We're all familiar with the big chain movie theaters like Cinemark, Regal, and AMC. The milti-billion dollar companies make up more than 75% of the movie theaters you can go to in the US. That means small, privately owned theaters are slowly becoming a dying breed when forced to compete with the large ever-growing chains. While many think going to huge theaters with twenty or more screens and multiple concession stands is the way of the future, I beg to disagree. I think there are far more reasons to keep supporting small theaters.

We all have heard our parents and grandparents remind us of when they could see the latest movie and buy a popcorn and soda for less than five bucks. Sounds like a wonderful dream. The sky-high prices of going to a movie are honestly becoming ridiculous. I went on a date with my boyfriend a short while back to see Dr. Strange at a Regal Cinemas theater. The weekday ticket prices were $12 a piece! Now this was not an Imax screening (which would cost us an additional $6.50 a ticket) and it wasn’t even a 3-D showing (which would have been an additional $3.50 for each of us).Now I’m not big on superhero movies; the only reason I agreed to go to that particular movie with my boyfriend was because he promised to buy me popcorn and soda (and who wouldn’t sit through their boyfriend's choice in movie for snacks). We opted for a large popcorn and soda combo…which wound up costing him $8.25 for the popcorn, and $6.00 for the large Coke (both of which we could have one refill on). So for the two of us for a movie and a popcorn was $38.25 (at least I can say I’m not a cheap date) and needless to say I was glad we could skip out on buying candy since I snuck in my box of Milk Duds in my purse.

Now were just two crazy twenty-somethings so spending almost forty dollars on a movie isn’t something we can afford to do every single weekend. And when we spend money at Regal or any of the other billion dollar theater companies were helping them grow even bigger than they already are. Now I should note that while in high school I did work at a very small, privately owned movie theater, so there is some bias in what I’m saying. But my bias towards Greenfield Garden Cinemas doesn’t change the fact that most small theaters are a more cost effective choice for consumers.

Let’s take my date night example again. Had we driven down to my old stomping grounds in Greenfield, MA and went to see our movie there we could have saved a lot on our night out. The tickets alone would have been $9 for my boyfriend and $8 for me (hooray for student discounts). Our large popcorn and soda (both of which come with unlimited refills) would have cost us another $10. So at the small theater we would have spent $27 vs the $38.25 we spent at Regal. The money we saved would have easily covered the extra gas to get there, the candy I snuck in, and we would have still had a few bucks left over. When you go to a huge multi-story cinema with five concession stands and three bathrooms you are going to pay to have those things.

When you go to a large theater there is a ton of people coming and going from there. There have been times I’ve had to wait in the ticket line for twenty minutes before a big movie premiere and then wait another twenty minutes in line to get my popcorn. A lot of bigger theater chains don’t always make their popcorn on site either (isn’t the point to have fresh popped popcorn?). Once you get your tickets and your snacks you go to find a seat. One problem with a lot of people in the theater is more of the seats are filled. There is literally nothing worse than showing up in the theater and not getting an armrest. Also, with more people in one theater you’re more likely to have some annoying person in there with you. One time I went to a packed movie and this group of kids is screaming and throwing popcorn all over the place. A few people said something to them and that only made them goof around even louder. The next time I saw the usher coming, I asked if he could do something. He clearly saw the rowdy group and told me all he was allowed to do was to tell people to put away their cell phones. So since the group wasn’t on their phones, they got to stay and continue to ruin the show for everyone. I really hope it was just that one usher that refused to help and not all big theater ushers. There was times that some customer would get loud and while I was working at The Garden too. If someone refused to quiet down then they were asked to leave by management or one of the projectionists. Simple.

Another thing is the popcorn. I can’t tell you how specific people get when ordering the stuff. At a small theater I could fill all kinds of requests, like layering butter, making a fresh batch right then for a customer. These kinds of requests are much harder to fill when there’s a long line of people waiting for their pre-popped popcorn. But at the same time, the larger theaters have a lot more options for concession stand snacks than smaller theaters. I have tried chicken wings, onion rings, jalapeno poppers, mozzarella sticks, cinnamon buns, ice-cream novelties and cheeseburgers from large theater concession stands. There is something to say about having such a vast variety of choices in what I might snack on.

If you take only one thing away from my article, it’s this. Large chain theaters make up the majority of the cinemas we can go to. If we support them, were feeding a corporation. When you support small and local theaters, you’re helping local people local families in local communities. So the next times you go out to see a movie try and make it to one that’s not a chain, and decide for yourself what type of experience you like best.