Saw Batman today (the free movie tickets worked!). I’m not much of a graphic novel guy, but it turned out to be one of the best movies I’ve seen all year. Side thought: Is it really impressive that a movie broke a box-office revenue record when even a matinee costs $8 now? If the goal is to compare popularity, shouldn’t they just count the number of tickets sold instead? Here are some other personal finance articles from my weekend reading:
The Finance Buff has a guide on buying TIPS directly from the government at auction.
J of BudgetsAreSexy bought himself a frugal Cadillac. Oxymoron? This reminded me that I still want an old Jeep Wrangler. If I view the Jeep as one step closer to being a beach bum, does that mean J secretly wants to be a pimp in his DeVille? 😉
Punny Money asks (using hilarious stick figures) if one should buy or rent a tuxedo. For a long time, a small part of my beach bum dream lifestyle was to die having never worn a tuxedo. I managed to avoid having to wear one at my wedding. Alas, I had to wear one last year while being a groomsman for a friend (all your fault, Joe!). But never shall I buy a tuxedo!
JLP of AllFinancialMatters shares his opinions on brown-bagging lunch as well, and his readers chime in.
As SUVs everywhere are being traded in, The Digerati Life explores the MPG illusion. Saving money on gas by switching cars may not as beneficial as you think.
Lazy Man offers to sell his endorsement at Prosper Lending, and starts a lively debate. Given the losses that many other lenders have been experiencing, I’m quite happy with the estimated 10% ROI on my tiny portfolio.
Boston Gal remarks that you know the economy is bad when the Wall Street Journal pushes libraries. From her commenter Sean of Financial Ramblings – “If CNBC starts running specials on clipping coupons, Colbert will have to raise the threat level.” Ha!
The Best Credit Card Bonus Offers – October 2024
Big List of Free Stocks from Brokerage Apps
Best Interest Rates on Cash - October 2024
Free Credit Scores x 3 + Free Credit Monitoring
Best No Fee 0% APR Balance Transfer Offers
Little-Known Cellular Data Plans That Can Save Big Money
How To Haggle Your Cable or Direct TV Bill
Big List of Free Consumer Data Reports (Credit, Rent, Work)
Your first paragraph is so right. Matinee costs $8 here in Maryland and ends at 4 p.m. Do you remember when matinee ended at 6 p.m.? I was reminded of that time change when I saw Dark Knight on Saturday. They should count the number of tickets sold to compare movie popularity.
I take it you haven’t watched Batman Begins then? Also a really awesome movie. So much better than I think anyone had a right to expect it to be. Plus, it had Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, so it HAS to be good.
The new Batman is “meh”. I like SF — big guns and jumping from skyscrapers are fine. Sewing bomb into a bum was actually a nice (however gross) idea. But rigging half the city with hundreds of 50 gallon oil drums on a moments notice, without anyone noticing? Placing dozens of explosive charges in a busy hospital? That, unfortunately, is totally unbelievable. 🙁
I totally agree – Not a fan of comic-like movies at all, but my damnness was that great! We *sorta* got free tickets too, only in that our friends re-paid the favor from a movie we paid for a couple months back. Since i had forgotten about it, that’s considered FREE, right?
It is a shame though that we didn’t roll up in the new Caddy, that would have been total pimpness for sure 😉
Its a movie based on a comic book… I’m sure the comic books had even crazier over the top ideas 🙂 Suspend your belief and enjoy the movie!!
I would say its the best comic-book based movie that I’ve seen, but def. not the best movie (Memento, Braveheart is up there for me)
Jonathan – Thanks for the mention. I hope some will find it helpful. Are you buying TIPS in tomorrow’s auction? I put my order in.
I went to a 11:00am showing on Sunday and paid $5.00 a ticket. Well worth it, in my opinion.
By the way, when adjusted for inflation Gone With The Wind is still the number one all time movie, according to BoxOfficeMojo. I think that is impressive.
Haven’t seen Batman yet. Waiting for the video. I didn’t really like the previous Batmans so I’m not even sure I’ll like this one, but I’ll still watch it to compare. Thanks for the link as well! I appreciate being included in your roundup!
jeff flowers:
the thing that gets me is that there is no inflation adjusted numbers for worldwide total. the numbers you reference are only for domestic adjusted grosses. i suppose it is due to currencey exchanges. i would think that either star wars or titanic would take the title then. it is hard to imagine that titanic did 1.242 overseas.