• by Wayne Friedman , August 28, 2022

With expectations that the fall moviegoing season might return to weakened business, movie-theater owners are now offering a special promotion -- $3 or less for a movie admission ticket on Labor Day, September 3 -- National Cinema Day.

Moviegoers can access 3,000 movie cinema locations -- more than 30,000 screens -- at the special admission price of $3 or less on that day.

The special price tag will apply to all tickets sold on the day. Participating in the promotion will be some of the biggest owners of movie theaters: AMC Entertainment, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark.

The promotion comes after the return of summer moviegoers following two years of pandemic-related disruptions to the business.

“After this summer's record-breaking return to cinemas, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing,” said Jackie Brenneman, president of the Cinema Foundation, in a release. “We're doing it by offering a ‘thank you’ to the moviegoers that made this summer happen.”

IMdb Box Office Mojo estimates this summer so far has seen $3.3 billion in movie box-office revenues -- more than double the total in 2021, although still down 20% from the $4.2 billion total in 2019.

The average price for a movie ticket this year is estimated to be $9.17, according to Nash Information Services’ The Numbers -- virtually unchanged since 2019.

The Cinema Foundation is a new non-profit organization affiliated with the National Association of Theater Owners.

Labor Day weekend -- the end of the summer period for many -- has historically been a low-attendance moviegoing period.

Movies expected to be run on the day will include many re-releases including “Jaws” and more recently, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” both in special 3D formats.

Films will come from a wide range of studios and distributions: A24, Amazon Studios, Walt Disney, Universal’s Focus Features, Lionsgate, Neon, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Entertainment,United Artists Releasing, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros.

Cineworld, the owner of Regal Entertainment, the second-largest U.S. theater chain, recently issued a warning that it may be considering possible bankruptcy protections filings in the U.K. and U.S., in response to fall projections of another slowdown of the movie business.