Going to the cinema might seem like a luxury but there’s lots of ways to get your hands on some cheap cinema tickets.
Pop along to your local multiplex cinema and you can easily pay over £15 a ticket - especially for one of the big screen blockbusters.
That’s before you shell out on overpriced popcorn and snacks, particularly amid the cost of living crisis, with households already struggling with rising energy, fuel, and food costs.
But there are lots of ways to save at the movies and enjoy the big screen experience. Here are 12 ways to get cheap cinema tickets.
1. Swap cinemas for a cheaper one
Ticket prices can vary between cinemas even within the same chain so if you have a choice of two cinemas in different directions - it can be worth checking their websites to find which one is cheapest.
Going to Cineworld in Milton Keynes to see a blockbuster movie on a Saturday afternoon costs £13.99 for a standard adult ticket. But less than twenty miles away you can see the same movie at Cineworld’s Bedford location for £6.99 – saving £7.
2. Trade Tesco vouchers for cinema tickets
You can swap Tesco Clubcard vouchers for up to three times their value on treats including cinema tickets at both Picturehouse cinemas and Cineworld.
Check prices on the cinema website first and then head back to the Tesco site to swap your vouchers.
Once done, you’ll get a confirmation email and code you can show on your phone in the cinema or use online if you want to buy extra tickets.
You’ll need to be quick to get this “triple value” deal though. From 14 June, Clubcard points will no longer be worth three times their value when spent on rewards vouchers; instead they will be worth just double their value.
3. Get free cinema tickets from your bank
Some banks dish out rewards each month including cinema tickets.
But it's usually only if you’ve got one of their fee paying accounts – although you may be able to avoid the monthly fee if you pay in a fixed amount each month.
If you’ve got a Club Lloyds account with Lloyds Bank you can choose a lifestyle benefit each year and one option is six cinema tickets for Vue or Cineworld.
If you’ve got the Reward Extras option on your Halifax Reward or Ultimate Reward account, monthly offers include free cinema tickets.
You can get one ticket a month which lasts for a year - so you can save them up to take the whole family for free. Tickets can be used at any UK Vue cinema.
4. Go to an independent cinema
Buying a ticket to see a movie at one of the big multiplex cinemas like Cineworld or Odeon means you can often pay around £15.
But finding a smaller independent cinema can knock around 60% off the price.
Tickets start from just £5 at the Rex in Berkhamsted, £7 at the Palace Cinema in Broadstairs, and around £8 at the Kinema in the Woods in Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire.
All are retro old school cinemas so you get a whole new cinema experience along with the savings.
5. Two for one cinema tickets with Meerkat Movies
You can get 2 for 1 cinema tickets every Tuesday or Wednesday for a year with the Meerkat Movie deal from Comparethemarket.com.
To snap this up you’ll need to buy a qualifying product. And if you just want to buy something to activate the deal, you can buy a one-night travel policy for just over £1.
Then all you do is download the app - and set up and sign into your account to claim your ticket code which you show when buying another ticket.
You can also use the app to find your nearest participating cinema which includes Cineworld, Odeon, Vue and smaller independent outlets.
6. Join the club at Odeon
It’s free to sign up to MyODEON which means tickets from just £6.
It saves around 60% on ticket prices but it’s only available on selected screenings from Tuesday to Sunday as well as all day on Member Mondays.
Deals are on standard tickets only – so you’ll pay more for showings like 3D or IMAX.
Cineworld also offers a 10% discount when booking tickets online if you join its My Cineworld Plus scheme - but it isn’t free and costs £6.95 a year.
7. Get a cinema season ticket
If you’re a movie fan and regularly at least once or twice a month – you could save money with a season ticket. Deals vary but with Odeon’s MyLIMITLESS you pay £14.99 a month.
With Cineworld’s Limitless subscription the cheapest deal is £9.99 a month, but monthly subscription prices can cost considerably more depending on the cinema you want to visit.
The £9.99 deal covers you for group one locations including Plymouth, Weymouth and Runcorn but with other cinemas in groups two and three you can pay up to £18.40 a month and up to £20.90 to include London’s West End.
With cinema subscriptions you often need to sign up for a year – however with both these cinemas it’s currently just a three month minimum term. And with these deals it’s only standard screenings you can get into unless you pay to upgrade your ticket.
8. Free cinema tickets with Vitality health and life insurance
If you have Vitality health or life insurance you can get one free cinema ticket a month to use at Vue or Odeon cinemas.
You need to register through the Vitality member zone, take a health review and start earning points based on exercise.
You’ll need 48 points a month for each cinema ticket but it’s case of ‘use it or lose it’ as tickets only last until the end of the following month. Check the Vitality website for terms and conditions as some screenings may be excluded.
9. Book a family cinema ticket
You can save around £12 booking a family ticket at Cineworld.
With this deal you get four tickets. One must be used by an adult, two for children and the fourth can be for an adult or child.
Booking a family ticket this way to see Creed III at the Cineworld in Hemel Hempstead costs £27.96 whereas buying two adult and two child tickets separately would cost £39.96.
10. Cheap kids’ cinema tickets
Most cinema chains offer special discounted kids’ screenings at weekends and during school holidays. It’s a chance to see family favourites again but don’t expect to see the latest movies this way.
Vue runs Mini Mornings with tickets for both children and adults from £2.49 when booked online or £3.49 at the box office.
So, you can get a £2.49 ticket for kids aged between 2-12 years and an accompanying adult on the weekend. It runs on weekends after 10am and every morning of the school holidays.
To bag the £2.49 price you will need to book online or via the Vue app. If you buy tickets when you get there you will pay £3.49. Note, you should check the price at your Vue location as it can vary.
Cineworld has Movies for Juniors sessions with tickets from £2.50 and Odeon has Odeon Kids screenings at weekends and during school holidays.
Check screenings as not all cinemas within each chain will do this.
11. Discount websites
It’s always worth checking discount websites like Groupon or Vouchercloud to see if they offer any bundles on cinema tickets.
Groupon has previously offered five Odeon Luxe tickets for £30 or two standard Odeon tickets for £22 with a 95p booking fee on top.
We can't see any offers right now, but it's worth having a look yourself on various discount sites, and we'll also update this article if we spot any.
12. Get cheap cinema tickets with your mobile provider
Most big mobile providers have their own rewards app, for example, Vodafone has Vodafone VeryMe, Three has ThreePlus and O2 offers its customers O2 Priority.
Currently, only Vodafone is offering a deal - Two Vue cinema tickets for £7 (£3.50 each) which you can claim on its rewards app.
You need to be a Vodafone customer. The telecoms firm refreshes the offers every week at midnight on Mondays, so you can always get a new code the week after.
If you’re with another mobile provider, don’t lose hope. Previously O2 was giving out a limited number of free Odeon cinema tickets each week, and offers could return in the future.