Theaters across the country sold tickets for $3 and to celebrate the jump of movie ticket sales.
By Nicholas Orozco, Sports Editor
Out front of AMC 16, view from leaving parking garage. (Joseph Acuna/Valley Star)
Theaters across the country celebrated on Sept. 9 was the successful special event of Cinema Day as ticket prices were low as during the 90’s.
AMC, Pacific Theaters, Regal and many more all celebrated movie day with the sale of $3 tickets. This event also allowed tickets to be bought for any special screening as well, including AMC’s IMAX, Dolby Cinema and Regal’s Screen X, which is a 270 degree movie screen. The event is in response to a massive boost in ticket sales this past summer, thanks specifically to “Top Gun Maverick” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru.” These two movies were the hottest of the summer, with Minions earning $790 million at the box office and Top Gun earning over one billion dollars at the box office.
“I will always always take advantage of movie tickets being $3” said 25 year old, movie-goer Maria Martinez. “If I missed out on this [movie day], I would have been bummed out.”
Movie Day proved to be a success, with eight million people who took advantage of the limited low prices, and ticket sales reaching $24 million according to the National Association of Theater Owners.
Prior to this summer, theaters were struggling with ticket sales due to COVID-19. Once case numbers began to drop and the vaccination rate rose, social events and public areas began to see a jump in attendance.
“When they opened back up, I was a little hesitant because COVID was a scary thing,” 21 year old theater goer Caitlyn Murphy said. “When I had COVID, it felt horrible, I did not wanna get it again”
Ticket sales have nearly doubled within a year. During 2020 only 221 million tickets were sold. This year there have been approximately 850 million tickets sold thus far. As theaters are returning to pre-pandemic levels, major film companies have been delaying films that were originally to be released during 2020 to now, with some opting to delay further as the market continues to change.
Digital and Blu-ray Disc releases are coming to the comfort of movie watchers' own homes shortly after or even during the film’s theatrical release. With the digital releases of films, major film studios saw a significant drop in revenue. Due to COVID-19 people were only allowed to watch digital releases of films that would’ve been released in theaters.
With cinemas filling up once again with the ease of COVID-19 related restrictions, it is a celebration to spend time in the theater once again.
“I was excited to finally be able to come back to the theaters to watch movies the authentic way,” said Murphy.