$17.50 for a movie ticket? Really? Not even a 3D one - $17.50!?!?! What kind of ridiculous price fixing is at work here, when pretty much all the chains charge $17 or $17.50 for the extreme luxury item of sitting in a seat for two hours to watch a sequel to a toy advertisement (Transformers 2), or in the case of Shrek 4, a 90 minute ad for toys.

To put it in perspective, we have quite possibly the most expensive movie admission prices in the world. From vague memory seeing a first run movie was about $13 in New York (US$10.50), $14 in London (£8) and if you went on a Tuesday, $4.40 in Toronto (C$4). I even saw a Bollywood movie in India for 30 rupees (75 cents).

Sydney - really. What the fuck?

And they wonder why we're downloading movies. You wouldn't steal a car - you wouldn't steal a handbag. True, but the cost of cars and handbags hasn't doubled in the last decade, the cost of cars has in fact largely come down.

On an aside, tickets to next months Sydney Film Festival haven't gone up and this year are a comparatively reasonable $17 (Or $13.50 if you buy a 10 pass). So screw the chains, go see some art house crap ahead of time for cheaper, and support our arts organisations.