The death of the 'dinner-and-a-show' date
There’s a reason Hollywood makes few adults movies these days.
I’m a member of the Brownstone Institute’s Writer’s Group email chain. Today, the writers spent a little time talking about the soon-to-be-released movie Oppenheimer, a bio of the man who created the atomic bombs and led World War II’s Manhattan Project.
But this thread got me thinking about movies in general.
As I shared with my colleagues, I’m just happy to learn Hollywood still makes at least a few movies for adults.
I thought today’s Hollywood only makes movies for the children’s market … the thought being that parents will still spend their ever-dwindling disposable income in an effort to give their kids some quality entertainment or pleasant childhood memories.
(Or Hollywood produces only re-boots of Super Hero movies, films that had grossed enough money in the past to justify making two to 20 re-makes/re-boots).
My town doesn’t even have a movie theater any more …
In my town (Troy, Alabama), our five-screen movie theater went bankrupt and closed during the Covid lockdowns. This means for the last three years any Troy resident has to drive 50 miles to Dothan or Montgomery to see a flick at the movie theater.
I knew the previous owner of our movie theater, which I always thought was excellent for a town with a population of 19,000. At least to me, the theater seemed to do pretty well for the 20 or so years he ran it.
Sadly, the owner died about a year ago.
In a local newspaper story, the owner said Covid (or, more precisely, the Covid lockdowns) proved to be the final nail in the business’s coffin. However, the movie theater was apparently suffering a financial slow-down even before it was forced to shut down.
My guess is that this was largely explained by adults significantly cutting back on going to expensive movies with expensive popcorn and Cokes. (This, and the fact Hollywood doesn’t make as many good movies for adults as it once did).
One of the easiest inflation “work-arounds” is cutting down on “date nights” and movies.
Adults with children rarely go to movies
In the last five years, I can only remember one adult movie our family went to - the movie on Elvis and Col. Parker (played by Tom Hanks).
However, my wife and/or I have taken our two kids to many children’s movies, which seem to comprise 70 percent of Hollywood films these days.
In fact, my wife just informed me that she and our 7-year-old are going to see the latest “Transformer” movie tomorrow …. in Montgomery, 50 miles from Troy.
This means we have to buy gas and risk a car crash on the 100-mile round trip.
My late father was the town historian. I know from his local history books that Troy’s first movie theater opened in 1919. So Troy had a movie theater for 101 years …. But not now.
This is also embarrassing as Troy is a college town. In fact, I bet Troy is the only college with a Division I sports program that does not have a movie theater where students can see a movie (or work at said movie theater).
Anyway, I’m going to research this Oppenheimer movie as this man’s life was very interesting and important.
I might actually go see the film, although I don’t know if my wife will be as interested in it as me… so I can save money going by myself.
I’d consider trying to sneak some candy in, but when we went to the Elvis movie the ushers checked us for contraband before they let us go to our seats. (I’m too old to be busted for sneaking Milk Duds into a movie theater).
How much does dinner and a movie cost these days
for adults who live in Troy, Alabama?
We don’t do it anymore, but I can make a pretty good estimate on how much it costs for my wife and I (or any couple like us) to go out on a traditional date - the “dinner-and-a-show” outing that was an American pastime for more than a century.
Gas for 110-mile round trip: $13 (about 4 gallons of regular unleaded).
Babysitter for 5 1/2 hours: $60?
Note: I actually don’t know how much babysitters charge because we never pay for them. My wife just told me some charge $20 hour, but this can’t be right … right?
Two movie tickets @$12/ticket: $24.
Coke and popcorn for both of us (large for me): $20.
Dinner before or after the movie (with tip, taxes and one adult beverage each): $90
Date night cost: $207.
Note: Before our movie theater closed, it would have cost us $2 in gas to go to the local movie and dinner and we would’ve only had to pay the baby sitter 4 hours, not 6. Plus, we would have been supporting local restaurants and wouldn’t be putting our lives at risk driving 110 miles round-trip.
So, thank you again, Covid lock-downers.
Bottom-line: The wife and I are NOT going on any “dinner-and-a-show” date nights because we need that $207 for the grocery store. ($207 is about what one trip to the grocery store now cost - as opposed to maybe $125 two years ago).
Anyway, I think there’s a reason movie theaters in small towns are closing and why Hollywood isn’t making as many “adult” movies as it once did. Even if they’re good movies, how many adults can afford to go?
P.S. If this column generates five annual paid subscriptions, that would almost pay for a dinner-and-a-show date night for my wife and me … but I don’t think that’s going to happen … because my readers also need money to go to the grocery store!
And I can always see the Oppenheimer movie on Netflix in three months. We now subscribe to Netflix because we “cut the cord” on our cable TV company. As I wrote several years ago, people who must save money will always come up with “work-arounds galore.”
I think when my late parents (who would be 83 today) were growing up, a ticket to a movie was about 10 cents to 25 cents. And they got to see not only the main movie, but these little serials that ran before the movie plus "News of the World." Of course, there was no TV then.
And Hollywood made a lot more movies - because they were a lot cheaper to make. So, in my view, "real inflation" affects everything. It's now much more expensive to make a movie so the film distributors have to charge more for tickets and concessions. If a movie bombs, film studios lose a ton of money ... so they cover their bets by not taking as many creative risks - and the studios end up green-lighting only movies they think will pay for themselves.
I also note that it's too expensive to make many movies in Hollywood so they now make more of them in other (cheaper) states and cities. In short, I wonder if Hollywood will still be the movie capital of the world in, say, 10 years. And movies largely defined or "sold" America to the rest of the world.
It is sad that "movies and dinner" is no longer the pastime and dating ritual it was for many decades. Of course, my wife tells me that young couples don't really go out on "dates" like my generation and my parents generation once did .... which is sad and a little alarming as well.
I look forward to seeing the movie, however in an odd way it is all fiction. Some time I would like to introduce you to Dr. Todd Rider who has all but proven that the Germans developed the bomb before us. What is limiting him is that the files on the German atomic bomb remain classified and in the control of the U.S. government. It’s almost humorous at times as he found directories to the German atomic bomb program but the files to the directories are classified. He often asks why are we still classifying WWII files.
My great aunt working for the Manhattan project did the maps before and after of Hiroshima but she also did the maps of Manhattan estimating the likely damage from an atomic bomb blast.
Her husband was sent to Inner Mongolia to investigate the Japanese atomic bomb test that took place there in August 1945. You can read about the test in a couple of sources, primarily the Atlantic Constitution from 1946 and Tetsuo Wakabayashi Revealed by Dwight Rider.