Oh, man, no, I make an active effort to never do that. I used to do that and it resulted in me always going for the cheapest option regardless of what I wanted or what I'd get out of it, never buying anything fun, never even considering the possibility of a Disney trip at all--because for me, personally, when I look at things in terms of "I worked XYZ hours for this" it just makes me depressed and I can't enjoy the thing I'm paying for, because there always has to be some better "value" I could have found instead. It sounds like it works differently for you--that you enjoy thinking about things that way--but for me, personally, I find it paralyzing and it prevents me from getting any enjoyment out of my money. And from responses elsewhere on here, I think there are others who respond to that kind of cost/value analysis the same way I do.
I budget each paycheck out into a bunch of categories to make sure that first, my needs and obligations are met, second, that I have enough money to live comfortably in the moment, and third, to set money aside for big, fun things like Disney trips and new cameras and what-have-you. I know how much money I have in my budget for each of the things I want to buy or do, and that's all I need to know. I give myself permission to spend that money however I want; when I first book a trip I do consider things in terms of "If I stay at this resort, I will have more money for this other fun thing versus if I stay at this higher-cost resort I'll have to trim the money out from somewhere else," but I completely ignore the question of how many work hours went into paying for whatever I'm doing. The money is there and it's there to be spent on things I enjoy. That's all that matters. It's a "waste" of money to buy drinks and extra food on a cruise when all your food is included, but I do it anyway because I enjoy it (and I budget for it accordingly). It's a "waste" of money to pay $120 each for a meal at a signature restaurant in
Disneyland, but my housemate and I budgeted for and did that last fall because it was the experience we wanted for that night of our trip. Frankly, it's a "waste" of money to go on a cruise at all...in my mind, at least. That's where my head goes when I think about the number of hours I had to work in order to buy something. When I think that way, nothing ever has enough value to part me from my money. Nothing.
That's a lot of words up there, but it really all boils down to one point: what works for you works for you, but may not work for other people. What you value in a vacation is valid, but other people may not value the same things,
and their way of doing things is not less valid because of it.
They're not making a mistake and they're not wasting their money. They're just approaching it differently to the way you do and making the choices that make them happy.
As to the original question about movies...I only made time for one movie on my January cruise, and it was one I'd missed in theaters (
Coco). The others weren't high-priority enough for me in comparison to other activities onboard, so I just never made it to the movie theater until the last night, when I was able to catch a late-night showing. It was definitely in my plans for the trip, though, and I checked ahead on the schedule to be sure I could make it to a showing. I was glad I did; I loved the movie and every time I hear the soundtrack I think of that special trip on top of thinking about how good the movie is on its own merits.