When it comes to going to the cinema, many different phrases could be used between
people. The age, sex, race or anything else that differentiates between people does not influence it. People could say: “go watch a film”, “go for a movie”, “go to the cinema” etc. Nevertheless, the most common saying that is used in popular American pop culture has remained unchanged and it still remains to be “go to the movies”.
Have you ever wondered, why people mostly offer “go to the movies” and not “go to
a movie” or any other way?
It is quite simple. When movies were first made and premiered at the cinemas, they were generally called ‘moving pictures’, as before that there were only ‘still pictures’. Due to the nature of language, it tends to reform and create idiomatic phrases and slang. That is how ‘movies’ became the short form of ‘moving pictures’.
Furthermore, due to the English language grammar, as ‘moving pictures’ was plural, its short version would also naturally transform into a plural form – movies. Therefore, when a person goes to the cinema he has a selection of many movies (films), and thus, that is the reason why people tend to say that they are “going to the movies” and not “going to a movie”.
Still, with time, ‘moving pictures’ changed to ‘motion picture’, and, even though grammatically it would be more correct to say “go watch the motion pictures” or, ‘moties’, the expression would not stick as it does not convey the same catchy sounding as the term “movies”.
Moreover, it should be noted that per the Macmillan Dictionary, the ‘movies’ refer specifically to ‘movies as a form of entertainment,’ or, additionally, ‘the industry involved in making movies’.
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