Big demand for discounted tickets for Hong Kong’s Cinema Day event this weekend

A total of 63 film houses across the city, including Emperor Cinemas, MCL, Golden Harvest and Broadway Cinemas, had tickets for HK$30 (US$3.83) each.

Tickets for the Sunday event, organised by the Hong Kong Theatres Association, were released at noon.

Emperor Cinemas showed almost 14,000 people in their queue.

The Post spotted around two dozen people already queuing in person to buy tickets at Grand Kornhill Cinema in Quarry Bay at 11.30pm – half an hour before tickets were released.

Among the crowd was Vikki Au, a tutor, who said she planned on buying tickets for herself and her family to see “Arthur The King” – an American movie starring Mark Wahlberg, Simu Liu, and Juliet Rylance about an adventure racing team that adopts a stray dog during a gruelling endurance event.

“The price is really quite attractive and it’s a once-a-year event,” Au said.

“I love going to the movies anyway, and HK$30 is such a good deal – you can’t even get that watching the discounted early showings.”

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The Hong Kong Movie website said a Grand Kornhill Cinema ticket for a 10.10am showing of “Arthur The King” on Thursday cost HK$60. Tickets for the 3.35pm screening were priced at HK$80.

Jeremy Choi, a Form 5 secondary school pupil, said the HK$30 price was well within his budget, and he would be buying tickets for the anime film “Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle” to watch with friends.

“It will be a nice break from studying,” he said.

A staff member at the cinema said the queue was about 30 per cent bigger than on typical days and that he expected there to be near-full houses on Sunday.

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“Last year, we had completely full houses, but this year is the second year, so the novelty may be gone,” he said.

The staff member added the city was still affected by the pandemic in 2023, but that there was now a tendency for people to travel to Shenzhen at the weekends.

He said, however, that the industry was “still optimistic” about the event.

The first cinema day was held on April 27 last year and the Theatres Association reported a record high single day attendance of almost 222,000 film fans.