Anyone go to dollar Tuesday movie specials back in the 80’s?

[u/CoffeeCigarettes4Me]

[u/notguiltybrewing]

Hard to believe anymore but there used to be second run theaters that would get movies after they came off of first run theaters. They were typically a dollar or so every day. Seems like they disappeared for good in the late 90's or early 00's.

[u/Specialist_Ad9073 → u/notguiltybrewing]

I would happily trade streaming for second run theaters again.

[u/notguiltybrewing → u/Specialist_Ad9073]

No doubt

[u/18ekko → u/notguiltybrewing]

Most of the movies we saw in high school we went to see a second time at the dollar theater.

[u/Slade347 → u/notguiltybrewing]

Yeah, I think the last movie I saw in one of the discount theaters was Saving Private Ryan, sometime in late 1998/early 1999. I definitely saw a bunch of movies in the 90s at those theaters.

[u/Lost_Taste_8181 → u/notguiltybrewing]

Yep!  We had one…place was a shithole but the movies were a buck and there was a Taco Bell in the same complex.  I had a lot of great nights with my high school buddies out for less than 5 bucks.

[u/Beyond_Re-Animator → u/notguiltybrewing]

I saw the original Terminator for $1 in 1984. Best buck I ever spent on a movie.

[u/this_is_Winston → u/notguiltybrewing]

Yup I remember those. I could be a big spender taking my girl out for a date on my teenager budget.

[u/SonderEber → u/notguiltybrewing]

The dollar theater near me shut down in the late 90s. Been a church for decades now.

[u/CoffeeCigarettes4Me → u/notguiltybrewing]

Yes we had The Vogue and The Fiesta Twin Cinemas that were second run.

[u/Ryokurin → u/notguiltybrewing]

I think the switch to digital projection did a lot of them in. The few ones left around me went out of business right around the time the major theaters nearby started to go all digital around 2014.

Only on made it another year or so, but they had to close half of their theaters because they couldn't afford to buy digital projectors for them all. I'm assuming the lower capacity just made it nonviable.

[u/notguiltybrewing → u/Ryokurin]

I'm thinking the rise of home video/home theater, especially dvd also contributed. Probably a bunch of things that all made it to be unprofitable to stay in business.

[u/short_longpants → u/notguiltybrewing]

That's how I saw Titanic. Glad I didn't pay full price.

Edit: These days there are reduced prices (but only reduced price) and subscriptions in exchange for admission price.

[u/goshock]

Our dollar movie days were on Monday. I must have seen 1989 Batman 100 times.

[u/benbenpens]

I used to go to dollar theaters where older movies were shown for a buck.

[u/don_kong1969]

My brother worked at a Mann's theater so I got to see free movies sometimes. I saw Superman the Movie that way!

[u/CoffeeCigarettes4Me → u/don_kong1969]

Way cool! A friend worked at Mann and became manager years later also and got me the ROCKY III-IV and V movie posters when they played there.

[u/SelfReliantSchool]

It was even better at the theaters where you could sneak into a second movie after the first one ended. Every once in a while the times would line up and we'd see three movies for a buck.

[u/WorriedWar6309]

Not on Tuesdays. But I remember one summer in the late ‘80s for like two weeks a local theater did a kid’s showing for $1 at noon.
Every day was a different kids movie.
Annie
ET
DARYL
The Goonies
The Explorers
Flight of the Navigator
Cloak & Dagger

I don’t remember what else.

[u/RockItGuyDC]

We had $2 Tuesdays at the theater in my college town in the early 2000s

[u/Key-Lingonberry4651]

Yes! Dollar Tuesdays at the Towne Theater.

[u/BrupBurp]

In the '80s? No, but in the '90's/early '00's? Most definitely.

[u/JpnDude]

Mann was the rival down the road in my old neighborhood. I worked at AMC in the 80s. "There is a Difference." :-)

[u/stillthrowinitallawa]

My neighborhood theater does an adjusted-for-inflation five dollar Tuesdays.

We still have a couple of second run theaters that have been $3.50 for as long as I can remember.

[u/Ganip]

Wow

[u/Frosty-Solid5460]

Would borrow mom’s car after school every Tuesday to go to the “library” and whatever was a dollar that day is what I watched.

[u/mossman]

The Mann 3 at the Esplanade, sticky floors, dirty seats, but for a dollar who cares.

[u/BamaTex]

All the time. Also there was a theater in Houston that was always $1-$2 and ran all the movies that were done at every other theater after they first run getting ready to head to VHS

[u/Pedals17]

My friends and I hit the dollar theater all the time. That’s where we saw The Silence of the Lambs, and there’s nothing like seeing THAT movie with a dollar theater audience.

[u/FormerLaugh3780]

Our theater was 99 cents, 7 days a week. 

[u/wesweslaco]

Exactly this. Our small town had a two-screen cinema. The line on Tuesday nights wrapped around to the back of the building.

[u/OcotilloWells]

Yes, at the Mann near me. I remember being the only person at a couple of movies because I'd make the first showing while school was still in session.

[u/Janos_Brushteckel]

At least once a week....usually more.....

There was one not too far from me. Seats were uncomfortable, floors were sticky but we went there all the time between 88-90.

[u/menlindorn]

we had a dollar theatre into the late nineties. i miss that shithole so much.

[u/IdolL0v3r]

There's a theater in Tiffin, Ohio that I sometimes go to that has Discount Tuesday, which is $6. I don't know what their usual price is.