By Max Mazurczak
Staff Reporter
Why do some students prefer to stay home and watch Netflix and Hulu, when they could go out and see a movie?
“What gets me out of the dorm from watching either Netflix or Hulu is a movie actually worth going to see, not something that’s just another typical movie,” said freshman Tyler Duff.
However, some of the reason for students staying in rather than going to the movies is due to the prices of the movie ticket and popcorn. When you stay in for the night and watch Netflix or Hulu, it’s generally much cheaper. Hulu and Spotify have a student discount where you can get both services for $4.99 a month, according to Spotify.com.
“I have the Hulu and Spotify student discount deal, and it’s so great for how cheap it is,” said sophomore Joe McCormack. “You get this huge selection of movies and TV shows from Hulu, and then you get millions and millions of songs to choose from on Spotify.
“The movies just get to be too expensive,” said McCormack. “Sometimes you end up paying $12 for a ticket, plus money for popcorn and a drink; at that point you’re spending $20 to go to the movies.”
However, with theater tickets getting more expensive, the movie theaters are losing money and attendance. According to TheVerge.com, domestic movie theater attendance hit a 25 year low in 2017. With the higher ticket prices, the movie theaters’ revenue has dropped 2.7 percent, dropping from 11.4 billion to 11.1 billion, according to TheVerge.com.
There are only a few movies that students go out and actually see. According to TheNumbers.com, the top 3 highest grossing movies of 2018 are “Black Panther,” “Jumanji: Welcome to The Jungle,” and “The Greatest Showman.” “Black Panther” has sold 72,934,903 tickets worldwide so far. “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” has sold 26,086,278 tickets worldwide according to TheNumbers.com. Why is there such a big drop-off in sales from the number one to the number two movie?
However, could the reason for some students staying home and watching Netflix or Hulu be that some students may not like going to the movies or just prefer to wait until the movie comes out?
“I don’t really have to go to the movies,” said junior Justin Cunningham. “It’s just more convenient and a lot cheaper to just stream something at home. If I really want to see a movie that’s coming out, then I’ll wait till it comes out on DVD or just wait for it to come onto a streaming website that I use.”
