Summer is blockbuster season, and Hollywood is on track for its best box office year since the pandemic. There’s been a slew of major new releases, with more coming down the pike — but if you’re a film buff, those ticket prices can really add up.

According to the latest cost of living index, the average price of a general admission movie ticket in Seattle was $15.74 in the first quarter of 2026. That price is for a first-run, new-release movie on a Saturday night, and it doesn’t include premium formats like Imax, which cost more.

Seattle was, as you’d expect, more expensive than the national average of $13.32 — but it could be a lot worse. Among the 250 cities and urban areas surveyed, Seattle ranked 35th. The highest movie ticket price was in Manhattan, at a wallet-busting $25.65. The cheapest was in Ponca City, Okla., at a mere $6.75.

But movie tickets are actually one of the cheaper line items on Seattle’s tab. Overall, we ranked as the 10th-most expensive city, with an index score of 146.8, where 100 is the average across the 250 cities surveyed. The highest cost of living was, again, in Manhattan, with an index score of 227.6; the lowest was in Tupelo, Miss., at 79.3.

The cost of living index is published by the Arlington, Va.-based Council for Community and Economic Research. To produce the index, first published in 1968, hundreds of researchers collect local data on prices of 59 goods and services. For a city the size of Seattle, they collect 10 sample prices for each item. Data collection occurs during the same three-day period each quarter at every location, and researchers follow detailed instructions for selecting each item — brand, size, and so on — to ensure prices remain comparable across cities. Taxes are not included.

Seattle was in the Top 10 for a host of items, including, notably, home prices — hardly surprising. A new construction, 2,400-square-foot home averaged a cool $1.25 million, the ninth highest in the country. Rents didn’t quite make the Top 10: a 950-square-foot two-bedroom apartment averaged $2,716, ranking 23rd.

But housing isn’t the only thing making Seattle so expensive. In fact, of the 59 items in the survey, Seattle ranked among the Top 10 for 16.

The price per gallon for gasoline was the highest outside of California and Hawaiʻi — it averaged $4.26 in the first quarter of 2026. Gas prices have spiked nationwide since the beginning of the year, so that figure will surely be higher when the data for the second quarter of 2026 is released.

Gas prices being sky-high in Seattle is no surprise. Clothing, though, is a little more unexpected: We ranked in the Top 10 for men’s, women’s and children’s items.

Some more examples of Seattle’s high cost of living could be found in the grocery aisles. A half-gallon of milk averaged $5.25, the ninth-highest price in the country, and a standard box of cereal was $8.02, ranking as the third-most expensive among all 250 areas surveyed. Bread and coffee were both in the Top 10, and orange juice ranked 16th. Add those up, and it makes for a pretty expensive breakfast.

There were, however, some surprising bright spots where Seattleites catch a break at the grocery store. A standard T-bone steak averaged $18.09, and a pound of ground beef came in at $6.79 — in both cases, Seattle ranked as the fifth-cheapest market in the country, making that summer barbecue a relative bargain. We also save on a few other staples: a dozen eggs costs just $2.96, the third-lowest in the country, and a five-pound bag of potatoes ranked among the cheapest nationwide as well.

Move from the supermarket to the service sector, though, and Seattle’s cost of living climbs right back up. Taking care of your health will dent your wallet more here than in most other cities — an office visit to the dentist averaged $145, and one to the optometrist averaged $277, both landing near the top of the national rankings. Caring for your dog or cat isn’t cheap either — a routine visit to the vet averaged $99.50, 16th highest.

But Seattle’s single-highest ranking of all 59 items surveyed was another service, and it might be somewhat unexpected: men’s haircuts. Seattle came in No. 1 in the country, with an average cost of $53.20 — nearly double the national average. Women’s salon cuts were no bargain either, ranking sixth-highest, at $84.50.