US movie tickets will be just $3 on Saturday, September 3, in honor of National Cinema Day (via Associated Press). If you’ve never heard of such a holiday before (at least in the US), that’s because it apparently never existed before.
The $3 ticket price (excluding tax) applies to all tickets, formats and showtimes — and yes, that includes IMAX and 3D movies. So far, a growing list of 3,000 theaters, including popular chains like Regal, Cinemark and AMC, have agreed to participate in the new holiday.
You may not want to count your local, independently operated theaters either. In a list of participating theaters reviewed by On the edge, we spotted a few smaller venues, like Starmax Cinemas in Vandalia, IL, and the Wellfleet Cinema drive-in (a personal favorite) in Cape Cod, MA. You can find out if cinemas near you are participating by entering your location on the National Cinema Day site. Participating theaters will also show “special sneak peeks” of upcoming films from various studios, including Disney, Universal, Lionsgate, Paramount, Warner Bros. and other.
The Motion Picture Foundation, a nonprofit organization created by the National Association of Theater Owners earlier this year, came up with National Movie Day as a way to encourage people to return to movie theaters. Labor Day weekend is somewhat of a slow time for movie theaters due to a lack of new releases, but perhaps National Movie Day can help change that. I personally haven’t seen a movie in theaters since 2019 Jokerso maybe this is the universe’s way of telling me it’s time for a trip to the theaters.
Theaters took quite a hit during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and also struggled with a hybrid release model where some movies hit theaters and streaming services on the same day. Last year, theaters signed deals with studios like Warner Bros., Paramount and Disney to promise periods of theatrical exclusivity for certain films (though they’re much shorter than they’ve been in the past).
But this summer saw an impressive number of people return to cinemas, thanks to blockbusters like Thor: Love and Thunder and Jordan Peele’s horror film no. According to Comscore data, this summer’s box office grossed $3.027 billion, a 134.6% increase over last summer. The impending return of the Moviepass subscription may also play a role in bringing people back to theaters in the future (potentially to the dismay of moviegoers).
“After record-breaking returns to theaters this summer, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing,” Jackie Breneman, president of the Cinema Foundation, said in a statement. “We’re doing it by offering a ‘thank you’ to the moviegoers who made this summer happen, and by offering extra temptation for those who haven’t returned yet.”