If you had asked me before last night when the last time I saw a movie in the theater was, I don’t think I could have given you an answer. The last one I know I saw was Sweeney Todd, but there may have been another one in there, if it was unremarkable enough. Assuming it was Sweeney, I looked it up on Wikipedia, and that movie was released on December 21st, 2007. Even if I saw it later on in its theatrical run, that’s still over a year and a half since I’d been to a movie theater. I knew it had been a while, but eighteen months surprised even me.
There are three main reasons we hadn’t been out to see a movie in ages, and they all make us sound like old fuddy-duddies. They are a) that I’m cheap, b) that I don’t think most modern movies are any good, and c) that we can watch lots of movies at home. To clarify those points, we do stick to a monthly budget, but it could absolutely include movies if they were higher on out priority list. As it is we prefer to spend money dining out, camping, visiting family, etc.
As for the other two points, I personally am a huge fan of classic movies, which makes for a somewhat unfair barometer. Is Transformers’ amalgam of CGI overkill and clichéd teen angst going to compare to the haunting story and brilliant acting of Casablanca? Of course not, and no one would expect it to. But I can watch the classics at home on TCM, so why spend nine bucks a person to watch the new stuff? And even if I do want to see something new, my satellite company is always doing free HBO previews which we record and watch later.
So, what was it that made us give up our miserly ways and go out into the world of the living (kidding, mostly)? Harry Potter, naturally. My wife got hooked on the books shortly after the first one came out, and the stories drew her in to the point that she has all the books, needs to see all the films, and tries quite hard to get me to love the franchise as much as she does. It may be working, albeit gradually. When Harry Potter first burst onto the scene, I hated almost everything about it. Now, although I wouldn’t call myself a fan, I do enjoy the movies and tried the first book in the series. In short, Harry Potter movies are a bit like the Edgewood Rodeo: you can try to fight it if you want, but you know you’re going anyway.
With that settled, it was time to pick a theater. We live almost literally across the street from the biggest and most popular multiplex in the Des Moines metro, but it’s also the most expensive. Our other favorite theater had rescinded its bring-your-own-bucket-and-get-it-filled-with-popcorn-for-50-cents night, so that was out. Then my wife discovered the hidden gem that is the Merle Hay Cinema. The largest non-IMAX screen in the state of Iowa, in an auditorium with seats for 775, and with a deal where $4.50 got you a ticket and a small popcorn. Add in the fact that it would be a new place to explore, and it was a no-brainer.
It ended up being a pretty great time. The theater was impressive, though not terribly stylish. But the screen was about as big as I could imagine one being without requiring you to crane your neck to follow the action. Action which became much more awesome on the giant screen. Riding along with the bad dudes as they flew around London smashing things was experienced in a way I imagine would be hard to replicate on the 26 inch screen at home. And the movie itself was good: dark enough to be interesting, funny enough to make me literally LOL a few times (“All hands on deck, Granger!”), and not so long that it made my butt hurt. I walked out wondering why we didn’t do this more often.
We used to go to the movies all the time, back in college. The summer between my sophomore and junior years, there was an event in Campustown, with a drawing at the local art house theater. I folded my entry with my signature winning fold, and ended up the proud owner of one year’s worth of free passes to movies at that theater! We’d been to the Varsity Theater a few times before for various independent films that struck our fancy, but the stack of passes I received meant we could watch anything, whether it looked good or not.
And that’s essentially what we did. There were a few weeks where the old movies were held over so there was nothing new, and there were a few weeks where we actually went to a couple of the offerings. But mostly it meant that every week we’d tear off a pair of passes and sit through two hours of free entertainment. Some of the movies were great, a lot were terrible, and some of them were even shown just for the two of us. It was a fun weekly pastime and by the end of the year, the few employees who ran the place knew us on sight.
In a sense, we were lousy people to win the prize, though, because we never bought snacks there and only bought a drink one time. After the prize period was over, we went back occasionally, but nowhere near as often as we had. At the time, we were “broke college students” and really couldn’t afford to go too often, but I’ll admit that we were being a little cheap too. Then just this year there was a story on the local news that the theater had shut down, presumably due to lack of sales.
It was actually pretty sad, since it had become a place we had grown to know and like, a place with character. The two auditoriums were a little dilapidated, and it probably wasn’t THX sound, but it was a place where we’d created lots of memories and now it is gone. I don’t think that our lack of support was responsible, especially now that we’ve moved away, but I still feel a twinge of guilt when I think about it. Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about it now. But we can do our best to prevent it from happening here. The Merle Hay theater is unique, and though it isn’t home to any old memories, it can be a place to form new ones. And for only $4.50 a person, I think I can even get my cheap self to go for that.
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