Simple Movie Theater Tips That’ll Save You Money at AMC, Cinemark, and Regal
Love going to the movies?
I sure do 🙋🏼♀️, but I don’t love the expensive movie theater ticket prices and concession costs that can quickly empty my wallet in a matter of minutes. You too? We’re here to help! Check out our simple tips to help you save money at these popular movie theaters: AMC, Cinemark, and Regal.
1. Sign up for their free loyalty programs.
It’s definitely worth signing up for your theater’s loyalty program as you’ll score coupons, exclusive offers, and more…plus if you visit more than one theater in your area, be sure to sign up for each of their loyalty programs and download their mobile app.
Become a member of AMC Stubs Insiders Rewards program (it’s free!) and you’ll be able to take advantage of $5 Ticket Tuesdays, a free large popcorn on your birthday, a free refill with large popcorn purchase, a $5 reward every time you reach 5,000 points, exclusive offers, and more.
You can also upgrade to AMC Premiere to enjoy perks like free size upgrades on popcorn and fountain drinks. You’ll also earn points 5x faster than Insiders (100 points per $1 spent) – all for just $15 a year. And if you become an AMC A-List member, you’ll be able to make free movie reservations online for any format, including IMAX, Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, and more.
Whether you’re an AMC Stubs Insider or Premiere member, the free AMC Theatres app allows you to access your digital card and account details, purchase and view digital tickets, and receive exclusive promotions through your AMC Stubs account. You can also view your points and available rewards, or activate a reward using the app.
Sign up for the free Cinemark Movie Rewards and you’ll earn one point for every $1 you spend on everything and will be able to redeem points for merchandise, movie tickets, and concessions! You’ll also receive exclusive member offers, advance screenings and tickets, and more.
The free Cinemark Theatres app gives easy access to showtimes and tickets for any theatre in the United States. The Cinemark app also features CineMode, an exclusive and interactive way to earn Cinemark rewards and coupons, while being courteous during the show.
When you sign up for the free Regal Crown Club, you’ll earn points towards free movie tickets or concessions. You can spend the credits you earn on the rewards you want, including movies, concessions, upsizes, sweepstakes, and more. Load them to your card in the Regal app or online.
Plus, whenever you download the free Regal app, you’ll get text offers for concessions; be able to scan and store your Regal Crown Club card for quick use; check your Regal Crown Club credit balance and reward status; see recent transaction history; redeem credits for free concession items and upgrades; and spend credits on movie merchandise, sweepstakes and more.
2. Check the discount days at your local theater.
If your movie theater offers a discount for purchasing tickets on a particular day, grab the family and head to the movies! Also, participating theaters offer discounts for seniors, military, and students.
AMC offers $5 Ticket Tuesdays where tickets are just $5 every Tuesday with your AMC Stubs membership. Plus, on Tuesdays, get a cameo fountain drink and popcorn for $5! They also offer discounts for military, seniors, and students with proper ID.
Cinemark offers various Discount Days (will vary by location), as well as other discounts for military, seniors, students, early bird options, and more.
Regal Cinemas offers Value Days where you can enjoy discounted movie ticket prices (excludes holidays and opening days for new movies). Participating cinemas also offer discounts for military and students.
3. Consider movie subscription plans.
While MoviePass and other subscription plans have come and gone, national movie chains have launched their own subscription plans – and they’re going strong! Here are a few of our favorites:
With Stubs A-List, you can see up to three movies every week – including ALL premium formats like Dolby Cinema, IMAX at AMC, PRIME at AMC, RealD 3D, BigD, and D-Box at any of their U.S locations for as low as $19.95/month. Visit the AMC website for more details.
For just $8.99/month, you can join the Cinemark Movie Club and get one 2D ticket per month (unused credits roll over!), 20% off concessions, waived online fees, and $8.99 add-on tickets!
Want to try out the movie club first or give it as a gift? If you’re a Costco member, you can purchase a 6-month Cinemark Movie Club gift membership for just $45.79 (= $7.63/mo.)!
With an annual Regal Unlimited movie subscription pass, you can watch as many 2D movies as you want, as many times as you want, whenever you want, wherever you want (no blackout dates). Plus, get advance tickets as soon as they go on sale and 10% off all food and non-alcoholic beverages in theater. Prices start as low as just $18 per month. Note that you will have to pay a 50¢ convenience fee for every ticket purchased via the Regal app.
4. Save big on concessions.
Don’t like subscriptions? There are other ways that you can save on concessions at the movies! Here are a few ways that these popular theaters offer savings on popcorn, drinks, and candy:
If you have an AMC Classic theater nearby (view the locations here), AMC Stubs members can score a great deal on a refillable popcorn bucket. Then, you can refill your popcorn bucket for a discounted price every time you return this year. If you’re a Stubs member, your second bucket refill will be free on same day visits!
