The Hi-Pointe

Yesterday evening we ventured out for our first movie in a theatre with Lucy---we had a test run a couple of weeks ago when we saw an American Girl Movie at the theatre, it was fairly short and free plus the theatre was full of little girls, it went well so we took our chance yesterday.
 
We have two theaters within walking distance to our house.  Happily, the theatre we like best, The Hi Pointe, was showing Despicable Me 2.   This theatre was built in 1922 and is simple but nice and a bit old fashioned.  Just one screen and the cutest lobby.  I like the theatre for all of that and its proximity to our house.  I now love this theatre because for $50 my entire family of 5 saw the movie and had snacks.  If you've not been to the movies in a few years (I went for at least a 3 year stretch of no movies in a theatre...it was probably even longer, so trust me I understand) this may not seem like a deal.  It is.  A good ticket price is $4.50-$5 and it seems that rush hour shows and earlier are generally in this range no matter the theatre, unless they're 3D and then they're a couple of dollars more.  The only time we've ever enjoyed 3-D was a little Disney film at Disney World which was short and just enough 3-D fun, otherwise the couple of times we've gone to a 3-D movie about 10 minutes into the show we've all taken off our glasses and feel like we're going to be sick.  Anyway, our $5 tickets were a fine deal, it was the snacks that were a great deal.  For $5 each kiddo got a small soda and a small popcorn, and I mean small, as in a reasonable size for a person to consume, and they were not "kid packs" with a bunch of silly marketing for kids, just a plain old bag of popcorn and a soda.  And for the same cost I got a glass of wine and Kevin had a beer.  I only know that this is a good price because I spent $4.75 on a small (read, a half gallon) coke when we saw the American Girl movie.  I threw a lot of it away, I ordered a small because I wanted a small, I may be in the minority but I don't feel like I'm getting a deal because you're giving me 4 times as much as I want.
 After a hot, hot day sitting in a cool (but not freezer like....another thing we liked!) theatre at 5:15 was a lovely treat that didn't break the bank.

P.S. I know we could've skipped the snacks or brought our own to really make it a reasonable night out.  If we went to movies all of the time I might be convinced of this (might not, though!) but I'd rather go less and do it all than pack microwave popcorn and juice boxes in my bag.  Buying snacks at the theatre is all part of the fun!