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Movies

Thousands of US Theatres are Offering $3 Movie Tickets Today (upi.com) 79

Posted by EditorDavid from the screen-time dept.
"Every movie, every showtime, every format — $3.00" announces the web site for America's "National Cinema Day."

UPI explains: While not all theaters will be participating in the day, most major American chains, including AMC, Regal, Cinemark and Marcus are all taking part.... In addition to major cinema chains, dozens of independent, small and art-house theaters will be offering $3 tickets as well. Vox noted that the day should be busy, considering that a large chunk of the film industry has recovered from COVID-19. The outlet reported that total domestic ticket sales this summer exceeded $3 billion — though this is still an estimated 20% less than summer 2019.
More details from CNBC: Jackie Brenneman, president of the nonprofit Cinema Foundation, tells CNBC Make It that the idea for a national movie theater holiday was in the works well before 2020, but that the Covid-19 pandemic forced those plans to be postponed.

After Regal Cinemas parent company Cineworld held a similar event in the UK in February to great success, Brenneman said planning began in earnest to replicate the promotion across the pond. "It gave a model template for how we could do something at that scale in the United States," she says....

The flat $3 price for any movie in any format is also meant to encourage moviegoers to check out premium formats such as Dolby and IMAX. "It's an opportunity to get people to try out the new technologies and see how they like it," Brenneman says....

There are thus far no plans in place to repeat National Cinema Day next year, but Brenneman says the hope is this won't be a one-off event.
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Thousands of US Theatres are Offering $3 Movie Tickets Today More

Thousands of US Theatres are Offering $3 Movie Tickets Today

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  • And covid (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday September 03, 2022 @11:19AM (#62849109)
    Don't forget the free covid. Because it's one thing that's a great idea it's packing a ton of people into a small room several months since their last booster shot if they even bother to get a vaccine and just a few weeks before new vaccines drop.

    But hey, I'm sure this will drown up a lot of interest in movies. And it's not like we have 480 people a day dying

    • Re:And covid (Score:5, Interesting)

      by waspleg ( 316038 ) on Saturday September 03, 2022 @11:38AM (#62849133) Journal

      Yes, and increasing. You can see a recent post of mine from my history - there were 3K/day deaths in February (U.S only). We're slowly starting to trend back up as fall starts. Only 37% of people ever got a booster, like 20% never got any vaccine at at all - this is where all the variants are coming from.

      Packed theaters aren't like they were before cellphones anyway, it's mostly (not always but rare enough to not be worth the chance) fucking miserable now with oblivious selfish fucks on their phones, not an awesome shared experience - and that's assuming the movie was worth going to to begin with.

      Just watching people walking around my neighborhood there are noticeably more people with loud, deep, hacking coughs (who don't bother covering their mouths, naturally) wandering around.

      No, thanks.

    • I saw Jaws in IMAX last night. Only a dozen people scattered around a large theater. That's typical for the movies I've seen this summer.

    • "And it's not like we have 480 people a day dying.", A.K.A. "480p".

      Wait, what?

    • It's not that we object to your being concerned about dying from covid, it's that you consistently fail to put that risk into context of other risks. You can:

      - Get in a car accident on the way to the movies, and die
      - Have a heart attack during the movie, and die
      - Trip and fall in the movie theater, and die
      - Get trapped in a fire in the movie theater, and die

      etc.

      • It's not that we object to you being an asshole, it's that you consistently fail to put your narcissism into the context of psychopathic indifference to the lives of others. You can:

        - Get help
        - Shut the fuck up
        - Learn to be a decent human being
        - Keep crying about how nobody cares what the fuck you think

        etc.

    • Don't forget the free covid.

      You won't get COVID in a cinema. Experts on Slashdot have unequivocally declared that anyone going to the cinema will be doing so alone because the cinema is dead. So you're in an empty room. The same experts also say you shouldn't go because of all the noise and people throwing popcorn at you, but I'm still having a super computer figure out how those two conditions can exist concurrently unless the cinema is haunted by dead young arseholes, throwing ghost popcorn.

  • Seems like most commenters on /. try really hard to be unimpressed by everything. There's some really solid films out right now that are worth seeing, just looking at my local showings: "Top Gun" is fun, "Marcel the Shell" is adorable, "Vengeance" is fun, "Three Thousand Years of Longing" is imaginative and refreshing, "Nope" is a fresh take on UFOs, "Bullet Train" is over-the-top popcorn, "Bodies Bodies Bodies" is a funny take on modern culture, and that's not including a bunch of 1-offs like Ghibli anime,

    • I love the idea, they just forgot to mention it runs as a yearly event for a long time in some countries. The most viewed movie in France's 1985 inaugural edition was Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo"; the most viewed at this year's 37th edition (3.5 euro ticket) was "Top Gun : Maverick".

    • Pretty much. It's why I almost never even comment on anything.

      I think this is amazing, just wish it would have showed up in the news with more than 0 days notice. Maybe I'll know to look for next year?

      • Same here.

