What Is A Matinee?

I'm mad as hornets. Today I went to the Regal Cinema on Rt. 248 near where I live to see a 4:20 pm show and was taken aback by the unexpectedly high cost. "Mainees end at 3:00 on weekends," I was told. Matinees end at 3:00? THREE O'CLOCK? Well, I voted with my money by leaving. It's bad enough that I have to pay too much money for the privilege of watching twenty minutes of commercials before the trailers start. When I was a kid, we got CARTOONS, not commercials. It's worse that I seem to be the only one who is bothered by this. But then I don't have a cell phone or MP3 player to idle away the time. I *HAVE* to pay attention to those commercials.

Still fuming when I returned home, I pulled out my childhood copy of Webster's dictionary, copyright 1966. (Yes, I know about Wikipedia which is exactly why I pulled out my Websters!) "I'm going to teach these greedy sonsa.... what the meaning of matinee is.

Matinee; an entertainment in the afternoon. [sigh]
Afternoon; the time from noon until evening. [SIGH]
Evening; the last part of the day, from the last meal of the day until bedtime.

OK. So substitute the definition of evening into the word evening in the definition of afternoon. Now substitute all of THAT into the word afternoon in the definition for matinee. (Sounds like Algebra class...) So a matinee is an entertainment that starts between noon and the last meal of the day. [PHEW!!] Do the folks at Regal Cinema eat dinner at 3:00?

So tell me... Why does the general public put up with paying to see commercials instead of cartoons and why do they pay full price in the middle of the afternoon on weekends? Soon the movies will be full price ALL weekend long, just before matinee pricing is dropped altogether. I'll go rent a DVD now.