Ya we are certainly in the midst of rip-off culture, but I suppose they set the price at what people will pay, so if people will pay $20+ then they will place the price there. We rarely make it to the cinema anymore for ourselves, we often take the kids to the latest cartoon or kiddie movie, but I can count on one hand how many times we have gone to the cinema for just the two of us. There are definitely some movies though that are worth seeing on the big screen like Lord of the Rings for example. The new Top Gun is a good idea too, and I will take your lead and buy us some tickets for that in the coming weeks.
I agree with you completely, movies like LOTR are definitely big screen movies although I watch them again and again in my TV or home theatre I guess.
It was really interesting to see that the prices dropped when people stopped going - shows the power people have - but like you say, when people are prepared to pay prices often rise.