and the usher also told me that includes Thursday night midnight showings (even though it's technically Friday). So that clinches it for me. I'm willing to drive the extra five miles to pay over $3 less per movie. That's a savings of over $300 per year!
So I get home to send a message to Regal that I'm not going to their theater anymore thanks to AMC's new pricing policy. I'm sure they'll offer me free shit... nice. I then travel over to AMC website to say thanks and I learn some more great news. On the first screening of every movie on Sat and Sundays, tickets are only $5. Cool, since I go to a lot of Saturday matinees on the year anyway. Next I also find that they are part of what they call "AMC select," which will begin playing "less than mainstream" movies. In other words, I won't have to drive downtown to the arthouse and pay for parking to see films like the upcoming Jindabyne or Fay Grim. AMC could very well have them.
Moral of the story: because of competition and free market (i.e. capitalism), I now will save a ton of time and money on movies by going to a theater that less than a year ago I would not have stepped foot in.
End of happy day.
~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com
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