I prefer watching movies at home, because I can pause and pee! But I really don't get to watch, because my 3 year old has no attention span, and I am often asleep before he is.
That said, I find movies to be expensive also. We do go, generally to kids movies only. My 3 year old has been to one movie in a theater.
In the winter, we will go to the kid movies at the drive in. In the summer, they start too late for me.
Generally it's my husband who loves to go to the movies, so he will go by himself (if it's a R action flick) or with our 9 year old (if it's a PG). They always get popcorn, because my 9 year old is a 9 year old!
We've been to a movie together recently, and it was pretty cheap. My husband is a regular blood donor (I need to get back into that, too busy, too tired). So he gets "points" and exchanges them for movie tickets.
As far as "why can't you go without food", a lot of it is timing. If we are on a date, we are at the mercy of the baby sitter's schedule, which is inevitably short. And often the kids' movies are during lunch or dinner also.
But 99% of the movies we see are in our own home on Friday nights, and we fire up either the air popper or the big pot (for kettle corn). Tonight it's going to be The Natural, because my son is getting into baseball. Tomorrow, Jurassic park. Both from the library.
And dinner is frozen pizza from Costco. I think frugalwoods would be proud.