What was the first film you saw at the movie theater?

Grease

I grew up in a very religious household, so I had to sneak off to see it. My theater queen self was NOT going to be deprived of seeing a top Broadway musical on the big screen. I hope Jesus forgave me.

Crocodile Dundee.

Yikes! West Side Story at the drive in. Either that or Flipper. I was about 6.

[italic]WarGames[/italic] at a drive-in when I was a baby.

Moulin Rouge. I was twelve years old.

Destroy all Monsters. It was around my sixth birthday, or just before, in 1969. I watched the Godzilla movies on TV and so I was thrilled to see him in the movies.

Herbie the Love Bug Goes to Monte Carlo at a local drive in when I was 8 years old.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, December 1989

I think it was Disneys Tarzan but I may have seen one or two before that and just cant remember.

Star Wars. The first one which ended up being part fourth or whatever.

R2 Crocodile Dundee was mine too. The 80s sure did have a strange love affair with all things Oz.

Babes in Toyland

The Elm Chanted Forest (1986). I was about 5.

A painter who can temporarily talk to the creatures of an enchanted forest, must help them stop the evil Cactus King, who's building an army of magical living weapons and machines to turn the forest into a wasteland perfect for the cacti.

Escape from Witch Mountain. Even at 8, I remember thinking how sad Kim Richards looked.

The Poseidon Adventure, it was huge

Same year saw a rerelease of 'Chitty Chitty bang Bang' and the child audience rioted they hated it so much

The Aristocats at the drive-in when I was 2 years old. I'm not sure of the first movie I saw at the movie theater, but I think it was Bedknobs and Broomsticks. When my older brother and I were young, our parents brought us mainly to drive-in theaters. There were three of them around us. They'd usually pick the ones with kid-friendly movies, typically a Disney double-feature. Then the last movie would be an adult movie and my brother and I were usually asleep by then.

It's funny because I know by the time I was 5 or 6 years old, my mother would drop my older brother and me off at the local movie theater on Saturday afternoons then pick us up after the movie. It was an old theater built in the 1800s that was converted to a movie theater in the 1950s or 1960s. We'd be unsupervised, and there would be a whole bunch of other unsupervised kids. We'd all wind up forming a group and wander past the roped off areas to explore the balcony, old opera boxes and other things in this cool, old theater. Some teenager worked the box office and as usher. He'd wander around with his flashlight. My brother and I knew him because he was also our paperboy. He was pretty nice and would let us sit in the balcony or in the opera boxes even though he wasn't supposed to. Never once were there any creepy adult predators, probably because we'd form a gang of kids. Ah, good times.

Roundhay Garden Scene

Saturday Night Fever at the drive-in.

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". I was way too young to understand what was going on. I also remember seeing "A Summer Place".

Snow White.

Birth Of A Nation.

Just kidding. It was Oliver!

E.T., All I remember is crying when it looked like he was going to die

The Great Train Robbery

The Little Tramp, summer 1915

Mary Poppins - I'm old. Coincidentally, the last movie I saw at a theater was Mary Poppins Returns

Star Wars back in 1977. I was 4 years old. I’ll never forget how powerful the whole experience was. Still my favorite movie to this day.

The Flintstones ('94)

Jaws, at an actual theater. Who knows what schlock at the drive-in in the 60s.

The Powerpuff Girls Movie in 2002

That I can remember -Poseidon Adventure (I was 10 and it bothered me for a couple weeks).

The Jazz Singer

Theaters? In my day, theaters were for live drama and moving pictures were something you looked at in an arcade through an eyepiece for a penny.

Either Fiddler on the Roof or Bedknobs and Broomsticks (cue B&B troll).

Mary Poppins. Mom still tells the story of how I sobbed at the end when Mary left the family.

Last Tango In Paris when I was 3.

Dumbo.

Auntie Mame when I was five.

I begged and begged my Mom to take me to Cleopatra. I saw La Liz in the blue eye shadow and it was all I could think of. She was so glamorous. A moment I shall never forget. MARY!!!

I'm from Central Europe, so nobody probably knows this movie, but when I was four my teacher mom took me to see "Professor Inkblot's Academy" together with her class. The invasion of "wolves" burning villages and singing heavy metal and howling was so fucking teriffying mom had to get me out of the movie theater and it remains my earliest childhood memory.

