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Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 2, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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My wife and I thought about going to the movies the other day, briefly. She was having a tough day at work and texted me saying "Hey let's do something fun, let's go see a movie." So I looked up movie showings, there was one that I'd maybe consider seeing (that Jennifer Lawrence raunch-comedy) showing at 5:00, 7:15, and 9:40. 5:00, no chance, I'm not off work yet. Well I ran a little late, would have had to get ready in five minutes. That's not practical. Now we're trying to go the 9:40, but that throws off the next day, I'm up until midnight for this movie, throws off my morning workout and all. Less appealing.

So instead we streamed Crazy Rich Asians on our colossal HDTV in our living room.

As streaming options get better and better, and big TVs trickle down to lower and lower prices, the standard a movie theater needs to reach to make me actually leave the house gets higher and higher. At this point a 70" tv runs $500, a Bose soundbar is $200. Combine the two and that's $700 for a damn good home theater experience, certainly plenty good for a comedy, not bad for an average action movie. And that's not just competing against however many movie tickets, it's probably something most people buy anyway for sports/tv/etc.

The value add has to be so high for me to schedule my night around it, it's pretty tough.

And as the value add has to get bigger, ticket prices have to climb, which has a further inflating effect on minimum value add.