Cinema Suites

Living in New York could be expensive - rent, groceries, paying to park everywhere, etc. How else can you compare cost of living across the country?  Let's look at movie prices.

A price of a movie is generally $12, $19 for 3D, and $6-$9.50 for a matinee. We are talking about a regular movie theater or maybe, if the theater is newer - stadium seating.  Sometimes you can find 'director's seating' where you have an assigned larger seat, but that is about the only difference - and is it worth the extra few dollars?

When I was visiting a friend in the Midwest, the weather was crappy so we decided to go to a movie.  While it was an AMC theater (one I frequent regularly at home), they had this other type of theater called the Cinema Suites.  Check it out:

Talk about cozy!  The seats had a foot rest that comes out so you can stretch out, and from all the seats you are able to see the screen really well.  The seating is limited and assigned when you purchase the tickets - so with popular movies you should definitely purchase the tickets before you leave the house to help prevent the movie from selling out.

You didn't have to worry one bit about the person's head in front of you, or getting up if someone needed to visit the restroom or concession stand.  The seats were comfortable.  You get all this for $12 or $9 for an early showing.  So I was curious, how much was a regular theater in the same city in the Midwest (something more typical of where I live) and the ticket was $6 or only $4 for a matinee.

Now let's talk about movie theater food - the nicer places by me offer a variety of food & drinks.  No more just popcorn, candy and soda.  Now they offer nachos, hot dogs, coffee and a few other things.   Everything comes in different sizes and prices could range from a small popcorn at $5 to a large at $10, drinks averaging about $5.50 and honestly I am not sure how much candy, coffee or food goes for...but I figured why would I want to eat a hot dog or subpar food at the movies?

The Cinema Suites has a menu by your seat - and a call button to call over a server to take your order.  They had aside from the popcorn, candy and soda - specialty alcoholic drinks, beer (buckets, pitchers or bottles), appetizers, meals and desserts.  Apparently the food is actually really good too.

I had an iced tea and split the veggie hummus platter.  The drink was $4.50 and the hummus platter was about $9. 

What a fantastic experience.  I really enjoy going to the movies and there is no doubt that I'd go to more movies with all these luxuries.