Our preferred places to watch movies from most to least:
- *Theater
- TV
- Computer
- Tablet
- Phone
- Other
*Theaters are where we watch almost all new movies that come out. Television (#2) is where we watch the most movies.
Movie Theater
In our opinion, there is no better experience than watching movies on the big screen. Yes, you don’t have the comfort of being at home, but there is something magical about the giant screen, the social environment — hearing others laugh, cry, applaud or (gasp) boo. Movie theaters have the best popcorn. Yes, it’s overpriced by design. Some newer theaters have the super luxury reclining seats (love those). The sound is fantastic in the newer theaters and there are some additional cool movie experiences like 4DX that you can’t (inexpensively) get at home.
Now, it is possible to have a really, really expensive home theater comparable to the theater experience, but unless you invite friends, family and neighbors to watch, it’s going to come up short on the social side.
We aren’t movie theater snobs. Not expecting others to enjoy watching movies where we most enjoy most watching them, but this post is to talk about where people watch movies. We’re sharing our situation and are curious and want to hear your preferences in the comments or trackbacked/pinged from reader blogs.
Since August 2019, we both have the Regal Unlimited Pass, so we pay a monthly fee and can watch all 2D movies with no additional cost. We’ll happily pay the surcharge to watch specially formatted movies in the best visual format (EXAMPLE. a movie made to be watched in 3D, we’ll pay to watch in 3D).
Now when it comes to overall movie volume, there just aren’t enough volume of movies to watch only/primarily in the theater, so the most movies we watch in term of sheer volume is on our television.
75+ movies a month watched volume. That includes all new in theater movies (12-15+ movies per month) and 60+ existing library rewatching and/or movies not seen before and streamed. You might watch more or less movies than us, but if you figure the average movie is 100 minutes (for simple math, might be a little higher than average), that’s 7,500+ minutes or about 125 hours of movies a month … 5+ days a month spent watching movies!
Yes, we watch a lot of movies every month. Our TV regularly has a movie or TV show playing, pretty much around the clock when we’re awake and home.
TV
We only have one television — 52″ 3D, high def — set. We don’t have the newest model high definition model. Haven’t felt the need to upgrade to the newest, greatest pixel TV yet. Maybe this Christmas it will be time to upgrade. Going to be tough replacing our 3D-capable TV. Easily our favorite set we’ve ever owned and we paid less than $500 buying it from Wal-Mart on a special deal.
Most movies we watch are streamed through Amazon Prime and various add-on channels (Kara has a subscription to the Lifetime Movie Channel, for example). Right now, we are paying additionally for Starz, but we rotate subscriptions around every few months to the main premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz, etc).
We sometimes watch on the PS4 Blu-rays and DVDs that we own. Our current collection is around 250 or so movies. It has been as high as 700+ movies at one time, but we’ve sold off a bunch. The only movies we buy in physical media any more are collector’s sets and/or highly rewatchable movies.
Computer / Laptop
We don’t have a laptop right now that can play DVDs, so unless we spring for an external USB Blu-ray and DVD player we can’t take along any of our owned movies. It’s just less hassle streaming, even though the picture quality isn’t there.
When we travel is the primary time we watch movies on the laptop. The other situation is when Kara wants to watch Lifetime Movie channel, I’ll watch something different on my laptop.
Something newer I tried recently was watching Shudder + Discord chat event. This kind of social movie watching with others across the internet is best experienced on a computer. Or at least a computer for the chat part and beamed to TV for the movie. I do windowing for movies while on the computer (see screenshot at the top of this post), also to allow others to watch something differently, if they like, on TV.
There is another Shudder event tonight — 10/24/2019 — to watch the newest Creepshow episode. Not sure if I can make the time or not, but going to try and be there. Later tonight, we’re going to catch at least one of the new movies opening at the theater.
Tablet
We have multiple tablets and have done a little streaming on them, but I more often read books on my Kindle Fire currently and play a few games versus watching movies. Am interested in watching more this way because it is less distracting than using a computer, however, I’d need something to prop up the tablet so I don’t have to hold onto it.
Phone
I have a couple movies downloaded from Amazon Prime on my phone. This way if I’m somewhere with no internet access, I can watch some kind of movie. Due to the smaller screen size and battery consumption, I’m not too excited about watching movies this way.
Other / Occulus Virtual Reality (VR)
On my Christmas wish list is the Occulus VR. FandangoNow has 3D movies for rent and purchase for this. I’ve tried other VR using my phone and it was pretty cool way to watch a gigantic floating 3D theater screen. I’m not sure whether or not I’d watch more movies this way, but I’m curious about trying to do so anyway. It seems like a cool experience
How Do YOU Most Watch Movies?
Have I missed other ways to watch movies? How do you watch movies the most? At home via owned physical media, streaming, at the theater mostly or some other method?
Movies, Movies, Movies 