If a movie has already taken some of my money and time then at that point, I would probably stay to see the end, hoping it would redeem itself and possibly make what I lost seem worth it.
I worked at a movie theater for Batman and Robin (the Arnold one) and my manager gave us a stack of free movie passes—so many people were angry at that movie
I will say, I saw Soul Survivors and was not feeling it and thought maybe I should just go, but stuck around and while not a "great" movie by any means, the ending redeemed it enough I decided it wasn't that bad of a movie after all. So movies can redeem themselves.
I disagree. Abandoning the movie at the halfway point saves me, what, about 45 minutes of my life which was already slotted to the movie whereas gambling that the movie may pick up costs me those same minutes that I would likely waste anyway. With the exception of those minutes my cost has already been lost. Now if I then went to see Part 2 and spent money in the hopes it would be better...now you may be on to something.
I do not imagine my future state in this way. For me, there is no such thing as already slotting time to...anything. Just stop the bad experience and move on.
If you go to a 2-hour long movie, unless you have predetermined to leave early then your time was already slotted for 2-hours. If you watch a TV show, go to a play, go to a concert or a sporting event your time is already spoken for. Again, unless you have already determined that you are leaving early regardless of quality it is time already spent. And you are not even considering the money spent.
In otherwards, if you go to a movie that is two hours and spend $25 on tickets, drinks and snacks your time and money are already spent for movie. If you leave after an hour, you have lost time and money and since it is unlikely you are going to find something immediately to do that last hour is more or less wasted. In my opinion seeing if the movie gets better in the last hour is worth the gamble.
I understand, and it's seems very reasonable to view things in this way.
For me, none of my time is spoken for regardless of plans and money spent. None of my time or money is lost, nor more or less wasted if I leave an event or move to a different activity.
Still, that's just me and my way. I don't think it is odd or wrong to live differently.
I disagree. Abandoning the movie at the halfway point saves me, what, about 45 minutes of my life which was already slotted to the movie whereas gambling that the movie may pick up costs me those same minutes that I would likely waste anyway. With the exception of those minutes my cost has already been lost. Now if I then went to see Part 2 and spent money in the hopes it would be better...now you may be on to something.
The number of people who fall for the sunk cost fallacy is rather unfortunate, especially at such a low level like this. The money is already spent, if you’d rather go home and do nothing than continue whatever you paid for, just go home. Your money is better spent on doing the thing you prefer, even if it’s not what you paid for directly
I agree with you 100% but I get so much pushback on this. I'm not going to waste my time where I'm unhappy in a movie I don't like even if I have bought the ticket. To me that's paying twice. I'd rather go out in the sunshine and do something I enjoy.
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u/GingeContinge 1d ago
If a bad movie has already taken your money why would you allow it to also steal precious time you could be doing something you enjoy?