Do cinema ticket prices ruin your film-going experience?

I sympathise with students who are finding it hard to afford to go to the cinema, because it’s an essential part of being a student and the cinemas would be empty without them; the film industry should not let this audience escape into the realms of the internet and TV. As others have said, though – it’s a question of priorities, and the smart phone contract seems to be more necessary than a good night out with some friends every week or so.

Cinema price increases haven’t seemed quite so steep as various other forms of entertainment – as Malcolm says, the cost of going to a live show of any sort has shot up into the stratosphere. We don’t go to the cinema that often but we saw “The Grand Budapest Hotel” about a year ago and thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was an excellent night out for the money at the Odeon in Norwich – a modern and very well-managed multi-screen cinema with a range of other attractions, an alert and intelligent audience as well. The last film we saw was “The Imitation Game” a few months ago and we thought it was well worth the expense [can’t remember how much now]’ although the cinema [Odeon, High St Kensington, London] was a bit of a dingy dump and the audience didn’t seem to be as absorbed as we were, a common aspect of most experiences these days we find, but overall we enjoyed the evening out. Good films used to come along in threes followed by a long gap [school holidays – excuse for screening tosh]. Rather attracted to “A Little Chaos” but can’t say there’s much else that appeals right now or in prospect.

Can’t remember the last time we went to a cinema, partly because there didn’t used to be one near us and we invested in our own “cinema” experience.

All the latest releases are on Sky eventually and we can watch them in comfort on our own big screen with surround sound and pause or rewind if we need to.

I don’t miss the uncomfortable seats, the head in front of me obscuring part of the screen, the feet behind kicking me, elbows to the side, the rustle of people eating food, and can only imagine the disturbance of mobiles.

Don’t think we will be going to the cinema again any time soon !!!

A lot of independent cinemas in London have one ‘cheap night’ a week (usually Monday or Tuesday) where you can go for £6 or £7. The Picturehouse cinemas do this, as does my personal favourite, the Barbican. The Genesis in east London and Peckhamplex do full-price tickets for £8.50 and £5 respectively. And seeing a film at one of these indie cinemas is a much more pleasant experience than going to an Odeon, Vue or Cineworld.

There are ways to save with the chains too, though – Orange Wednesdays (or Meerkat Movies as I guess it is now), using Clubcard or Nectar points to buy tickets, or occasional bulk-buy deals where you buy several tickets at once and it works out to about £4 or £5 a ticket (these are quite often done through Groupon).

So there are deals to be had and I think they’re worth seeking out. I’ve only paid £10 or more for the cinema a couple of times in the last few years, while managing to see about 15 films a year. Don’t give up on the cinema!