Timestamp 0:26

Either IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS (Disney film with Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier) or THE MIRACLE WORKER. Don't recall which I saw first - my mother took me to the latter.

"Sounder" (1972)

"Cannibal Holocaust"

Mom and Dad didn't want to coddle me.

Star War: The Force Awakens

I begged and begged my mom to take me to see last tango in Paris so I could see the anal sex scene. Bitch took me to conversion therapy instead.

101 Dalmations

Disney’s Cinderella. I was 5 or so. 1956

Either Enemy of the State or Armageddon. I believe this was in 1998.

Singing in the Rain

A double feature of Jungle Book and Bambi in '68 or '69 when I was 4 or 5. My mom had to remove me from the theater when Bambi's mother died.. I must have gained my composure because I remember watching Jungle Book. It must have been the same day because my mom would no have bought a second ticket for another day.

"The Big Circus" starring Victor Mature., Rhonda Fleming, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Gilbert Roland and David Nelson, at the drive in 1959 or 1960. I was 4 or 5 My little sister and I were enthralled by Gilbert Roland's tightrope walk over Niagara Falls and used to duplicate it across the grape arbor in our yard, holding the pole used to prop up the clothesline for balance.

Derp Throat when I was 2 months old.

Think mine was Return to Oz. That wasn't traumatic at all!

R52, that would have scared me!

Birth of a Nation

Bambi, 1975 re-release.

David and Lisa, starring Keir Dullea and Janet Margolin. Mom couldn’t find a baby sitter that night. A few days later, she took me to Disney movie but I quickly concluded that I much preferred David and Lisa. I was not like the other boys.

Another "Mary Poppins" here. I was four years old in 1964, when it was released. We watched it from the balcony of the Albee Theater in Downtown Cincinnati. It was a special occasion, everyone in the audience was dressed in their Sunday best. We even went to Frisch's Big Boy afterward!

Star Wars! It was magical.

Footloose

R57 at least you saw the good Mary Poppins! Because when she returns it’s really sad.

The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes. I was 5.

The Three Lives of Thomasina in 1963. I was 5 and the movie theater was a few blocks from our house. I don't know if I walked there without my mother that time, but I do remember going to see Mary Poppins without my parents. And don't forget Herbie the Love Bug!

The song I linked I remember hearing at the theater to this day.

Cannonball Run 2. I think my mom's hand was covering my eyes for most of the movie though due to potential nudity.

Wow, R50, I remember seeing that too. What a blast from the past.

I'm not sure about the first - perhaps A Disney - and I do remember "Dumbo" (must have been a re-release in the 1950s) and that made me cry.

Also remember seeing "Bridge on the River Kwai" later and being confused by the ending as to whether Alec Guinness wanted to blow up the bridge at the end or not.

Jason and the Argonauts at a kiddie matinee when I was around 7. The skeleton army scared the bejesus out of me.

West Side Story

My mother, who was quite the singer/dancer took me. I was nine years old. When I saw those Jets and Sharks in action, I had butterflies in my stomach.

Another for The Sound Of Music at the Terrace Theater in Robbinsdale, MN.

Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was a rerelease in 1967 and I was 3 1/2.

Star Wars when I was at boarding school in Ottawa

Return of the Jedi

Arachnophobia

My older sister entered a contest and won a Muppet Movie prize package that included movie passes, the soundtrack, the poster, and a few other things. That’s how I got to see the movie in the theater which was very rare event since my family was poor.

I was 7 years old.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory - '71

Can't remember which was first, but the first TWO movies I saw were "Pollyanna" with Hayley Mills and "The Parent Trap" with Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills.

My mother took me to our local neighborhood movie theater to see Phantom of the Rue Morgue when I was 5. It was a Poe story about a murderous gorilla in Paris who climbed into women's bedrooms and brutally killed them. I was terrified of that gorilla..so much so that after the first murder I told my mother I needed to leave. I couldn't handle it any longer. So she took me home. Years later when I was 12 I saw the whole movie and loved it.

1977 was the year, but I can't remember which of these were first. The three earliest movies I can remember watching in a theater were all released that same year, so I have to list them all because I can't determine which would have been first.

1. The Rescuers

2. Candleshoe (Jodie Foster)

3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Close Encounters would be the first movie I saw twice in a theater though, because I remember making my mom take me back when they released the Special Edition with the footage that Roy Neary sees when he steps inside the ship at the end.

