When I wrote my post a few months ago about the benefits and savings I could extract from “Moviepass”, I was overlooking an important part of this as an investment.
My own time.
I’ve been guilty of this before, in estimating the true cost of shared office space.
But, with movies, we’ve probably always heard a friend or family member say in frustration…”That’s 2 hours of my life that I’ll never get back”.
With that said, it’s usually a half day of my time that I’m investing, because it usually takes me an hour, each way to go into the city.
So that’s 4 hours, minimum, each time I want to use Moviepass. (not including lunch)
So far, I’ve seen 18 movies. At an average cost of $17.40. That’s $313 for my original investment of $100.
That’s basically a little more than 2 movies per week. Here are individual rundowns and my personal rating of value.
Attended my first movie on 3/27/2018
- Black Panther (too much action, no substance) <
- Isle of Dogs (Break even, a genre I wouldn’t normally do) =
- Ready Player One (pretty cool, worth it) >
- Itzhak (Good peek inside what it takes to become the best) >
- Where is Kyra (Michelle Pfiffer agreed to do this? Really?) <
- Blockers (kinda cute, kids movie, not for me) <
- Red Sparrow (a bit dark, but ok) =
- A Quiet Place (Good use of scare tactics) >
- Acrimony (short on substance, not worth it) <
- I feel PRETTY (made me laugh out loud, so a win) >
- Unsane (Not a bad little thriller) =
- Bad Samaritan (Cheap Silence of the lambs) <
- RBG (Good life story of Justice Ginsburg, worth it) >
- Last Horseman of New York (Documentary about horse drawn carriages in NYC) =
- A man of his word (Bio of Pope Francis. Uplifting and inspiring message) >
- Life of the party (ok, updated comedy for young people and middle aged parents) =
- Solo – Star Wars story (Bad plot, bad acting, bad movie) <
- Adrift (Great “Lost at sea” thriller about human survival) >
Those total:
> Worth it (7)
<Not Worth it (6)
= Just ok (5)
Sometimes, I had wished I could hang out for coffee after one of the better movies, to chat about it in more detail.
Maybe this is more of a commentary on where we’re headed as a society. All you can consume, but with a certain level of isolation.
More “Free time”, less “Face time”.
In summary, here is my “Big Data” deep dive analysis.
I don’t like Super-hero action movies. Period. I don’t know why I keep torturing myself and thinking I’m going to hit on some hidden gem.
Ready Player One, by Steven Speilberg, was probably the exception to all this. It had a decent plot line and a good mix of old and new references.
At an average of 2 movies per week, I just need to be careful to limit the possibility that my time will be wasted.
I should be able to figure that out, with great probability. Obviously not 100% guarantee, but I should be able to improve the balance above.
Do you feel like your missing out on your investment when you eat a normal share at the “all you can eat buffet”?
Update 7/15/2018:
Just so I can continue to keep track of my total:
19. The Quest of Alain Ducasse
20. Won’t you be my neighbor?
21. Always at the Carlyle
22. Incredibles 2
23. Jurassic World (New)
24. Sicario
25. Leave no trace (Angelika)
26. Tag (based on true story)
27. Custody (Foreign language) amazing
28. Just another girl on the IRT
29. Eight Grade (a hit and triumph)
30. 3 Identical strangers (Not bad, but no sympathy)
31. Under the tree (Violent and unexpected…thriller for the 21st century)