What's The Worst Part About Going To The Movies? Here Are Some Serious Contenders

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for another star-studded edition of The Gripe Report!

What’s on the agenda this week? Well, we’re going Hollywood, but not the pretentious, woke, live-action Snow White kind. We’re hitting the local multiplex to talk about catching movies at the theater, something that is pretty close to being one of those things that people under 18 will have no concept of the same way a very handsome almost-30-year-old like myself can’t imagine what it was like to go the drive-in.

SIGN UP for The Daily OutKick. New Look, Same Attitude.

So, I headed over to social media, specifically Instagram — but you can follow and gripe along with us on Facebook and X — to hear what drives people nuts when they pony up some bread to see a first-run flick.

We got some good answers, and I wanted to talk about this because I headed over to my local AMC Theater to catch a movie last week, which is rare for me. The fianceé and I headed out to catch Snow White…

I kid. It was actually opening night for that hunk of garbage, and hardly anyone was there to see it.

I kid, we went to see The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, and it was great because it delivered what was promised: it was a Looney Tunes movie, and felt more like the classic cartoons than the new ones where they decided that Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd can’t carry guns because… I don’t even know why.

Seventy or 80 years of firearms in those cartoons, and now there’s an issue? 

Maybe the problem isn’t the guns, but I digress…

Have a gripe? Send it in!: matthew.regle@outkick.com

Now, I love seeing movies in theaters. It’s the way they were meant to be seen, and I like shutting out the world for a few hours and just sitting there in the dark with my focus solely on the big ol’ silverscreen.

But that doesn’t mean some things don’t drive me nuts.

One big one for me is that most movies are way too long.

The Day The Earth Blew Up was about 90 minutes on the dot, which is perfect, and about as long as any movie needs to be to tell its story properly.

Some of these flicks that are closing in on three and a half or four hours? Absurd. At least 40 percent of that could be cut from the finished product.

I think a lot of filmmakers are just too precious about their work and won’t cut anything, and now we, as the viewers, pay the price.

Speaking of which, we’ll get into prices in a second, but I disagree with people who say that longer movies give you your money’s worth.

Wrong. 

Give me 100 minutes of a good movie over 180 minutes of filler everyday of the week.

Now, let’s dig into those horrible movie prices, shall we?

These two popcorn probably cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $48, but that's just a rough guesstimate. (Getty Images)

Prices

Here’s one that came up a couple of times: the price.

Seeing a movie used to be a cheap date night or a way to kill a few hours without putting yourself in the poorhouse.

Now? Not so much.

OutKick’s own Amber Harding summed it up well:

If you actually follow the rules and don’t sneak in your own snacks/drinks, a movie theater date is now just as pricey as going out to a nice dinner. This is unacceptable.

I’m not a snack-sneaker (although I would bring in Twizzlers because the theater I usually go to only stocks the far inferior Red Vines), so let me get you a quick rundown of what our night cost us.

I ordered our tickets — which were $13.99 a piece — on the app. Because I’m an idiot, I announced to my fianceé how this wasn’t a terrible price, but I forgot that because I ordered through the app, they chuck in all kinds of fees which made our tickets almost $35.

Which is terrible.

Then, because we wanted the movie theater experience, I snagged a bucket of popcorn and one soda to share. I double-checked this number to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating or having a mini-stroke, but those two items cost just over $21.

Twenty-one American dollars, and the Coke Zero was severely watered down.

That means that our Thursday night trip to the movies cost almost $60.

I mean, we had a great time watching Daffy Duck and Porky Pig do their thing, but at what cost?!

…Wait, I guess the cost was almost $60.

When this pops up, it's a great time to go to the bathroom. (Getty Images)

Trailers

Another thing that was brought up was the insane number of trailers that you’re subject to before your movie begins.

Now, I actually enjoy trailers, but maybe just two or three of them.

Not the six or seven I was subjected to on this latest trip to the movies.

Why is this even a thing in the age of the internet? If you scroll through social media or try to watch a couple of YouTube videos of people eating plates of s–t on trampolines, you’re bound to see a movie trailer.

That seems to be the better way to market than by subjecting people whose money studios already have to a crappy trailer for a kids movie about talking sneakers (which is real, by the way).

I mean. I already dropped over $20 on popcorn and one soda, I’d appreciate if you didn’t clamp my eyes open like Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange and force me to watch a sizzle reel for the latest reimagining of The Smurfs (which is also real and features Rihanna — who is no voice actress — as Smurfette).

I know that recently, there was a push to make theaters put the time the movie actually starts on your ticket instead of when the trailers start. I don’t know that we need the government mandating this. I think studios and theater chains should realize it doesn’t work and reel it in a little bit.

Also, we all know that there are at least 15 minutes of trailers before the feature stars.

At least 15 minutes.

This theater is almost entirely empty, which means some dude is going to sit right in front of that poor couple. (Getty Images)

People Who Sit Right Next To You In An Otherwise Empty Theater

This is a good one, and it came courtesy of my fianceé (when you hear it, you’ll be like, "Oh yeah, those two were made for each other).

I think it has happened to everyone: you’re sitting in a theater with plenty of real-estate available (anyone seeing Snow White is having this experience as we speak). 

All the free space in the world to set up a movie-viewing campsite, and where do they go? 

Right. Next. To. You.

I get it if a theater is packed, but I’m talking Monday matinee kind of openness. Anyone that sits next to you with enough open space that you can nearly see the curvature of the Earth should be slapped with some kind of ticket from the teenage kid mopping the perpetually sticky aisles whose voice won’t stop cracking on him.

Nowadays, most theaters make you pick a seat ahead of time, which you’d think would solve this problem.

When we went to the movies last week, this is what we had to do, and despite most of the theater being a ghost town, a group of dopes sat directly in front of us.

Sure, we were in the center of a row, about halfway up, which is the sweet spot to get a proper taste of a film's mise-en-scène, but, hey, first come, first served.

I have my preferred movie-watching spot, but I'd rather have my space and have to turn my head slightly than get the primo position while surrounded by my fellow movie-goers.

…

Well, that's it for this edition of The Gripe Report! 

If this jogged your memory and you want to fire off a movie gripe, be sure to hit up The Gripe Report on your favorite social media platforms or send an email to matthew.reigle@outkick.com.