When we’re sitting around looking for something to do and someone suggests that we go catch a movie I usually groan with boredom. Everyone remembers those days growing up when you couldn’t drive and you weren’t old enough to do anything but get dropped off by your parents at the movie theater or the mall. On top of that “last-resort-entertainment” association, the price of movie tickets has skyrocketed in the past few years to as much as $15/ticket! Very, very rarely do I ever want to see a movie that much. The amount of other perverse, freaky, weird, and fun things I can do for $15 far outstrips a movie. But, thats not to say that it isn’t occassionally fun to go out and catch a flick. Luckily, Dallas has some better and cheaper places to go than the mega-chain theaters.
Independent movie theaters like the Magnolia and Angelika often feature not your typical multi-million dollar blockbusters, but more thoughtful, intellectual movies, the kind which often win millions of awards from some academy or another. Another bonus is that they have features that your mega-movie theater does not. At the Angelika, with locations at Mockingbird Station and in Plano, they offer student discounts (which are rare nowadays) so that a weekend evening movie averages about $7.50. Many independent theaters offer a full bar so that you’re entertained even if the movie is too intellectual or weird for you to enjoy, which sometimes happens. The Angelika also features unusual events such as matinee movies specifically for mother’s to bring crying babies to sleep during, and special features where they play classic old movies such as “Breakfast at Tiffanys” or “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” on the big screen. The Magnolia is an indie theater in Uptown, where they also offer a student discount which brings ticket prices down to $7.00.
But, if you’re exceptionally broke (like me) and haven’t been out to the mega theaters lately, you might want to check out Cinemark’s Plano Movies 10, a discount theater at Park & Coit in Plano. Although the movies only come to this theater after they have left the big screen at full price theaters, the delay is usually only a month or so. And, tickets for a weekend night are only $2.00! If you’re looking for an even better deal, show up for 75cent tuesdays and save all your money for something better. The price being so low almost pushes you to see movies that you would never waste two-hours of your life on otherwise. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes you regret it.
Perhaps after watching Slumdog millionaire you find all of your movies missing a certain hint of insane dancing and hindu music. Never fear! I have a cure. At the obscure theater FunAsia Richardson located right off george bush you can watch Bollywood movies to your hearts content. I’ve never ventured out to do this so I don’t know if they actually have subtitles on these movies or not, but prices range from $2 – $10 and its certainly an experience you won’t find anywhere else.
So next time you do dinner and a movie, go out of your comfort zone and make it a little more exciting, as well as a little more inexpensive.
Broader Horizons 