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Comment by draugadrotten | Hacker News Reader

How is the experience of going to the movies in the US these days? In EU, going to the movies now means watching entire rows of glowing cell phones in front of you and hearing at least a few conversations on speaker phone. Not to mention the price of admission for the whole family is comparable to about 6 months of a streaming service. It just isn't worth it anymore, and I say that as a movie aficionado who has seen 500+ movies in the cinema over the years.

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I go to the cinema about 4 times a year with the kids in the UK, usually to see marvel films. I don’t recognise that experience.

The whole thing costs about £50 sure (maybe nearer £60 nowadays), and we combine it with bowling and a meal out. Overall it’s a £150 “day out”. It’s not comparable to watching a film at home.

A year of Netflix and a year of Disney+ in the UK would be £200. A family of Four to watch Dial of Destiny in my Local cinema was £80, for one showing, no snacks, no drinks. Is Disney cannibalising itself I wonder?

I don’t go to the cinema to skip a couple of months of waiting. I go for an event. What’s on isn’t that important.

I go to the movies around 20-30 times per year in the US. If you have a large family, it can get expensive so for heavy movie goers like me, monthly subscription plans like AMC Stubs ($24/month) make sense.

Sure, you have the occasional people with phones lighting up or ringing during the movie, especially in movies with strong teenager attendance, but it doesn't define the experience. Yesterday someone took a baby to a horror movie I watched (!), and there was a bit of crying here and there. This kind of inconsiderate person isn't common in my experience, it's just like the random annoying person at a restaurant.

To be honest, with the movie plan it's totally worth it, but that's me. I love movies and while I have a decent and comfortable watching setup at home, it's like watching a travel vlog vs actually traveling - a whole different ball game.

It's expensive, but people are not texting and chatting. Some do check notifications. Not that 3 hours features like Avatar 2 that should have been 90 minutes don't offer ample opportunity to check them out of sheer boredom.

This is in Eastern Europe.

I go to movies at an Alamo Drafthouse.

They're known for being pretty willing to kick out unruly guests, and I definitely appreciate it. I actually haven't had any issues at any of their locations in Denver, CO.

There's obvious exceptions, big fan service opening movies like Endgame were quite loud but it was a whole audience experience and it was fun, but typical movies and post-opening-weekend, most people are respectful.

Went to John Wick 4 at the Alamo drafthouse in NYC and had to wear AirPods the entire movie since it was so unreasonable loud. Totally bizarre experience, hated the extra 10 decibels

I'm not sure how you think you can extrapolate your movie going experience to the entire EU when the crowd and experience is already different depending on what theater i go to in the city i live in (i don't recognize your experience at all).

Where in the EU is this true? I've never experienced this in Sweden.

While technically not EU, this is not the case in Norway either

Also not in DK, and I'm going to assume it wouldn't be in Iceland or Finland either - seems very contra the whole Scandinavian identity, which normally has the issue of being too full of itself but I guess does have some benefits.

Not in Finland, there's some noise before the movie starts and during ads but pretty much everyone turns off their phones (or puts them into airplane mode) when the actual movie starts.

Not in Hungary either

EU is not one (cinema) culture.

Not in NL

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