What the hell is up with movie theaters anyway?

Sara and I don't normally go to the movies - we try to avoid the high ticket prices, stale popcorn and loud teenagers who can't keep their cellphones off. Besides - we have a perfectly good home theater right in our own apartment and we can make better popcorn ourselves. Plus I don't charge admission!

But we just had to go see Star Wars Episode III when it came out. At midnight on opening day no less. $20 later I have two tickets in hand; another $10 and we have a gallon of soda and a feed bag of stale popcorn to share between the two of us. We could have fed a family of four off just the soda and popcorn (just not a very healthy meal).

The sound was too loud; the seats weren't comfortable (not anything like our recliners at home!); they keep the lights up too bright (when the screen is black the room should be black dangit!). *sigh* And lets not even talk about the Christie digital projectors which are being installed around here to show "The Twenty", a 20 minute TV infomercial we were subjected to watching because we arrived a little bit earlier than the posted start time. The Christie DLPs just don't have enough resolution to not have the screen-door effect visible to me from any seat in the theater except the last two rows, which are some of the worst seats in the room. There's nothing more entertaining then counting the number of pixels which make up the "T" in "The Twenty", or the "N" in "NBC", or better, a popular actress' nose. My wife hates going with me now as I wouldn't shut up about it. At least they showed the movie on film and not the DLP. I would have left and demanded a refund if it was on the DLP.

With DVDs at $15/each during the first week/two-weeks after release and a Netflix membership at $15/month there's no reason for me to go to the theaters anymore. Its just not worth it. Even if I really am interested in seeing the movie; it will look better on DVD at home and I will certainly be able to enjoy it more.