How I Used AI to Save on Summer Movie Tickets

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It’s almost summer, and I’m facing a familiar challenge: how to take my kids to all the new movies they want to see without blowing our summer spending plan.

There are at least eight movies on our list between now and late summer — a big jump from the one movie per month I usually allow. We live close to an AMC cineplex and a Regal, so I checked NerdWallet’s tips for getting cheap movie tickets. Being the Nerd I am, I intended to build a spreadsheet to compare options. Instead, I tried something faster: I asked Claude, an AI assistant, to do the math.

Here’s the prompt I used:

Hi there, Claude! I want to see eight movies over the next three months. I want to spend as little as possible. Is it a better deal to

a) join AMC’s A-List program for three months

b) buy discount AMC tickets at Costco

c) buy discount tickets at Costco and use them on half-price Tuesdays and Wednesdays or

d) join Regal’s movie club?

A few minutes of web searches and analysis later…

Claude kindly steered me toward half-price Tuesdays and Wednesdays as the cheapest scenario … except it was using Portland prices, going off my VPN since I neglected to remind it I’m based in pricier Seattle. Let’s try this again.

Thanks, Claude! Please re-run this based on Seattle metro prices.

Hmm. I also neglected to mention I was buying tickets for multiple people. Whoops! Let’s try this again.

Thank you! What is the best choice among these options for a family of four (two adults, two children if that matters for ticket pricing)?

A few moments of in-depth explanation later, Claude offered this chart:

Oh no, under age 12? I have a teen and a tween. Let’s play it again, Claude!

Apologies: It would be three adults and one child. Please run this again.

We’re almost there. But while fact-checking Claude’s numbers along the way, I’ve noticed something on AMC’s website: AMC A-List has a special through May 21 of 99 cents for the first month with a 3-month commitment at $25.99/month plus tax ($27.99/month plus tax if you want to be able to go to movies in all states). That takes us through July, by which the majority of the movies we want to see will be released. And, being A-List members means we can see up to four movies a week for our monthly fee. Summer means tons of re-releases in the theater, from “Top Gun” to “Space Jam.” One more prompt.

OK, thank you. AMC is currently offering the first month of A-List for 99 cents. How does that change this math?

Says Claude: Good catch — that’s a meaningful discount. Let me redo Option A with the promo pricing.

This is huge. We’ve brought what would have been $456 total for our family of four to see eight movies down to $267, plus whatever snacks the kids wheedle out of us. Half-price Tuesdays and Wednesdays would bring it down still farther to $228 total, but flexibility (and the chance to see “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” on a big screen again when it’s re-released) seems worth the $39 difference.

My Nerdy tips to use an AI assistant for shopping math:

Start with your budget. I was game to pay for four movie outings this summer. Now we’re getting at least eight for the same price. Knowing my numbers makes it easy to quickly choose for budget or choose for flexibility (or, know when to splurge).

Offer as many details as possible from the get-go. I got from prompt to answer in minutes, but I could have saved time (and likely data center energy) by including key details like location, ages, etc. from the start to help the assistant help me.

Consider numbers as estimates until you verify. Claude, Chat GPT, Gemini and other assistants offer confident answers that don’t always match reality. If the numbers seem too good to be true, they probably are. Ask the assistant to show its sources and double-check.

*For anyone wondering which eight flicks the kids are hoping to see: “The Sheep Detectives,” “Mortal Kombat II,” “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” “Supergirl,” “Toy Story 5,” “Moana,” “Minions and Monsters,” and “Masters of the Universe.”

About the author

Karen Gaudette Brewer leads the Core Personal Finance team at NerdWallet. Previously, she guided students and their families through the ins and outs of paying for college and managing student debt on the Higher Education team. Helping people navigate complex money decisions and feel more confident brings her great joy: as the daughter of an immigrant, from an early age she was the translator of financial documents and the person who called the credit card company to fix fraud.

She joined NerdWallet with 20 years of experience working in newsrooms and leading editorial teams, most recently as executive editor of HealthCentral. She launched her journalism career with The Associated Press and later worked for The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise, The Seattle Times, PCC Community Markets and Allrecipes.com.

She is a graduate of the 2022 Poynter Institute Leadership Academy for Women in Media. Her writing has been honored by the Society for Features Journalism and the Society of Professional Journalists. In addition, she’s the author of two books about the Pacific Northwest.

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