I still watch Ernest scared stupid with my kids on Halloween
4 Likes
When I was small and living in northern NJ, one of the local theaters still did Disney matinees every Saturday … show up whenever, watch until it’s time to go home. No clue what my first movie was, but probably an animated classic or something of the Apple Dumpling Gang /Escape to Witch Mountain live-action variety.
3 Likes
So, not necessarily the first movie I remember seeing in a theater, but definitely something I’ll always remember:
I grew up in rural Pennsylvania. The first day of deer hunting season was a holiday there (i.e., no school). Our local mall had an annual event called Deer Widows Day, which allowed mothers to feed/entertain/occupy their kids for free/cheap while the men were out hunting (yes, it was sexist). One year, the mall cinema decided to show Bambi on Deer Widows Day. 
I don’t know how old I was. Perhaps around 5 years old. I don’t remember being traumatized by it back then, but I think the idea was funny as hell now.
2 Likes
The first movie I REMEMBER seeing in the theater is Return of the Jedi, but I saw movies in the theater before that because my father was a film historian and we went to the movies a LOT.
3 Likes
First I can remember was Paws, which stars Billy Connelly as a talking dog. My Gran took me, not knowing better about the movie. I think she just saw the Big Yin was in it and did our parotic duty seeing it in a Glasgow cinema.
Probably others before then - really don’t want Paws to be my first cinema film.
2 Likes
I want to say that it was Mary Poppins - I’m old
2 Likes
Frankly I can’t remember the first movie I saw in a theater/drive in. The Navy vs. the Night Monsters may have been it – late 60s while living at Kadena Air Force Base on Okinawa. Can’t say with any certainty. 
3 Likes
My first movie was a 1996 re-release of the Disney movie Oliver & Company. That was also the night my mom taught me how to play Pac-Man for the first time.
2 Likes
The original Star Wars at a drive-in, utterly changed my life. The first movie I watched on TV was Tarantulas : The Deadly Cargo, which also utterly changed my life.
4 Likes
This is ridiculous. But my first movie I remember is Hoodwinked! Yeah that movie. I only watched it once as a kid, a small kid. And years later when I watched the movie again from a different perspective, I somehow knew all the words and knew what was going to happen. So there you go.
1 Like
I saw a double feature of Predator and Robocop at the drive-in back in the 80’s.
Some of the first movies I saw in the theater were The Explorer’s, E.T. & Gremlins.
4 Likes
Disney’s Hercules.
1 Like
Oh yes, I saw that one in the theater. Didn’t realize until later how awesomely bad it was.
“Come and get it, Lizard Breath!”
“Ba-bomb!!”
3 Likes
A re-release of Disney’s Snow White was my first movie in a theater. I got as far as the terrifying scene where she’s running through the woods and I noped right out of there.
2 Likes
I have very vague memories of some Disney movies in the late 60s, The Love Bug, The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes] but what I really remember is:
The Phantom Tollbooth
And had nightmares about it for about two weeks.
5 Likes
I’ve seen that movie so many times I used to be able to quote it word for word!
1 Like
My first movie was Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. It would have been the mid 70s, so not the original run. Then the next one after that was Star Wars. I loved it so much, I wanted to turn around and see it again!
3 Likes
When someone asks me why I insist on working on or finishing something, I turn around and give my best Khan, stating “He tasks me. He tasks me, and I shall have him!”
4 Likes
the first movies I remember seeing in a theater were not first run, as I saw them in the early 1970s and it turns out they predate my viewing.
so they must have been brought back for kids’ matinees or something in my hick tow.
actually, my hick town did not have a movie theater then . . . we had to go to the neighboring hick town.
anyway
1st) Pippi Longstocking (1969, but 1973 US release, so maybe it WAS first run, lol)_
2nd) Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971 film, but I think I saw it later. but who knows??)
1 Like
As a VERY little kid I was taken to see Return of the Jedi. (Side note: as a very little kid when I got over excited I would start yawning and fall asleep) I remember seeing the Jabba’s Palace scene, the Rancor coming out… and I fell asleep… Suffice it to say I insisted we go see it when it came around again in 85, I happily made it through the whole thing… 
2 Likes