Somehow your Mom and I commited ourselves to a very expensive movie habit.
It started with our cable company offering premium channels at reduced prices and then increasing the prices slowly over time. We had HBO. Then we could subscribed to Showtime and Cinemax “free” for 90 days. Then the freebies turned into $4.00 per month each and evolved into $10.00 per month each. We are currently paying $32 per month for premium stations (versus $10.00 per month originally). I guess you call that “getting screwed slowly”. We are dropping the premium channels today!
Along came Netflix. Your Mom decided she wanted to subscribe for “free”. This was the mailing of DVD’s through the mail to get the latest releases of movies. If we liked the service, “free” evolved into $7.99 per month. Grasshopper No.1 along with my favorite Son-in-law gave us a DVD blue ray player that downloands movies directly from Netflix. Presently we get Netflix by mail and the internet for the new total of $15.95 per month. Again we seem to be getting screwed slowly. Our decision is to drop the instant download via internet and keep the mailing of the disks going. I guess we can swing $7.99 per month.
Throw in an occasional movie at the local cinema and the costs go up in $20 increments ($35-$40 if you have the popcorn and treats).
Our movie library keeps increasing as Grasshopper No.1 keeps downloading popular movies onto DVD’s and giving us copies. That is free.
This whole movie “thing” just kind of happens with creative pricing by Time Warner Cable and Netflix. Also the technology of the internet keeps evolving. The prediction is that Netflix will eventually dominate the movie experience and popular TV programming.
The lesson Grasshoppers is “don’t be dazzled by all the movie offers”. Someone has got their hand in your pocket.
Love,
Dad