National Cinema Day $3 Tickets “A Big Ask” For Indies – Specialty Box Office

On the heels of National Cinema Day, a smaller event that debuted last year, called National Cinema Week, has set Oct. 7-13 for its second annual push to celebrate moviegoing in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.

Refresh for latest…: There was a little more excitement at the international box office this weekend, with two local movies leading the charge and a handful of new milestones for Hollywood pics.

Widespread optimism months ago that domestic box office might readily return to pre-Covid levels has given way to a new sense of pragmatism about the movie business.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Family comedy “Table For Six” has set an opening day local record for a comedy film in Hong Kong, to the relief of producers who were forced to digest a releasing delay of six months. The Sunny Chan-directed film opened Wednesday in Hong Kong and Macau at 61 theatres, playing a total of 608 sessions. That gave it an accumulated box office of HK$1,986,701 ($255,000). “Table for Six,” which chronicles a family’s holiday gathering where food, love, friendship, jealousy and relationships are on the menu, had originally been planned as a dish to be served at Chinese New Year, in February. And producers had assembled a cast of major Hong Kong and regional talents, including Dayo Wong, Stephy Tang, Louise Cheung, Ivana Wong, Lin Min-Chen and Chan Charm Man.

In his role as one of this year’s ambassadors for UK National Album Day, Sam Ryder has announced a special launch show at London’s Lafayette later this month.I’m not sure that’s really in the spirit of a day that celebrates the art of the album. Everyone should be at home listening to albums, right? Though I guess the gig is not actually happening on the big day itself, so maybe it’s alright.And there is an album connection with the show, so that’s probably enough to swing it.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Art-house title “Return to Dust” was a surprise weekend winner, topping the mainland China box office in its ninth weekend of release. The astonishing feat occurred on an otherwise depressed weekend in which China’s cinema box office dipped to a three-month low. This reflected the summer season winding to an end and anti-COVID measures once again forcing major Chinese cities into retreat. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed “Return” grossing $5.3 million (RMB36.2 million) between Friday and Sunday. Those three days accounted for nearly half of the $12.7 million (RMB87.4 million) cumulative total it has earned since release on July 8, 2022.

This was yet another soft weekend at the international box office with no major fresh titles and as summer fully closes out in Europe and beyond.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter A record number of people went to the movies on Saturday in honor of National Cinema Day. Thanks to heavily discounted tickets, an estimated 8.1 million moviegoers attended their local multiplex to purchase tickets for just $3, making Sept. 3 the highest-attended day of the year for theaters, according to the National Association of Theater Owners. In an effort to populate multiplexes during the dog days of summer, more than 3,000 theaters across the country, including major chains like AMC and Regal, were charging just $3 for admission to any movie in any format — far less expensive than the country’s average ticket price.

National Cinema Day is underway with 3,000+ participating theaters (30,00 screens) offering $3 tickets, discounted concessions and a four and a half-minute preshow sizzle reel with peeks of upcoming titles from A24, Amazon Studios, Disney, Focus Features, Lionsgate, Neon, Paramount, Sony and Sony Pictures Classics, United Artists Releasing, Universal and Warner Bros.

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: “Estimates aren’t worth a whole lot this morning thanks to the brilliant idea of National Cinema Day” cried one industry source to us this morning about the challenges for studio box office analysts to peg exactly what’s going to be No. 1 over the 4-day holiday weekend. Despite all good intentions by the Cinema Foundation to drive business over a slow weekend, taking a page out of the book from what’s been down in Spain to spike admissions, it’s not creating a windfall of cash for the marketplace, but several movies are projected to show a 150%-200% gain in their Saturday box office over Friday thanks to $3 tickets on National Cinema Day today.

Today marks National Cinema Day in the UK, celebrating one of the most popular hobbies there is. Cinemas all over the UK will be taking part in this celebration of everyone's love for films, and some cinemas have even slashed their ticket prices right down so that everyone can take part.

box office, there is a near-term question mark about what will happen next: Will recovery stall due to a paucity of Hollywood tentpole movies? Or will international theatrical decouple and find new drivers to maintain the momentum? The good news is that most of the international market’s top territories are now fully open and operating without significant restrictions on seating capacity. These include the U.K. and Ireland, Japan, France, Germany, Spain, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Brazil. The smaller number of territories still laboring under restrictions nevertheless include some valuable ones: China, Turkey, Argentina, Hong Kong and Russia.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media After Warner Bros. executives signed off on the risky decision to bankroll their $90 million look at the life of Elvis Presley with a little-known actor portraying the hip-swinging rocker, producer Gail Berman reached for her phone. She wanted to immortalize the moment for Austin Butler, the man who reportedly beat out the likes of Ansel Elgort and Miles Teller to land the kind of role that can make a career. “I needed to take a photo of all these people sitting around after they made a decision that was going to mark a major change in Austin’s life,” says Berman. “It was wonderful that they saw from his screen test just how good he was, and that they were ready to support him on this journey.”

here.Breaking News…Cinema First's inaugural National Cinema Day is here on Sept 3rd. Fabulous cinema experience at £3 a ticket! @LoveCinemaUK #NationalCinemaDay pic.twitter.com/aqdIwND3KM— iain jacob (@iainjacob) August 28, 2022Earlier this month it was revealed that Cineworld, the world’s second-largest cinema chain, was preparing to file for bankruptcy after it failed to recover quickly enough from the impact of the COVID pandemic.The London-listed company, which operates 751 sites in 10 countries including the Cineworld and Picturehouse chains in the UK, ran up debt of more than £4billion ($4.8billion) after its cinemas were closed during the global health crisis.News of the chain’s bankruptcy, as first reported in The Wall Street Journal, has contributed to its share price dropping from 20p to 2p.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese animation film “New Gods: Yang Jian” was the top film at the mainland China box office for the second successive weekend. Unchallenged by major new releases, the film earned $13.0 (RMB88.3 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That was a drop of 34% compared with its $19.8 million opening session. Some $1.5 million of the weekend total was scored from the film’s outing on Imax screens. After ten days on release “Yang Jian” has a cumulative total of $43.7 million (RMB297 million). Of that, its Imax total is now $4 million.

reports Variety.“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.”The foundation said the event is scheduled for September 3rd and will include nearly 3,000 theaters across the country.

On Sept. 3, it’s all movies, all formats, all day for three bucks.

Film fans can get £3 cinema tickets at Vue cinemas in Greater Manchester next Saturday.

J. Kim Murphy While the excitement of the summer movie season is over, U.S. theaters are looking to reinvigorate interest in filmgoing with National Cinema Day, a one-day event that will see participating locations sell movie tickets for prices as low as three dollars. The Cinema Foundation, a non-profit branch of the National Association of Theatre Owners, announced the event on Sunday, according to the Associated Press. National Cinema Day will take place this Saturday, Sept. 3, at more than 3,000 theaters across the U.S., comprising 30,000 or so participating screens. For reference, there are about 40,700 theater screens in the country. “After this summer’s record-breaking return to cinemas, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing,” Cinema Foundation president Jackie Brenneman said in a statement. “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.”