I used to say I’d never pay $30 to get that monthly movie rotation. I used to be wrong.

Living in New York, I often take entertainment for granted. There’s so much in NY: Broadway, concerts, restaurants, the subway. I don’t need a subscription for another form of entertainment.

And yet, I did. Only after staying in New York this past summer did I realize the true potential of the city. You can be entertained on the train—yes—but you can also walk into a floor-to-ceiling IMAX theater.

AMC A-List allows you to see four movies a week for less than $30 a month. An IMAX ticket alone costs $32. Speaking of, the AMC Lincoln Square IMAX (the real one—1.43:1 ratio, seventy-millimeter film) will ruin every other movie-going experience for you. I cried after watching Superman there, and that wasn’t even the best movie to see in that theater.

When I saw Tron: Ares, I went in thinking I’d hate it. Jared Leto + bad reviews? No way would I have spent my own money on it. But with AMC A-List, I saw the movie for “basically free,” and I loved it. The visuals were truly otherworldly.

A-List gives you up to four movies a week in any format—IMAX, Dolby, Prime, whatever new acronym AMC invents to justify better seats—and you can book it all from your phone while sitting in Butler pretending to study. It’s the study break that truly feels like a break.

Sure, Columbia sells discounted AMC tickets. I’ve bought them. They’re great—but A-List is different. Taking the 1 train down to Lincoln Square at 10 p.m., scanning your ticket with your familiar ticket taker, and sitting in your favorite seat that you booked twenty minutes ago while “studying” at Butler is an experience like no other.

It makes the city feel bigger again. Suddenly, you’re not just surviving the noise, you’re escaping it.  And yes, you start going to movies you’d never justify otherwise, like that Pete Davidson movie or Eddington.
This isn’t sponsored; I just truly think every student needs AMC A-List. Why use a dorm projector when you can experience movies in New York with other people?

It’s A-List or nothing for me now.

Image via Wikimedia Commons