How I Get Free Movie Tickets

Here’s the deal, it costs me $11.25 per movie ticket to go to Edwards Cinemas in Boise. If I want to take my wife to a movie (like Les Miserables coming out in December – check out the trailer), it costs me $22.50! The prices have become outrageous, especially since I can get a redbox for a buck!

For money savers, this is an obvious area of alarm. As much as I like paying 25 cents per minute watching a movie (and yes, this is mathmatically correct on a movie that lasts 90 minutes), I did some investigation to save some moola on movie tickets. Here’s what I do.

Buy Movie Tickets At Costco

Getting free tickets is a little more of a hassle, so for those that just want a simple discount, without the leg work, Costco offers movie tickets at better prices than anywhere else I’ve found. They are the Regal Entertainment Group tickets that have no expiration, and they come in packs of 4. You can buy them here at Costco.com. They are priced at $34.99, which equates to, ruffly, a 33% discount. If you go often, get some of these tickets. They will save you boat loads of money over time.

Free Tickets at Fandango.com

A lot of people miss out on free movie tickets because they don’t know where to look. At Fandango.com you can almost always get a free movie ticket, even though it takes some leg work. Once you get on their site, and are browsing the local showtimes (here’s an example), you’ll see something above the showtimes that says “Get Free Ticket.” You may have already figured out what you do from here…click it…

It will take you to their program called Trialpay. It’s pretty cool if you don’t mind the hassle of signing up for things and canceling later. They have offers like Netflix, FreeCreditScore.com, Lifelock, and dozens more. I actually signed up for Netflix this way. They gave me the free trial like anything you’ll find online, but I got a free movie ticket as well. Keep in mind some of the trialpay offers cost money. If you truly want the product, go ahead and buy it, but I stick to the free trial offers that don’t cost me a cent… just make sure you cancel before you are charged.

Now do me a favor. If this has been at all helpful, I’d love to get more readers to it. Here’s a tweet you can send, or customize how you want.

For me personally, saving 100% is better than 33%, so I use trialpay. I have certainly used Costco in the past, and will certainly use them in the future, but I use trialpay as much as possible.

Google Offers and other social couponing sites

Another place I like to use to get discounts on movie tickets are sites like Google Offers, Groupon, Livingsocial, etc. These don’t come up often, but when they do I take advantage. You have to be ready to act fast, because they reach their limit quickly. Google Offers sold 40,000 tickets in the first half of the day they went on sale. They were $5 tickets, and you were limited to 2 per buyer.

Free Birthday Admission

When I started writing this post I didn’t quite realize how far I go to save on movie tickets. Pathetic? Maybe… but the last tip I have is this:

This may be a little unconventional, but if you are going to hit the movies on your birthday, then get a free birthday admission coupon on ebay. The reason I say from ebay is because they are not always easy to find, but a recent search on ebay had a free birthday admission coupon and more for $1.35 with free shipping. It’s my understanding that these tickets are good for two, so you can actually get you and a spouse/significant other/friend/stranger in for free.

Have you ever bought tickets this way before? Do you always pay full price?