See 'Barbie,' 'Oppenheimer,' more for $4 (just one day only!)
Cinema Day could give a shot in the arm to theaters that are feeling the comedown from “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” the dueling blockbusters that opened July 21 to rave reviews and whopping box-office sales. Above, Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie star in Warner Bros.' "Barbie." Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures via AP
The price of a movie ticket is about to drop dramatically — but only for one day.
On Sunday, many theaters on Long Island — from the big chains to the smaller independents — will charge just $4 per ticket for any movie at any time. That goes for any format, too, including IMAX. Regal theaters will even offer $4 on some concessions.
The bargain rate is part of National Cinema Day, a promotional push launched last year by the Cinema Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Association of Theater Owners. The first event sold an estimated 8.1 million tickets at $3 apiece on Sept. 3, 2022, making it the highest-attended day of the year. This year the day falls on Aug. 27 and the price has gone up by $1.
“We’ll do it again,” Phil Solomon, owner of the PJ Cinemas in Port Jefferson Station, said of Cinema Day. “Last year, quite honestly, we saw a big jump. I was frankly surprised.”
Four dollars still counts as a bargain. The average price of a movie ticket was $10.53 in 2022, according to the most recent figures available from NATO, and is likely much higher in the metropolitan area. The last time a movie ticket cost anything close to $4 was in the 1990s. To put it another way, $4 is currently less than a gallon of milk and just a tad higher than a gallon of gas.
Cinema Day could give a quick shot in the arm to theaters that are feeling the comedown from “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” the dueling blockbusters that opened July 21 to rave reviews and whopping box-office sales, grossing $1.28 billion and $717 million worldwide, respectively. This coming weekend’s big new release, “Gran Turismo,” looks unlikely to hit the same highs: The true story of a video gamer who becomes a champion race car driver, the movie has no marquee stars and has so far earned mixed reviews. Meanwhile, recent releases such as the pets-gone-wild comedy “Strays” and the superhero movie “Blue Beetle” have fallen short of expectations.
Even the Sayville Theater, which already charges a low $5 price for screenings before 5 p.m., will participate in Cinema Day. “This will likely be a slow month,” the theater’s property manager, Devin Fickling, said. “So this isn’t going to be a big change for us. But we’ll do it.”
With AP
Correction: This story originally gave the wrong date for this year's National Cinema Day. It takes place Aug. 27.
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