Whenever someone mentions going to the movies, I instinctively break out into my usual spiel: “You know, as an AMC Stubs A-Lister, you can see four movies a week for free, and it only costs $25.99 a month. After two movies, it pays for itself.”

I may not be sponsored like Nicole Kidman, but there is nothing better than being an A-Lister. Going to the movies used to be a frequent occurrence for me. Like many others, however, I stopped going when the pandemic hit and only went occasionally after movie theaters opened back up. 

However, after the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, I fell back in love with the theater experience: audibly reacting with the audience, sneaking candy in through my bag and hearing everyone’s thoughts as I leave the theatre. I wanted to experience this again, but not for upwards of $13 per movie. That’s where AMC Stubs A-List comes in. 

There are four tiers to the AMC Stubs Rewards program: Insider, Premiere Go!, Premiere and A-List. As shown on the AMC chart below, each tier has a different perk, and it all depends on what you’re looking for. Not sure? AMC has a personalized quiz for movie-goers to determine which program best fits their lifestyle (Did I mention how much I love AMC yet?). 

I’ve had my A-List membership for a little under a year, and while I will confidently say the $25.99/month is worth it, I can show you better than I can tell you. Read on to see my week as an AMC A-Lister! 

Movie No. 1: Final Destination: Bloodlines  

I didn’t plan on seeing Final Destination: Bloodlines, but it was a Sunday night, and there is nothing like an AMC trip to end the day. My friend, Communication fourth-year Naya Hemphill, was pushing to see it, so I was not surprised to see her A-List Entourage invitation for the 9 p.m. viewing in my inbox, AKA the first perk of being an A-lister. The A-List Entourage allows you to reserve seats for other A-List and A-List Classic members. This small feature is one of my favorites — it’s nice to be notified that my friend saved my seat, rather than coordinating what seats we should get. 

Now, in terms of my thoughts on Final Destination: Bloodlines, it met its low expectations, but the audience’s reactions made up for it. The basic premise of Final Destination movies is that everyone dies in insane, gruesome ways, and this one was no different. The audience shouted in disgust at each gory death,  and some viewers covered their eyes or leaned toward their friends for support. My overall review of the film is that it is predictable in its formula but unpredictable in its deaths. 

Movie No. 2: 28 Days Later 

I love it when old movies get re-released in theatres, so I was excited to see the 2002 movie 28 Days Later in preparation for the June release of 28 Years Later. However, I made the mistake of napping before the movie and never made it to the theatre. Weirdly, this highlights another perk of being an A-Lister: missing movies is not a big deal. Rather than waking up and being upset over losing fourteen bucks, I just chalked it up to a missed reservation. My friends kept saying I missed out on a really good movie, though. 28 Days Later is a post-apocalyptic horror film starring Cillian Murphy playing a man who wakes up from a coma to discover a virus has taken over the city. If this hits too close to home given the COVID-19 pandemic, then maybe sit this series out. 

Movie No. 3 and No. 4: Lilo and Stitch and Friendship 

There is nothing like a double feature at the movies. A group of friends and I decided to see Lilo and Stitch in 3D and Friendship back-to-back on Thursday night. While some may say we could have movie-hopped, we would have missed out on getting points for scanning our ticket. Since we saw two movies, we got roughly 2,600 points toward the 5,000 points goal, which gave us a $5 reward. I usually bring my own snacks with me (Goobers are my go-to), but I put my $5 towards an ICEE for Lilo and Stitch. 

Like most Disney live-action remakes, Lilo and Stitch used its nostalgia to drive its message rather than faithfully recreate the original scenes. Plot changes aside, I could not stop aww-ing and laughing with Lilo, played by actress Maia Kealoha, and Stitch every time they came on screen.

We had an odd amount of time between the movies, so we went to 7-Eleven to restock on snacks for Friendship. I grabbed some beef jerky while my friends got various candies to bring back with them. Once we were done, we rescanned and found our seats in the theatre. 

Unlike the mostly empty theatre for 3D Lilo and Stitch, Friendship was packed with middle-aged men, which should have indicated the target audience for this movie. Tim Robinson’s physical comedy was a hilarious highlight of the bizarre trip that was Robinson and Paul Rudd’s “friendship.” That being said, the film dragged on after a while, and I kept wondering when it would end. This could, however, be the effects of being in a movie theatre for roughly four hours. 

So, there was my week as an AMC A-Lister. Some months are better than others for movies, but I think anyone who sees at least two movies a month should get this membership. Being an A-Lister has made the movie-going experience a casual activity for me. Whenever I have a two-hour block in my schedule, I can just go to the movies, knowing that my four movies a week will reset each Friday. Don’t you want to be an A-Lister, too?