Would you rather pay $20 for a single movie ticket, or watch a bunch of commercials before your film starts?

Photo above - Brad Pitt (age 30) is beguiled by CGI state of the art femme fatale Kim Bassinger in the 1992 film "Cool World. His new film - F1/Apex - has a budget of $300 million, to de-age him (he's 61) and add car crashes.

Okay . .. this is a trick question. First, many theaters already show commercials to their captive audiences. They’re planning on more . . . a lot more. And movie tickets already cost $20 each. (California – the only place higher is Hawaii).

If Hollywood can’t figure out why people have stopped going to the movies, then producers and execs haven’t gone recently themselves either. Or they get comp’d, despite being multi-millionaires.

If Hollywood execs DID show up in person, and pay for the experience, they'd realize:

1 – you have to drive a half hour each way.

2 – stand in line for tickets

3 – pay ungodly amounts for a bag of popcorn and a soda (where allowed by law. Some states are making movie-sized sodas illegal, as health hazard).

4 – miss part of the film if you have to use the restroom after drinking your 64-ounce soda.

No wonder Netflix, HBO, and other streaming/cable movies are ascendant. I don’t have to do ANY of those things. And there’s no teenagers sitting behind me tossing popcorn and using their cellphones.

A friend (who is an F1 fan) recently asked if I’d like to schlepp down to the AMC Westshore 14 plaza to watch Brad Pitt pretend that he’s a racecard driver in "F1/Apex". Reviews are strong. As they should be for a movie costing $300 million. Brad Pitt reportedly earned $30 million for his 90 minutes of screen time.

I’m currently watching Resident Alien at home. $2 million per episode. This would translate into $4 million if it were a feature length theater film.

The most expensive TV show ever made was Game of Thrones. It started out at $5 million but reached an ungodly $80 million per episode in the final season. Which may be why they killed off all the characters suddenly and couldn’t even afford to show the CGI wolf more than once.

There’s probably a bunch of CGI in “F1”. Car crashes for example, and thousands of fans in the stands. But should that be any more expensive than turning Alan Tudyk (resident alien star) into a green space lizard at least once an episode?

The most expensive film of 2025 (so far) is “The Electric State”. $320 million. It bombed. 3.7 rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This may indeed be a bad film . .. I haven’t seen it. But it’s equally likely people don’t want to pay $20 a ticket for something that belongs on TV.

The films costing over $300 million which make money, or at least break even, are franchises: Star Wars; Jurassic World; Fast and Furious series; Avengers; Mission Impossible. And even then profits are hit or miss, no matter how big the dinosaurs or spaceships are.

Sorry Brad Pitt . . . if I was the casting director or producer, I would have nixed F1-Apex. There really isn’t much demand for a 61-year-old race car driver, no matter how fantastic the crashes are. You were excellent in “Moneyball”, however. That one only cost $47 million and had a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I watch it regularly on Netflix.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

You're about to get ads right before the movie at AMC too

The Cost of a Movie Ticket in Each State

Jokersswild · 22-25

Going to the movies can be an expensive form of entertainment, but you're right, the real question is whether it's even necessary when you can enjoy a great film from the comfort of your home. These days, platforms like Netflix release good movies regularly, so you can stay in, order a pizza or cook up some wings, and have a family movie night for under $50. That’s a lot cheaper than spending $20 per person at the theater, plus another $20 on popcorn. Or better yet, just wait for the movie to hit Amazon and rent it for 5 bucks.

joe438 · 61-69, M

The last movies I've seen were just because it was 1) a hot day, 2) someone I was with thought it would be fun or 3) the theater it was playing in also had a restaurant and the food is decent. Tickets have gotten crazy, and honestly, if they showed ads beforehand and reduced the ticket prices, I'd prefer that because I can use that time to use the bathroom, do a last check for phone messages or just ignore the ads like I do with TV.

If they want more butts in seats then maybe they could consider making original movies that people want to watch. That would help tremendously.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@joe438 i'll bet that - no matter what - movie theaters NEVER cut ticket prices. Didn't a bunch go bankrupt during covid 19 because patrons stayed home?