Discount theaters, also known as dollar theaters, dollar movies, second-run theaters, and sub-run theaters, are

movie theater A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...

s that show

motion pictures A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

for reduced prices after those films depart first-run theaters. Originally, they would receive

release print A release print is a copy of a film that is provided to a movie theater for exhibition. Definitions Release prints are not to be confused with other types of prints used in the photochemical post-production process: * Rush prints, or dailies, ...

s of 35 mm films after those prints had been shown already at first-run theaters. Therefore, the film's quality was significantly lower because the release print was worn out from dozens of showings, and the potential audience for the film would be smaller since it had been already released weeks or months before (meaning that most people who wanted to see the film would already have done so at a first-run theater). Discount theaters were prevalent in the era before

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

. They were able to remain financially viable for most of the

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

era, since the fuzzy images played back onto relatively small

CRT CRT or Crt most commonly refers to: * Cathode-ray tube, a display * Critical race theory, an academic framework of analysis CRT may also refer to: Law * Charitable remainder trust, United States * Civil Resolution Tribunal, Canada * Columbia ...

televisions from

videocassette Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasset ...

s simply could not come close to the sharp resolution of images projected inside a movie theater from 35 mm film. Budget-conscious filmgoers with patience could simply wait for a film to hit a second-run theater, rather than pay much more to see the film during its first run. For example, six months after its original theatrical release, ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

'' was playing in budget theaters in still viable but well-run prints. Many discount theaters have been driven out of business by an oversupply of new movie screens (in the form of multiplexes), which has allowed films to stay longer in first-run theaters; a drastically shortened delay between theatrical and home video releases (culminating in

simultaneous release A simultaneous release, also known as a day-and-date release, is the release of a film on multiple platforms—most commonly theatrical, home video and video on demand (VOD)—on the exact same day, or in very close proximity to each other. This ...

s); and dramatic improvements in home video and television technology resulting in much sharper and larger images.

References

External links

"Jefferson Theater stops $3 flix"

"Show will go on after last discount theater closes"
Cinemas and movie theaters in the United States {{theat-stub

See also

References

External links