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2009 Ambassador Annual Pass Review

Wednesday, 30 December, 2009 — movies entertainment

With 2009 at a close, an update to an earlier post about the Ambassador Entertainment season pass. As with 2008, we closed the year with 27 films. The break-even was initially calculated at 15 films.

1. Gran Torino
2. Taken
3. Watchmen
4. The Reader
5. Sunshine Cleaning
6. Fast and Furious
7. Star Trek
8. The Soloist
9. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
10. Up
11. Anvil!
12. Brothers Bloom
13. Moon
14. Food, Inc
15. The Hurt Locker
16. 500 Days of Summer
17. Ponyo
18. Adam
19. It Might Get Loud
20. Thirst
21. Zombieland
22. Capitalism: A Love Story
23. Where the Wild Things Are
24. A Serious Man
25. Amelia
26. 2012
27. The Road

My favorites from the year were Moon, The Hurt Locker, Zombieland, Gran Torino and The Reader. I deeply enjoyed the vast majority of the films on the list. 2012 was laughably bad, Thirst got tedious, but Fast and Furious was the only unredeemable film here.

The cost for 2010 is $230 and the break-even is 15 films for two people. If you’re a Raleigh-area movie fan, it’s a fantastic deal and a great way to support an independent theatre. As with the past two years, I look forward to the new year in movies.

Raleigh movie-going and budgeting

Sunday, 24 May, 2009 — movies money

I posted briefly earlier today about using our movie season pass, and while many of my contacts know, a few may not, so I’m providing further details here.

My friend Steve Burnett introduced me to the Ambassador Entertainment annual pass a few years ago. He’s long subscribed and kept track of his pass movie going. Inspired by his example, and a desire to save some money, 5x5 and I bought the 2008 annual pass and renewed in 2009.

The concept works like this:

• Any movie at the Colony or the Rialto (apart from a monthly art series or special revivals) is free with the pass.
• Any new release film at Mission Valley Cinema is free after two weeks of release.
• The pass is good for two adult admissions.
• Passes are available annually in December and are good for the following calendar year.

For 2009, the cost for all three theaters was $220. We budget for it and it’s a bit nicer than deciding at a screening if we want to cough up $15. Instead, the decision is largely based on, “do I want to spend my time watching this?” For two people, the break-even point is 15 films, or one about every three weeks. In 2008, the break-even was 14 films, but we saw 27. What would have ordinarily cost us $405 instead ran $200.

This year, we’re on a slower pace. As of last night, we’ve seen eight films:

I haven’t yet dug into reviewing each film, as Steve does, but every film except Fast and Furious¹ was worth our time.

The pass does take planning to use, particularly with general audience films. Some caveats:

• There is no guarantee a film we want to see will be at Mission Valley for two weeks before we can use the pass. That means ignoring some blog posts and water-cooler discussion from big opening weekend releases and generally, we’re not seeing “event” films with friends.
• Not every independent film will make the Rialto or Colony. The films that do are not guaranteed to have a run that’s convenient for us. Some only run a week, or less.

Those caveats are OK with us and I like that we’re supporting a local cinema group. I’ll grant the infrequent bad experience and the fact that these theaters are older than Raleighwood, North Hills or the Cary 20 ². But, we’re not battling large crowds and there’s none of the 20 to 30 minute ad and preview nonsense at any of those other theaters. This year, all the movies we’ve seen have had three trailers or less. No ads.

Set a to-do for December to drop by any of the three theaters and ask for a season pass application.

1. Fast and Furious was, “leave the theater,” awful for 5x5. It’s in the, “won’t watch that again,” class for me.
2. By which I mean, less likelihood of cup-holders and less seat rake. Conversely, there are fewer in-movie cell-phone users.