AMC Movie Watcher Program

In March of 1996 I went to the grand opening of a new theatre in Woodland Hills. It was Academy Awards weekend, and to promote the new AMC Theatre, they were showing past Academy Award winners for 3 days. I was enjoying all the fanfare and hoopla when I noticed a bunch of people in suits. I approached one of them and asked if, by chance, the president of the AMC Theatres was there. The man pointed to another gentleman and I went over to introduce myself to Stanley H. Durwood.

The reason I wanted to meet the president of the company was to thank him for his theatre’s discount program. After I extolled the virtues of the Twilight Discount rate and the newly formed Movie Watcher Club, I proceeded to tell him why I liked the programs. First, he corrected me, to let me know that he was the General Manager, and not the president. Then he asked me if I wouldn’t mind repeating what I said to a friend of his. It turns out that his friend was a big motion picture distributer. Apparently, they had been debating the virtues and drawbacks of offering discounted ticket prices, and I fell right into Mr. Durwood’s lap with an argument to prove his point. The other gentleman asked me a few pointed questions, and then the two were called away. All that weekend, when Mr. Durwood spotted me, he would remember me by name, and make sure that I was having a good time. That weekend is one of my treasured memories.

The reason why I recall that event so fondly is that three years later, Stanley H. Durwood died. In his obituary they credited him with the invention of the Multi-plex Cinema. By adding multiple theatres, staggering show times, and animating the projection process, he was able to keep movie ticket prices down.

When I first started going to the AMC Theatres, I always went during their Twilight Shows. These were discounted showings that started between 3:00 and 5:00. I was a substitute teacher at the time, so a movie starting after 3:00 was perfect for me. Then they started the Movie Watcher Club. The Movie Watcher Club is a card that you show to the cashier when you buy a movie ticket. Every ticket purchase earns you two points. When you reach ten points, you earn a reward. These rewards have varied throughout the years, but the most typical ones are, a free drink, a free popcorn, and at 100 points, a free night at the movies.

When I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles, I had to get a new card because the record keeping computers were not linked. The staff in Los Angeles was amazed by my accumulated point tally. I gladly accepted my new card and the opportunity to earn that many points again.

The Movie Watcher program has been tweaked a few times over the years, but it is an excellent rewards program. Currently, my favorite feature is the free popcorn benefit. If you sign up on-line, every week they will send you an email promoting whatever films are opening that week. But wait, don’t be so quick to delete it. Intermingled among those ads is a down-loadable coupon for free popcorn if used on Monday through Thursday. Another benefit of the card is, that when you go to a movie on a Wednesday, you automatically get free popcorn without a coupon. In addition, other offers will appear. One day it might be fifty cents off of a combo, or a $1.00 for a box of Twizzlers. Recently they had a $2.00 Hot Dog special available only to Movie Watcher card holders. The extra perks change often, but they are always excellent deals.

The Movie Watcher program is heavily promoted at AMC, so I am constantly amazed when I find out that my friends are not already members. It’s free to join, you only have to go to five movies to earn your first reward, and once you are registered on-line, you start getting free popcorn right away. Even for a causal movie goer, it doesn’t make sense not to join. Take my word for it. This is one club you want to be a part of.

For more details visit: www.amctheatres.com