3,000 movie theaters are dropping ticket prices to $3 this Saturday. The food is on sale, too.
It's the first National Cinema Day.
National Cinema Day is September 3.
At a time when inflation is eating away at family budgets, the Cinema Foundation has announced National Cinema Day on Saturday, September 3. It’s a one-day event where all tickets at participating theaters will be $3 or less.
That’s a big dip from the national average of $9.17 a ticket.
More than 3,000 theaters with over 30,000 screens are participating in National Cinema Day. AMC Theatres announced that it's celebrating by offering popcorn and drink for just $5 as well.
The special day is to welcome back folks who haven’t been to the movies since the pandemic and to celebrate the surprisingly solid summer 2022 box office. AP reports that before each $3 screening, theater-goers will be shown a sizzle reel of upcoming films from A24, Amazon Studios, Disney, Focus Features, Lionsgate, Neon, Paramount, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony, United Artists Releasing, Universal and Warner Bros.
The hope is to continue the momentum of this summer into the fall. If National Cinema Day is successful it could also become an annual event, much like Record Store Day.
\u201c#NationalCinemaDay is Saturday, 9/3! All tickets, including IMAX and Dolby Cinema, are only $3+tax, and our fountain drink and popcorn cameo combo is just $5+tax. https://t.co/O6q3d38ats\u201d— AMC Theatres (@AMC Theatres) 1661704226
“After this summer’s record-breaking return to cinemas, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing,” said Cinema Foundation President Jackie Brenneman in a press release. “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 summer of 2022 has been seen as a success by some in the motion picture industry because theaters pulled in roughly $3.3 billion or 80% of the 2019, pre-pandemic box office. The totals may be lower than the last pre-pandemic summer, but 2022 saw 30% fewer releases.
The summer box office rallied this year due to big showings from “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Minions: Rise of Gru,” “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Jurassic World Dominion.”
Even though there has been a big box-office rebound, the types of films that have found success in theaters has dramatically changed over the past few years.
“The dramas, the middle-of-the-road action movies that are not the A-list franchise tentpoles—those have really struggled,” Matthew Belloni from Puck, told NPR. “[Studios] don't see evidence that there is an audience for the mid-budget and lower-budget drama movies in theaters, so they're just not putting them in. But there can't be a surprise hit if they're not in theaters."
Let’s hope that National Cinema Day is a big success for both theaters and movie-goers. Over the past few years, there has been a paradigm shift where more people now prefer to watch movies in their homes on streaming services than going to theaters. This has many worried that the experience of seeing movies on the big screen may become a thing of the past.
There’s something exhilarating about the communal experience of watching a film with an audience and listening to a booming sound system and seeing images fly by on a massive screen. Films were made to be seen this way and it’d be a travesty to lose the cinema experience. Events like National Cinema Day that encourage people to relish the cinema experience could prove to be an effective way to remind people of the power of seeing a film on the big screen.
The Frenchman's monologue was absolutely spot on 
A court reporter taking notes.via
Depiction of Jesus Christ in Heaven.via
A photo of Santa Claus.via
A man sweating in his car.via
Many people—including 
If not for that darn silver....
Sadly, Lake Tahoe's proposals were overruled. 
National parks are the ultimate tourism magnets. 
Entire economies depend on a local national park. 
Dinosaur National Monument looks like a national park, but is it?
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."
This article originally appeared in May.