zwolanerd

I paid $9.25 to see John Wick. I liked it about $7.75 worth.

That’s what I said on Twitter on Friday. A couple of friends commented on how they liked that way of rating movies, so I thought I’d talk about it a little today.

First of all, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I generally like to go see movies at the theater between 4p and 6p. Our local theaters charge a reduced rate during those hours, so it only costs $6.25 to go see a movie. The downside is that very few of my friends are available to go see movies at that time, so it’s usually just me and one other guy. This really isn’t a huge downside, as the $3 savings per movie works out to half of another movie. I’m working with a limited budget for going to movies, so that helps a lot.

As you might imagine, when I’ve promised to go see a movie with a friend but they can’t go until after 6, that pricetag stings a little. I had promised a few months ago I’d go see The Equalizer with a friend, and when it came out he couldn’t go until an after-6 showing. I ended up liking it, but I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more for $3 less. In that instance I had to take into account the time spent with friends, which I’m told is “priceless.”

The cheaper price makes me more willing to take a chance on a movie, too. I generally don’t go into a movie without knowing at least something about it. Usually I know quite a bit about it, and normally I even have a pretty good idea of how much I’ll like it. I’m rarely surprised by movies, and I don’t mind that. I realize that’s not the norm for most folks, but it’s how I like it, so I don’t worry about it too much.

So here’s where this line of thinking got me in regards to John Wick: if I enjoyed it $7.75 worth out of the $9.25 I paid to see it, how does that translate to my normal cost of $6.25? I definitely would have felt it was worth the full $6.25, but would I have felt it was worth paying more? Is my $7.75/$9.25 rating equal to a rating of 84% on a traditional 100-point scale? If so, would that make a baseline of $6.25 turn my rating into a 124% rating? That makes no sense, so, no, I don’t think so. I think the baseline changes the rating, and even though $6.25 and $9.25 are both dollar-based, it’s still as different as using thumbs and stars.

Now, with all that said, dollar-based ratings aren’t even the system I tend to use in my head. I’ve been wanting to do a video to explain my method at some point, but I need a second person’s help and haven’t pursued that much yet. Suffice to say it will come eventually. I’m not going to swear it’ll blow your mind, but it just might. In any case, it’ll definitely be worth the amount of money you paid to get it.