Are you one of the few people in the world who hasn’t seen Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” film that has now grossed over $1 billion, or Chistopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”? Well you’re in luck.
Sunday, Aug. 27 is National Cinema Day, when moviegoers across the country will be able to secure tickets to films in theaters for just $4.
People headed to the movies can get tickets to any film they want as part of the $4 promotion in participating theaters — assuming there is still availability, of course — at any showtime and in all movie formats, including IMAX and 3D.
More than 3,000 theaters are participating in National Cinema Day this year, including top chains like AMC and Regal. Interested customers can check the list of participating theaters here.
So how does it work? Customers can purchase multiple tickets at the $4 price point, and they can buy them ahead of time or in-person at a theater. The $4 special ticket price will automatically be applied to your card, and there is no need for a promo code.
This is the second consecutive year that movie theaters are putting on this promotion. Last year’s inaugural National Cinema Day, put on by the Cinema Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Association of Theater Owners, got people to go back to the movies. An estimated 8.1 million moviegoers bought tickets for the promotion in 2022 at a then-$3 price tag, per the Associated Press.
The appeal isn’t too surprising, considering the average movie ticket cost $10.53 in 2022, according to the National Association of Theater Owners, so last year’s $3 promotion was less than a third of the usual ticket price. This year’s $4 tickets are still less than half the average movie ticket price.
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Last year’s promotion turned into the highest attended day of the year for theaters. Late summer is typically a quieter time at the box office, because most of the big summer blockbusters have already debuted. And the August period is still well before the other big releases around Thanksgiving and the December holiday season hit screens.
But this year, thanks to remarkably sustained interest in “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” the August box office has been booming. The summer box office is up to $3.8 billion in ticket sales through Sunday, according to data firm Comscore — about 16.6% ahead of 2022 at the same point.
National Cinema Day comes at an uncertain time for the entertainment industry.
The Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) are each independently striking against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which is made up of major movie studios and streaming companies including Netflix, Disney and Sony Pictures. The writers, actors and artists are demanding more lucrative royalty checks, more consistent pay periods and stricter rules against the use of artificial intelligence, among other concerns.
Those strikes have pushed back release dates of high-profile upcoming films including “Deadpool 3,” “Dune: Part Two,” and “Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning, Part Two.”
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