When did cheap nights become so expensive.

Always buy cinema treats at the Co-op before going to watch a film. It’s bonkers how much they charge at the concession stand.

I worked in a cinema more than 20 years ago and people complained then it was too expensive - if anything prices in the cinemas by me are cheaper today than they were in the one I worked in in the early 2000s!

All three of the closest cinemas to me do £5 tickets if you book online. Parking is free if you're prepared to walk 10 mins and I honestly don't understand how a bag of malteasers bought for £3 at the cinemas is more of a treat than a bag bought for £1 on the way! So in some places the cinema can be a very cheap night out, if you spend money on completely optional and extortionately overpriced extras then

Presuming the supermarket wine was c£7 then I don't think £8p/p for a large meal is hugely expensive either. A burger king whopper meal is about the same price? I do think since Covid takeaways have become very similar to standard restaurant prices (i.e. not nice restaurants but fish and chip from a shop is the same as from an average pub, a curry is the same price whether you get a takeaway or eat in), despite the fact you still have to clean up yourself after and don't pay any service costs!

It's worth looking at membership of cinemas like the Picturehouse chain if you go regularly.

£23 for fish and chips and a bottle of wine is super cheap- given at least £6 of that must have been the wine.

I used to budget £20 for a meal out inc. drinks in 1998 when I was a student!

Support it

Mine does a similar thing plus special screenings for those with Dementia and Autism . They are currently doing the warm space project too - a film, hot drink and a hot snack totally free of charge! Our community cinemas are invaluable and we need to hold onto them. We occasion go to the Multiplex but it's a real experience visiting our local one and ww want to supply it.

My local cinema does a daytime silver screen ticket during the week, £6.50, a cup of tea or coffee and as many biscuits as you can get away with!

Yeah, this was my experience too. I was privately educated but the cinema was still something we only did a few times a year, the same with takeaways.

Were these things ever cheap?

I grew in a middle class home, comfortable financially, and takeaways/cinema visits were occasional treats, not regular occurrences. That was in the 90s.

We were in Cornwall over Christmas. The (chain) cinema was more expensive than my local London Odeon.

That seems really unfair on the Cornish!

I’d like to know where you’re getting fish and chips plus wine for two for £23. Super cheap these days but unacceptable that we just shrug and accept it

DP wanted pizza last night. I refuse to pay £30 for pizza. The tescos reduced section got my business.

Dont get me wrong I can afford the £30 but I just think it’s daylight robbery.

I remember smuggling our own food into the cinema as they used to check!

its £18 here for a ticket too

Our local Odeon is £5 pp other than Sat nights I think

Cinema snacks have always been relatively expensive. In the 1990s I recall a cinema ticket being something like £3 (that was possibly with a student discount) but we always used to take our own snacks in.

It might be my working class background but 30 years ago in my parents' house wine was reserved for special occasions and it certainly wasn't something to guzzle with a fish supper. Contrast to today when we have wine with virtually every large meal.

The thing I'll agree with you on is fish and chips. In my lifetime it's gone from being one of the cheapest takeaway options to one of the most expensive.

Surely the trat is the movie itself, doesn't sound that expensive

Don't know why people have to stuff their faces when they go to the cinema. Even at home people feel the need to have popcorn, crisps and drinks when they watch a film. Just watch the film.

Your cinema ticket is actually quite cheap at £9. Where I am it's nearly £15 for evening shows, I reckon £20 in London.

Which decade are you talking about ?
It was considered a really big treat when I was a child (as in once in 2 years treat).

It’s £15 for our local odeon. Milton Keynes. Hardly somewhere posh.

My Odeon is £5! £18 is absolutely extortionate and not standard price

Standard price for an Odeon at the weekend.

No wonder people aren't going as often, especially when you can have Netflix for £9 a month for the whole family!

I like to go to live screenings from the RSC/Royal Opera House/West End theatres at my local arts centre. £11 for a ticket, free parking, £3.50 for a paper cup of wine. It's an absolute bargain compared with the cost of actually going to London and buying tickets for the opera or theatre.

I used to love the cinema and I don't anymore, I'll wait to watch films at home.
Every time I go now there's people loudly rustling bags (I mean get your snacks out before the film starts flip sake), people putting their feet beside my head on my seat, loud munchers, talkers...and all for an increasingly extortionate price to enjoy.
And to add, I'm in Belfast and though I think our cinema prices are expensive, my English friends tell me ours are much lower than in England!

@WithIcePlease £18.45 for a cinema ticket??? *thud...

I thought this. I had free tickets but the odeon nearest to me was £18.45 for a ticket when I went last week.

£9 cinema tickets are cheap imo.

With minimum wage about £11, £20 for a night out seems reasonable to me.
The people who can afford cinema prices on snacks are loaded or time poor so didn’t get them elsewhere for a fraction of the price. Was the parking at the nearest car park or are all car parks that cost or more where you live?I live in a place with variable costs so if you know the cheap places then you can save money. If you go to the cinema with someone else then obviously you can share the car parking cost.