I Miss Cheap Family Movies

To celebrate my son’s 12th birthday, I took my kids to see Project Hail Mary in theatres. I was surprised that my squirrelly 10-year-old made it through the long film, but he loved it — we all did. Too bad this wholesome family outing to the movies isn’t a more frequent occurrence.

As a lover of movies and a professional culture writer, I could gab all day about what’s wrong with the film industry nowadays, but one thing I miss about the '90s, specifically, is cheap movie matinees. Growing up in sunny California, one of the go-to activities on a summer’s day was to see the newest PG or even sometimes PG-13 blockbuster. But with the cost of tickets and popcorn today, going to the movies is a luxury that’s leading to my kids missing out in more ways than one.

When we were kids, there was an “event” animated movie, a Golden Age of Disney masterpiece like The Lion King, or an exciting new departure like Shrek out in theatres every summer. But there were also amazing live-action movies. When going to the movies was cheaper, more people went regularly, and more family-friendly live-action movies were made.

These live-action movies exposed me to culture beyond Disney’s (incorrect) version of historical events — I’m looking at you, Pocahontas. Selena, A League Of Their Own and Little Women portrayed stories of strong young women pursuing their dreams. I learned about literature from adaptations of Shakespeare, like 10 Things I Hate About You, and Jane Austen, with Emma turned Clueless. I memorized lines from Hook and Jurassic Park, which didn’t lead to a career as a pirate or paleontologist, but did teach me about story Emma-inspired Clueless. And don’t get me started on Titanic — I’ve still got all the fun facts swirling in my memory on that one.

Now that I’m a parent, I enjoy well-made animated movies, but I also suffer through a lot of really, really bad ones (Mario 2 was nonsensical). Overall, there are few live-action family movies. Project Hail Mary really was the exception. There’s no live-action option in theaters this summer that’s appropriate for kids 10 and under. The Spiderman sequel is based on a lot of Marvel lore and is two-and-a-half hours long. The Odyssey is too violent and nearly three hours. Due to there being more animation and the price of admission being high, I’m not willing to risk money on a movie we might not all “get,” so we almost exclusively watch animated movies made just for kids, both at home and in theaters.

Until Hollywood makes more family-friendly live-action blockbusters, I’m trying to expand our horizons outside of the Minion universe to get my kids on board with more movies. I even bought a DVD player (how retro) so we can watch some of my old favorites that aren’t streaming. I traumatized them with The NeverEnding Story this week! But there’s something to be said about how special it is to watch a movie for the first time in theatres.