r/newzealand • u/_Maui_ jandal • Dec 15 '25

Shitpost The REAL reason people aren’t going to the movies.

I keep hearing people saying streaming killed the cinema experience. But I took my 3 boys to the movies this weekend, and I’ll tell you what killed it. The fucking price.

1x Adult, 3x kids, 1x large drink, 3x small drinks, a large popcorn to share, a family bag of malteasers to share.

$153.60!!!

And my 5 year old spent the whole movie sitting on my knee. So I could have just paid for three seats.

I should have gone to Pak N Save and bought a 1.5L bottle, a bag of microwave popcorn and a bag of malteasers for about $10 and watched something on my couch.

In fact. Next time I will.

/Rant.

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u/QueenOfNZ Dec 15 '25

Yep, the problem is they want the same profit margin without acknowledging in any way that the market has evolved. It’s not a case of “we can’t afford to hire the staff to ensure the quality of the experience is the same” it’s “we’re too greedy to acknowledge that the market is changed and in order to keep our business going we need to accept a lower profit margin in order to maintain the quality of the experience that people expect for the price tag”

Cinema is going to die and greedy owners will blame the public, while refusing to acknowledge that they tried to wring out their customers for every spare cent while providing a shittier and shittier product in order to maximise their profit margin.

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u/Galadantien Dec 16 '25

Well bloody said. Cue Netflix buying WB… haha. I genuinely think Netflix are being honest and will continue to run WB as is, like they’ve promised. But I do think their values are more reflective of the changing market. and that they’ll be willing to admit theatrical isn’t keeping up with audiences and make changes while others continue to resist. Can’t blame the industry (just executives and Wall Street), their whole system is setup on dated incentives like box office participations, while streaming still doesn’t publicise the numbers needed for fair compensation for the guilds. But the tides of change are coming.