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What Was The First Theatrical Film You Saw? (1 Viewer)

Peter Apruzzese

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I just looked it up, I was incorrect. It was double billed with The Errand Boy at the Merrick Gables Theatre in February,1968.
 

sleroi

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My mom says the first movie she took me to was a rerelease of Dumbo, but the first movie I remember seeing in a theater was the Omen when I was six. My mom wanted to see it so I got to too. I remember it scared the crap out of me, but in a fun way. I've watched it since and while it's a bit melodramatic and over the top, it still holds up tonally as really creepy, or maybe Its just nostalgia.

Mom liked scary books and movies so I also got to tag along for The Amityville Horror, The Shining, and Ghost Story amongst others.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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Just found my second theatre experience: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with The Russians are Coming, at the Anthony Wayne Drive-In, July 1969
 

Dave Lawrence

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I may have been taken to a Disney movie even earlier, but my earliest memory of going to the movies is from 1980. I would have been 6 years old. The movie was Empire Strikes Back. My main memory isn’t of the movie itself, but of my parents and I standing in a line for tickets that went back around the side of the building. Must have been a Saturday late afternoon or early evening rather than during the week, since it was all 3 of us. I remember being glad the next times I went to the theater and learning not all movies required being in a long line to get tickets.

I also remember eventually having the Atari video game based on the movie.
 

Mike2001

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I have it on parental authority that my first movie was When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. I don’t actually remember this. First ones I remember were reissues of Sound of Music and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. All of this ca. 1970/1971.
 

Dave Lawrence

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I might have seen a Disney movie first but the first movie that I remember seeing and my earliest memory period is of seeing The Empire Strikes Back in a theater. Given my age, it must have been the 1982 re-release.

Now I’m wondering if mine was in 1982 as well. I knew it was the first film I can remember going to. I didn’t remember the year, so before I posted I looked up the original release year, not thinking there might have been a rerelease.
 

TravisR

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Now I’m wondering if mine was in 1982 as well. I knew it was the first film I can remember going to. I didn’t remember the year, so before I posted I looked up the original release year, not thinking there might have been a rerelease.
Yeah, there was the May 1980 release, a July (maybe August?) 1981 re-release and a November 1982 re-release.
 

cinemel1

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My first movie in a theatre was Gentleman’s Agreement which we saw on vacation in Miami Beach. The next film I saw was DeMille’s The Greatest show on Earth. After seeing the train wreck at the end of GSOE I asked my dad to buy me electric trains for my birthday. It‘s interesting that they took me to Gentleman‘s Agreement which has absolutely no interest to children.
 

TJPC

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It was the 50s and at that point we my mom was a housewife. She used to take the bus, do her shopping downtown (in Windsor Ontario) and take me, her preschool son, for lunch. As I have been told, when we passed the marque of the huge Capitol theatre, she saw that it was playing "Carmen Jones" with Dorothy Dandridge. She knew I liked music, and was usually a calm child, so spur of the moment, she bought tickets.

I actually remember some of what went on. The theatre was especially huge to a 5 or 6 year old and I remember the ice cold air conditioning and the huge screen. Apparently I was bored out of my brains, and during Carmens death scene, I decided I wanted to go from seat to seat until I sat in them all! I don't think my mother saw much of the movie.
 

Jake Lipson

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I might have seen a Disney movie first but the first movie that I remember seeing and my earliest memory period is of seeing The Empire Strikes Back in a theater.

Technically, The Empire Strikes Back is (now) a Disney movie. ;)

Edit: They're even branding it as such.

6529612_sd.jpg;maxHeight=640;maxWidth=550.jpeg
 
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Tino

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My first movie in a theatre was Gentleman’s Agreement which we saw on vacation in Miami Beach. The next film I saw was DeMille’s The Greatest show on Earth. After seeing the train wreck at the end of GSOE I asked my dad to buy me electric trains for my birthday. It‘s interesting that they took me to Gentleman‘s Agreement which has absolutely no interest to children.
Is your real name Steven Spielberg?? ;)
 

Thomas T

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My mother loved movies and would take me with her whenever she went to the movies. It was cheaper than a babysitter. Being so young (around 5 years old), for years I only remembered bits and pieces of the films but the images stayed with me. Years later, I would catch one of the films playing on TV and I would see some of the images I remembered and could finally put a name to the movie.

So in answer to your question, my earliest movie memory is of Beachhead, a 1954 movie with Tony Curtis.
 

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