It is National Cinema Day and the Cinema Foundation is cutting movie prices for the occasion.
The National Association of Theater Owners announced the discount nationwide for more than 3,000 theaters and over 30,000 screens according to a press release.
Whether moviegoers are paying at the counter or online, every ticket for every movie will be just $3.
Major theaters such as AMC, Cinemark, and Regal Cinemas are taking part in offering this special discount to their patrons.
News of the nationwide discount comes as businesses cut prices for Labor Day weekend and people are looking to celebrate the end of summer.
The Dallas Express is on-hand asking moviegoers what brought them out to the cinemas.
“Uh, the 3-dollar movie day actually,” says Mike McDonald a movie patron.
“I’m going to see League of Super-Pets,“ he adds.
Cinema Foundation President Jackie Brenneman explains the nationwide move to cut prices for the day in the press release.
“After this summer’s record-breaking return to cinemas, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing,” said Brenneman.
“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.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic theatrical sales experienced a sharp decline, with moviegoers not wanting to leave their homes in fear of catching and spreading the virus, alongside lockdowns being put in place and cinemas closing their doors.
In a report by Forbes, theaters around the country were hit hard due to the pandemic.
“The theatrical, home/mobile entertainment market in 2020 totaled $32.2 billion, down 11% from $36.1 billion in 2019,” the report says.
“Theatrical entertainment dropped to $2.2 billion accounting for 7% of the revenue. In 2019 the revenue for theatrical entertainment was $11.4 billion.”
More and more people are returning to theaters today. Tom Cruise’s movie Top Gun: Maverick has proven that people are ready to return to theaters as it has grossed nearly $693,329,744 domestically and $1.4 billion worldwide, according to boxofficemojo.com.
Moviegoers Julie and Jacob Beasley bought tickets to see the new Jordan Peele movie, Nope, expressing that they would go to the movies more often if theaters lowered their prices to $3.
“Oh yes, 100 percent we would,” they say.
“Typically, we just wait until they come out but since it’s $3 and my dad is in town too, we thought we’d just go to the movies.”
Assistant Manager Gabrielle Gallegos for Cinemark 16 in Grand Prairie explains the excitement that she hopes will keep people coming back to the movies.
“We’re basically taking any opportunity we can such as National Movie Day in order to promote our movie theaters,” says Gallegos.
“So, any opportunity we are able to give our guests is one that we’ll definitely take.”
Gallegos adds that Bullet Train and Spiderman have been the primary go-to movie for this theater for the past couple of weeks.
I still won’t go. I haven’t been to a movie in many years. Everything out of Hollywood in many years is only sequels or remakes and none of them are worth paying for. Nothing original. I refuse to make Hollywood elitists richer than they are when very few of them are smart enough to do anything other than memorize a script and repeat it in front of a camera.