Purchase Cinemark’s annual refill cups and refill them all year long for a discounted price. You can also get a free same day refill with receipt on a large fountain beverage and a large popcorn. Also, be sure to sign up for Cinemark emails so you can get their concession coupons sent to your inbox every week!
Download the Regal Cinemas mobile app and enjoy monthly coupons and discounts like 15% off or more (check out their other promotions here). Plus, AARP members get $3 off the purchase of a small (or larger size) popcorn and soft drink combination. View other concession savings here.
5. Purchase discounted movie gift cards.
If you have a Costco or Sam’s Club membership, you can save a few dollars per movie ticket when you buy these bundles in-store or online. Both Costco and Sam’s Club have various movie tickets & gift card bundles for AMC, Cinemark, and Regal, so they’re definitely worth checking before paying full price!
Also, websites like Raise.com sell discounted gift cards for hundreds of retailers, including all of the major movie theaters. Other marketplaces like eBay.com, Newegg.com, Groupon, and Amazon also occasionally offer up discounted movie theater gift card deals.
Finally, select grocery store chains, such as Kroger, offer gift card discounts whenever you purchase them in-store or load eCoupons to your loyalty card.
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I didn’t know about the Value Days, thank you for the heads up!
You are so welcome, Kathleen!
If you have AAA they offer cheap movie passes and you just pay a surcharge we usually buy 10 passes at a time.
Our SoCal AAA offers passes for 9.99. We use Regal (Edwards) since we have a favorite small theater in Newport Beach with recliner seats. Regular 2D movies are 16.20, so with the movie ticket pass we pay a 1.50 each surcharge on top of the 9.99 we paid for the pass. The RPX movies are 22.50 and I think our surcharge is usually 3.00 each. It could be a little more since I think the last time we saw RPX they were 19.50 per ticket and that was 3.00. I can load the tickets through the App and it still gives points from the surcharge. It definitely adds up.
Then we scan the App for concession purchases to grab those points. We also wait until the holiday times where they offer buy a 50 dollar gift card for 40 bucks and I grab a few. I can load those to the regal app to pay for the surcharges and the concession purchases and still get points. We almost never pay for at least one drink and a popcorn. This is just for two people so with a bigger family you could score more points.
Wow! You are a pro at going to the movies and saving! Thanks for all the tips, Ursula!
Hubs and I do date night every Friday. The AMC $20 membership a month makes for cheap date nights! We buy the popcorn bucket- so for 4 movies a month (imax, 3D, otherwise) and popcorn every time~ runs $57.88 a month for the two of us~ so $14.47 per date night. Can’t beat that for two people. Some months, obviously, we see less than 4… some months we see more if we go out on Friday and then take the kids on the weekend or on the $5 Tuesdays. And with the points per dollar- we have free drinks for a couple weeks after taking the kids once a month.
I love that!
I would also check the prices at different times of the day. A number of movie theaters around here (Minneapolis) increase the prices as the day goes not. Not just matinee/non-matinee. At one of them the first showing of the day is $5ish vs a 7 PM showing being $14 (and this is for the VIP theater). HUGE difference in price. Also double check if buying on line means you will pay and extra fee.
Thanks for posting honest ways to save. I have been guilty myself of sneaking in snacks, but a lot of people don’t realize that concessions are the only money the movie theater is making. They usually get little to no money from the price of the movie ticket, that all goes to the filmmakers. So by sneaking in snacks and not buying concessions you’re only running your movie theater into the ground.
You’re so welcome, Tina! 🙂
All movies at our theater are $5 before 6pm. The theater has heated La-z-boys. $8 for movies after 6pm. We eat before we go so we don’t do mindless grazing.
Heated lazy boys?? I wouldn’t stand a chance! Lolol!!
I wish AMC would do a family plan for the weekly movies, or allow people under 18 to sign up….I would love to do it for myself, 21, 20, and 15 year old daughters…if could do like 50-60$ a month for a plan for us that would be awesome
Use Ibotta Pay to pay at AMC and Regal and get 5% cash back.
The Regal theaters around me all do a discount day on Tuesday if you are a Crown Club member. Tickets are usually around $6 all day and popcorn is half off as well, along with unlimited refills. This wasn’t advertised anywhere in the theater, but a friend told me about it so now we always go on Tuesdays with our discounted gift cards. We also get a refill of the popcorn bucket on the way out and snack on popcorn the next day too! 🙂
You can also buy discounted movie tickets and find coupons on groupon. Ibotta also gives 5% back if you. Pay at the theater through the Ibotta ap.
There is also a site: gofobo.com. where you can find free advanced screening passes for movies at local theaters. I think this is good everywhere. You can also enter contests for merchandise.
Also, most movie studios have their own websites where you can also register to be notified about free passes and events 😁