Why Your Raise Is Finally Beating the Cost of a Movie Ticket

Wages and Prices with Fexingo: Cost of Living, Pay Raises, and Workers' Purchasing Power · Aug 27, 2026 · 6m · transcript

This episode of Wages and Prices with Fexingo digs into a surprising new data point: average hourly earnings hit $37.60 in July, up 3.2% from a year earlier, while the cost of a movie ticket has barely budged. We look at how the pandemic-era streaming boom, the shift to premium formats, and the rise of subscription services like MoviePass have changed the economics of going to the movies. We ask whether your raise is finally keeping pace with a night out at the cinema, and what that means for your purchasing power. With the Fed's preferred core PCE at 3.3% annually, we also consider…