To be utterly pissed off at the price of the cinema and all it entails?

[orangeandlemons]

Took dd today. Bus fares into town and back£4.00, tickets £12.00 ( one adult one child in cheapest cinema, many more much much more expensive) booking fee £1.55 ( just the mention of booking fees sends me into meltdown).
Bottle of juice and small bag of seats purchased outside cinema, am never going to pay their prices) total about £ 21.00.

And yet! And yet! Massive queues of people forking out for nachos, hot dogs, popcorn etc etc. How do people afford this.!? Am totally mystified. By people I mean normal people who only go now and then to take kids, not ones who are members of clubs. If I had bought the crap in the cinema, total would have been nearer £30.00. To see a a 90 minute film. How much is that per minute? 60p a minute?

And as for 3d. Have never ever seen it, as refuse to pay for it, and never will!

Can i just ask - at Cineworld do they actually search your bags or just stop people they see carrying bags full of snacks? If i was discreet could i smuggle stuff in?

Are tickets cheaper if you pre-book? You wouldn't need to pay a booking fee if you didn't pre-book, and I've never been to a midday showing that was full enough to need pre-booked tickets.

I go to our local film club and not only does it cost £2, they stop the film half way through so everyone can buy another pint. :)

Yanbu. My friend took her, her 5 year old and her 2 year old to a family film - they charged £12.50 each for the children and £14.90 for her!!
She walked out and went somewhere else instead.

I took dd For the first time during half term so thinking it would be busy booked for kids am (11 so not too early) dd cost £1.50 and accompanying adult (me!) was free - definitely doing that again!! Even brought treats in m&s because it was so cheap! (actually also worked out cheaper not to mention nicer than the cinema treats anyway!!)

Fully recommend!

I'm ever so happy now that a Cineworld has opened locally. I get to go multiple times a week for my £14.99 a month and there's free 3hr parking nearby. I don't buy the overpriced snacks and the lovely staff don't seem to care if you bring in your own refreshments. (Although if cineworld management are reading they are very strict and please don't give them into trouble).

I can't understand why all chains don't offer membership cards. I've been to see more films in 2013 than in all of 2012 already and I'm encouraging my PIL to get their own Cineworld cards.

Cineworld in Wandsworth are doing Rise of the Guardians at 10 am this week for 90 pence per ticket if you book online and no booking fee. Just booked 2 adults and 4 kids for £5.40 - bargain.

I only go on Wednesdays when they have 2 for 1 if you're on Orange.

A lot of places do Mondays and Tuesdays cheaper as well.

orangeandlemons - we went to see The Hobbit the other month and had to pay extra for 3D (hate 3D but only tickets left and DH was desperate!) and then pay £1 for each pair of 3D glasses so we could actually watch the film.

I used to love the cinema but rarely go now as it's so expensive - I used to go because I wanted to a cinema, now I'll only go if I'm really keen to see a certain film. It's too much to pay to watch something mediocre! Orange Wednesdays do make things a bit more bearable though.

"small bag of seats purchased outside cinema"

You had to provide your own seats?!

I'd be happy never to go to the cinema again.

Cineworld better value than Vue here.

Vue - booking fee for booking online
Cineworld - discount for booking online (if you register)

Vue - no discount for family of 2 kids and 2 teenagers
Cineworld - discount for family of 2 kids and 2 teenagers

Have mostly been to Vue (when I have to!) as it's closer, but am switching allegiance to Cineworld.

I went to see Les Miserables a couple of weeks ago at Cineworld 7.00 show and it cost £7.60 (friend booked online so was a bit cheaper). One week later me and my mate went to see The Impossible 9.20 showing and it cost £8.60. I asked if there had been a price increase and the young lad said it was more expensive after 9.00 - no wonder there were only 10 people watching it. I was pleased that I managed to sneak my poundshop Haribo contraband in

Well I went to the Odeon and it is a bag of shit. Perhaps,buying a bag of seats will be the next vastly overpriced item available in a cinema, otherwise standing room only!

It is so expensive. Our nearest cinema is 20 miles away by bus, so add on almost another £20 on transport

Which is why I'm so grateful that we won Odeon tickets through Mumsnet recently lol

I bought three tickets for dds today. £12.75 - at the cheap and not very nice cinema. A couple of weeks ago I went to the naice cinema and it was over £10 just for me with booking fee. Then they charged me nearly two quid for a bottle of still water!

£12 is entirely reasonable to me

Makes me miss the old ABC Cinema in Hanley which was £1.80 a ticket and had a MASSIVE screen with loads of leg room between the seats

Last time I took my kids out for lunch followed by a trip to the cinema including Pick'n'Mix, I spent about £100.

I wouldn't be without my Cineworld card. It's £17.99 a month to use any Cineworld anywhere, including those in the west end. I probably save about £30 a month doing this.

The food in cinemas is a rip off and I always eat before or after the film, though if I fancy a snack I smuggle it in. I've only been searched once and that was at the Genesis in east London.

I find it pretty off putting that people feel the need to eat constantly when at the cinema - tbh I have stopped going to anything other than 'arts centre' style cinemas where you don't get the amount of troughing that you do in the mainstream ones. Can people really not eat for 90 whole minutes? Do people feel the need to eat food constantly when they watch a film at home? My guess is no.

The price of tickets is also extortionate so I agree.

I have never heard of cineworld either although there is a Vue cinema about 40 miles from us - it was ok bar the food problem when I went about four years ago

We're lucky enough to have a little local cinema,adults £4.50 each,kids £2.20. Gets films a couple of weeks late,but who cares. Always threatened with closure though.

Do they actually have a legal right to take stuff off you at the door? I don't think they do.

The cinema is quite expensive. People saying they don't find it expensive simply have more disposable income, I'm guessing.

i always take my own drinks/sweets/chocolate the prices they charge are ridiculous
myself and dh went last sunday and there was a family of 5 in front of us who spent £27 just on snacks

Southeastdweller YES! I have also been searched in the Genesis on Mile End Road.

Typically, it was on a day when we'd gone there on a whim, having had a picnic in the park, so we were laden with hummus and bread sticks and meat, which we had to leave in the ticket booth.

It wouldn't bother me so much if it wasn't the worst cinema EVER.

Orange Wednesdays.

Snacks and bottled water in handbags.

Avoid 3D.

Never been searched on my way into Cineworld. Been going to the Northampton one 4/5 times a year for the last 10 years.

One time i took 2 of the DDs and we were running late so i didn't have time to buy advance snacks. Thought 'what the hell, this one time i'll buy the chocs at the cinema, ages since i have'.

£5 for a bag of Minstrals?!?!? My face must have been quite something as the girl at the till said 'yeah - i know, sorry'.

I put them back. That would have been £15 for a bag of sweets each. Jesus.

yanbu. Dh and I just wait to buy the DVD when it comes out now.