Upcoming ‘National Cinema Day’ Offers Movie Goers $3 Tickets And First-Looks at New Movies
By Movieguide® Contributor
Movie-lovers, rejoice! As part of a new initiative to bring people back to the movies, theaters all over America are taking part in “National Cinema Day.” As part of this event, movie tickets will be just $3.
National Cinema Day, which will take place September 3, is being put on by the Cinema Foundation, a non-profit part of the National Association of Theater Owners. Over 3,000 theaters all over the US will offer $3 movie tickets, including major chains like AMC and Regal Cinemas.
This new initiative is in an effort to combat low Labor Day weekend sales. That weekend is traditionally a slow week for theaters, but the whole summer has been slow, due to a lack of movies from studios.
In addition to the cheaper tickets, theaters will also show a “sizzle reel” of upcoming movies, like BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER, MY POLICEMAN, and LYLE, LYLE, CROCODILE.
“After this summer’s record-breaking return to cinemas, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing,” said Jackie Brenneman, Cinema Foundation’s president, in a statement. “We’re doing it by offering a ‘thank you’ to the moviegoers that made this summer happen, and by offering an extra enticement for those who haven’t made it back yet.”
Movies like TOP GUN: MAVERICK, ELVIS, and MINIONS: RISE OF GRU brought in huge box office numbers.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Since the early 2000s, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has dominated other animated movies at the box office with iconic stories like FINDING NEMO and TOY STORY.
According to Box Office Mojo, Disney boasts eight of the top-ten grossing animated movies of all time.
However, over the July 4th weekend, Universal Pictures’ MINIONS: RISE GRU soundly defeated Disney Pixar’s LIGHTYEAR at the box office.
Over July 1-3, the fifth movie in the DESPICABLE ME franchise earned $100M and set an Independence Day weekend record with $125M over four days. In contrast, the highly anticipated TOY STORY spinoff only managed $50M, resulting in one of the biggest box office flops of 2022, according to ScreenRant.
Movieguide® previously reported that family-friendly movies would need to lead the way for the box office to recover from COVID-19.
LIGHTYEAR’s failure to draw in large audiences confirms that content matters to families, and the “family-friendly” label is not good enough.
“MINIONS shattered the idea that families don’t want to go back to the theaters,” Paul Dergarabedian, a senior Comscore analyst, told Variety. “You just have to give them a reason to go.”