It was an IMAX — the one where the huge dome screen descends from above. It was a documentary about Antarctica or something. I think All Dogs Go to Heaven was the first scripted film I saw in a theatre.

R53, I can't remember much about my reaction to it, but I think I found it pretty frightening. Now that I think of it, The Neverending Story came out around then and I remember seeing it too.

Eldergay here. “The Wilderness Family” in 1975

A bug's life.

The Phantom Tollbooth is the first memory I have, but it came out when I was two so maybe not original theatrical release. If not, then Bambi in 1975.

Bambi.

One thing about those old Disney movies like "Bambi" and "Dumbo", they didn't worry about "triggering" at all.

Bambi's mom - deal, kids.

Snow White.

The first feature that wasn't animated was Cyrano with Depardieu.

Either Bambi or Lady and the Tramp. I was 4 or 5. Saw it at the old Cortland Theater, Cortland Avenue, Bernal Heights.

The first film I saw without my parents was Weekend at Bernie's.

Mine was either The Land Before Time or Big Top Pee Wee.

1964. It was either Mary Poppins or My Fair Lady. I may not remember the movie but I do recall my dad took me because my mom was in the hospital. It's the only time I ever went to a movie with him. (He hated movies and especially despised musicals.)

Oh, R61 & R62! You are bringing back to the spontaneous family trips to the drive-in on a Saturday night. "the Monkey's Uncle", "the Ugly Dachshund", "the Happiest Millionaire", "the Shaggy Dog", "Darby O'Gill and the Little People", "Swiss Family Robinson".... I could go on.

And some of the men in the films!

I loved those pictures. What little kid didn't?

I know I saw some before, but I don't remember which ones. The first film I specifically remember seeing at a movie theater was Disney's Oliver & Company(1988).

The first movie I saw in the theater was The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking starring DL favorite Tami Erin. I loved it and made my family take me back twice. The same with Young Einstein. What was with those strange 80's Aussie movies and little little kids?

101 Dalmatians (1961) which was truly frightening. But the most memorable movie theater experience was Mary Poppins (1964). We sang this song for days.

Here you go, R89. Bring back the memories.

An American Tail.

Dr. Dolittle at Radio City Music Hall

Eldergays? What's a movie theater?

The Nightmare Before Christmas at the AMC in Santa Monica off the 3rd St Promenade.

The Shaggy Dog is the one I remember even though it and Cinderella were both released the same year.

Star Wars

Lost Horizon. I loved it. I didn't know it was supposed to be awful!

Thouroghly Modern Milly

Cabaret

Fireball 500. Starring Frankie, Annette and Fabian.

I like how the demo of this thread is people in their early 30s or 60s.

I remember being excited over Jaws. Star Wars and Indiana Jones were great fun.

The Lion King

The Poseidon Adventure. I was 8 and I thought it was cool as shit going to see a PG movie. Then Stella Stevens called Shelley Winters a fat ass and I was in heaven.

Elder gay here. Chicks Who Suck Cock And Eat Cum - 1995.

King Kong Vs Godzilla. Either 1964 or 65. It was a Sunday matinee but I can't remember what the other movie was anymore.

You old cocksucker you!

"The Sound of Music" sometime in 1968.

I couldn't believe how big everything was on the screen!

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, in 1955 at a walk in. I was 10.

Dumbo

The Sound of Music at the drive in - bro and I in our pajamas -- we had McDonalds- a rare thing for us - Milk Duds and Dots. They had a trailer for Baby Jane before hand - kinda creeped me out.

Either Jaws 3 or 4

New York, New York

Hand to God: "Mommie Dearest" when I was 6. My mother took me. We make hanger jokes to this day.

Easy Rider with my parents.

r111 I still remember getting a laugh from the people around us when I remarked to my mom (a bit too loud, I guess, because I was that impressed) how big the TV was.

The Little Mermaid at 3 years old.

And I still remember it.

"Meet Me in St. Louis" Loew's State New York

Old Yeller. I wouldn't go back to a movie theatre for two years. But then, I had cried when my parents took me to the Bronx Zoo.

MARY POPPINS back in 1964

Song of the South in 1986 or 1987. I was four.

Next one was Jaws IV a year later. Even back then I thought the roaring shark was ridiculous.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks with Dame Angela

Mary Poppins - original release. Horribly, at a segregated theater.

Masters of the Universe.