With an AMC subscription I can watch three movies per week (any movie, any theater, any seat) for $20 a month. Pretty decent deal as long as I don’t blow money on popcorns and drinks (that’s how they get you). I still definitely prefer watching movies on the big screen.

Well, that might work for you, but there's a lot of people that won't work for. I only watch about 3-5 movies a year. I also like popcorn with my movies, so I'm either watching at home, or paying up the wazoo.

Movies have dropped down in my perceived value considering within a year or two you can get a 60+ hour AAA video game for ~$15

And to put that in context, the closest theater to me generally has month or two old movies and charges $2-6. And I don't want popcorn anyway.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say people where you live probably torrent less than people where I live. :P

It's in the middle of the US. It's more about the difference between a brand new movie and one that isn't.

Cinema is still pretty expensive. If I go to a pub to hang out with friends, I spend under $10/hour and get beer for the money.

One beer. :-/

I might drink 8 pints in a night hanging out with friends, spread out over about 6 hours. The beers I drink in pubs cost on average 6 Euro. That works out as 8 euro/hour, which is about US$8.84 and is 1 and 1/3 pints an hour. If I drink one more, for an average of 1.5 an hour, then it works out as US$9.94, still under $10/hour on average spread over about 6 hours.

I'm more happy to pay for the experience of the cinema though. Even though the film itself is only 2 hours you've got the travel and before/after events to make it more fulfilling.