Sounds awful! In our city movies are $5/person on Tuesdays (any movie, including brand new releases) and is only a few minutes drive. So just wanted to say this is not the same everywhere :)
Personally I find the quality of the cinema projectors to be lacking, but I still enjoy going.
I'm pretty sure the last time I went to a cinema was ~2013 and I haven't looked back since the experience is just all around awful and expensive to add insult to injury.
Yeah not trying to convince you to go, because I go pretty rarely myself. I will say they have recliner chairs here with lots of spacing between chairs (and we are a smaller city, so we are the last to get things), pre-assigned seating, food & beer/wine/etc. It's really a decent experience, like I said the only thing I find lacking is the actual picture quality itself now that I have a 4k TV at home.
Personally I find the quality of the cinema projectors to be lacking, but I still enjoy going.