        Yeah I'm hoping they bring it back next year, too. Already had plans today so I won't catch any shows, but it could make for a fun day, especially if they include more classics then make it a double-feature of something old and new.

    • Seems like most commenters on /. try really hard to be unimpressed by everything.

      Pedantic cynicism is a Slashdot tradition. What's funny is that back in the day, many of these people would passionately argue about something really minor in tech, like how Vi was superior to Emacs, or vice-versa. I mean they'd get nasty about it. But popular movies? Pfft, be silent, bourgeois proletarian.

    • I'll wait for them on streaming. Nothing could convince me to be in a theater.

    • Love this $3 movie idea and hope it helps renew some interest in the theatrical experience.

      I love the 3 bucks, too, what I hate is the theatrical experience. You know the kind. You gotta get a babysitter who will turn up late, then you hurry to the movies. Through the afternoon traffic jam because for some reason everyone's going to the mall where the movie theater is. You stand in line for the tickets you reserved and already paid for because there's a group (or worse, family) in front of you who just can't figure out what movie to watch but it's their turn now and they won't let you just go and

  • Theaters? Yuck.

  • ...8 bucks, so it they had a smart business model, they'd be GIVING away movie tickets to raise the concession revenues.

  • Not clear the market is really there (Score:4, Interesting)

    by joe_frisch ( 1366229 ) on Saturday September 03, 2022 @02:08PM (#62849405)
    In the "old days" where the choice as 35mm or 70mm movies vs NTSC video on a 19" screen, the theaters provided a vastly better viewing experience. Today though its not that expensive to have a display and audio that are comparable in performance to a theater system. The home theater experience is in some ways better - you can pause to get snacks, talk or not talk as you wish. Invite friends over, or watch by yourself. Not risk covid if that concerns you.

    I think pre-covid people kept going to theaters out of habit, but its not clear that they provide much benefit today. Theaters are going to have to think very hard about their market. $3 tickets suggests that they may be aiming for the low end of the market - people who can't afford home theaters or streaming services. That may be a reasonable approach - its not clear that there is any way for them to recapture the high end of the market.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nadass ( 3963991 )
      Agreed. And to add: they don't have the entertainment pipeline to draw audiences INTO the theater in the first place! That production pipeline took a serious hit during the pandemic, so the companies who are finally working on their projects aren't ready to flood the theaters with higher-caliber titles every/every-other weekend.

      According to analysts, it won't be until next summer that the movie theater pipelines will be chockful of FOMO flix for audiences to see before waiting 30-/60-/90-days for distrib
      • There is the question of whether it even makes sense for the movie companies to delay releasing to streaming. Since premium pay content is already accepted by a lot of consumers, that might jsut work. Sad for the theater companies, but I think those are separate from the content creating companies.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      It's funny listening to the people who don't find value in going to the theater trying to rationalize how no one should find value. "I think pre-covid people kept going to theaters out of habit" sure because those who see value in the theater are just sheep but you know better!

    • Yup. Growing up we had a black and white TV for a long time. The first time I saw anything in color was when my older brother took me to see PT 109 in 1963. I was impressed! lol

    • [$3 ticket] may be a reasonable approach - its not clear that there is any way for them to recapture the high end of the market.

      near me, there are "luxury cinemas" for ~$20+ a ticket that include power-reclining leather chairs that rumble with the sound, have full bars + food w/ waiters, dolby atmos w/ way more physical speakers than you have at home, extra large screens, etc.

      all in all, not a terrible way to watch a movie.
      feels like more of an "event" than watching it at home.

  • Please remember that a movie theater is not like your home TV room. If you talk through the movie, it annoys the living daylights out of the rest of us.

    • Like the old double act joke "I go to the movies so I can join in the conversation about it." "Doesn't that bother the others watching it?"

      Back in the 60s, this was a joke. Today, it's a reality. Weird that people back then knew how to behave in society. Maybe because being a total selfish jerk wasn't mainstream.

  • Too politically correct, too woke. Then, the time to travel to and from, the overpriced snacks etc. Last sit down movie I've seen was Top Gun: Maverick. Probably the first one I've gone to in 5-6 years. It was also probably the first movie I've seen in decades that people were clapping at the end. I'm not a fan of whacked out Cruise, but the movie over all was pretty good.

  • The pandemic sped up a lot of change - working from home for instance.

    I guess public experiences like Cinemas are also seeing the same accelerated change.
    Ticket sales were already down before the pandemic.

    TV's now, have reached the point where a large set with reasonable quality picture and audio, is a comparable experience to "the big screen".
    Better still, you get to choose what you watch, when you want to. You can pause for a break when you want to. You don't have to sit through 30 minutes of adverts.

    You

  • There weren't any movies I wanted to see, not even at $3 !!!

  • And then a lot more people might visit.

    The memory of getting gouged for a liter of colored water with ice, and a scoop of corn that had been popped, is something that lingers in people's memories and adds to their hesitation in going to the theater.

    Granted, the theater makes virtually nothing from ticket sales, so their maintenance costs and a bit of profit have to come from somewhere.

    P.S. I assumed a lot of people still bring their own candy.

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