Grab your bag of popcorn.
For the first time, thousands of movie theaters across the country plan to celebrate National Cinema Day on Saturday, Sept. 3, and offer $3 tickets for a range of popular movies.
The event comes during a dry spell of new releases after months of strong turnout to movie theaters that helped the industry recover to close to pre-pandemic strength. In the Twin Cities, many theaters are participating such as AMC Theatres, Marcus Theatres, and the B&B Theatres at the Mall of America.
The promotion is organized by the Cinema Foundation, a new donor-funded nonprofit that the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) formed in March.
"After this summer's record-breaking return to cinemas, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing," said Cinema Foundation President Jackie 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."
This summer the U.S. box office generated about $3.3 billion, more than double than last summer but down more than 20% compared with 2019, according to analytics firm Comscore.
Theaters had three $100 million openings over the space of six weeks this summer with "Top Gun: Maverick" grossing around $700 million to date.
"Summer has provided an amazing slate of movies and the return to cinemas to see movies the way they were meant to be seen — on the big screen," said Rolando Rodriguez, president and chief executive of Milwaukee-based Marcus Theatres and chair of NATO.
