Exhibitors in the US are to participate in what is believed to be the country’s first National Cinema Day on September 3, at the start of the Labor Day holiday weekend.
The event - which will coincide with a separate National Cinema Day in the UK - is being organised by the Cinema Foundation, the donor-supported charitable non-profit created earlier this year by the US National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO).
More than 3,000 US cinema locations with around 30,000 screens will be involved and tickets for all screenings that day at participating venues will sell for no more than $3 each (compared to an average US ticket price of more than $9). Audiences will also get to see a sizzle reel of upcoming releases - including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Moondage Daydream, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and My Policeman - from all the major studios as well as A24, Amazon Studios, Lionsgate, Neon and Sony Pictures Classics.
The Cinema Foundation expects 80%-90% of US exhibitors to participate. All the studios and most independent distributors have agreed to the event, according to Foundation president Jackie Brenneman, and most are supporting it by sharing marketing materials and promoting the day on their own marketing channels.
Ticket sales from the first such US event – national cinema days have been staged for years in other territories such as the UK, France and Israel – will count towards overall box office and admission figures and could provide a late summer boost for the US industry.
The promotion comes in the midst of a paucity of new blockbuster releases in the US and other markets and concern about the effect inflation could have on cinemagoing. But Brenneman said the event, originally conceived before the pandemic decimated the exhibition business, “is not a reaction to the current climate”.
”It really is about bringing people to the movies, about thanking moviegoers,” Brenneman said. ”A lot of people have come back to the movies after covid. There are some audiences who haven’t come back and we’re hoping to bring them back and show them how amazing our theatres are and what’s coming up.”
If the debut event is successful, Brenneman added, “we hope to do something similar annually. We’re thinking of this year as a first run, a first attempt”.
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