"to the pictures" or "to the cinema"? Which one is more common in spoken English?
"to the pictures" or "to the cinema"?

Which one is more common in spoken English? Or the other expressions?

Question

"to the pictures" or "to the cinema"? Which one is more common in spoken English?
"to the pictures" or "to the cinema"?

Which one is more common in spoken English?  Or the other expressions?

Answer

If you speak UK English: "to the cinema" is normal.
If you speak American English: "to the movies" is the normal phrase.

"To the pictures" implies that your language is somewhere around the era of Steve Rogers (the 1940s) and is not common for a native speaker.

Answer

Hi Lawrence -- Let me add that in the US, the singular is more common: "Wanna go to a movie?" with "go to a" run together as if it was one word.
-- Thomas Gault, PhD