Q&A: Why don't I go see movies when they are still in the theater?

One of my GFs felt that I should address the question of why I generally don't go see movies in the theater. She said that I should bring it up as a Q&A topic. I told her that someone needs to ask me that first before I can address it as a Q&A topic! Knowing how I am about such things, she asked,

Q: "Why don't you go see movies when they are still in the theater?"

Okay, now that the more formal part of "Q&A" is taken care of, here we go!

Well GF, it's easy. I absolutely HATE spending all that money to get a ticket and buying a drink, popcorn, and snacks only to discover that the movie was crappy and a waste of the money that I just spent. You all know how movies are over-promoted, and the more hyped they are, the more suspicious I get. Think "Avatar". Yes, most of you don't like wasting your money on a bad movie, but I genuinely hate it! I hate thinking that I wasted not just the money, but that much of my life on a movie that was a piece of crap.

It's a different matter when you can spend a lot less renting a DVD of the movie later, because you already have the drinks and snacks at hand, and if it's a good movie, then I'll buy the DVD of it (so that I won't have to keep renting it, naturally! LOL). Don't get me wrong - I love the movies, but I hate the fact that my money was spent on a waste-of-time just because some Hollywood exec cut corners to make it into a formulaic piece of crap that he had to overpromote in order for others to go see it.

How mad are we talking here? I mean I go to bed mad!

It's because of my hatred of wasting my money on a bad movie that my GFs or my dates will offer to buy my ticket just in case. That's nice, but I hate the fact that they wasted their money, so it doesn't make me feel a whole lot better. I feel Hollywood owes us good movies for the money we spend going to the theaters, and if we keep paying to see crappy movies just because that's all that Hollywood will put out, then making crappy movies is all that they will make, especially if they're cheaper to make. If we want Hollywood to make better movies, then we have to hit them where it hurts: their pocketbook. If it's a crappy movie, then we shouldn't patronize it and spread the word so that our friends and family won't go see it. Then the movie will bomb and Hollywood will take the financial hit, and hopefully get the message.

One of the few movies that I *intended* to go see in the theaters was Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. I will admit that part of the reason was in protest of my Marxist parents' protest of it, and also because a lot of the left wing nut jobs were going nuts over it, so I figured that there must be something worthwhile to go see. To say that I "enjoyed" it is to suggest that it was entertainment. Let's just say that seeing the movie and getting a taste of what Christ did for us helped to finalize for me that I was a God-believing Christian. And yes, it was money worth spending - by far.

And then that stupid goofball Gibson goes loopy and fools around with a woman who is not his wife. His stock in my eyes dropped considerably after that. Despite this, I still feel that going to see the movie was money well spent.

So anyway, now you folks know why I generally don't go see movies while they are in the theater. :-D