The film student’s dilemma: I want to go to the theater, but dropping $10 every time I want to see a movie doesn’t exactly mesh with my “broke college student” budget.
The solution? The magical world of pre-screenings. You’ve probably gotten emails from the Film/TV department about a couple, but if you keep an eye out, a good amount of movies will have free promotional screenings a few weeks before they come out in theaters. Most of the time they do them to build hype, so the most you’ll have to do is fill out a slip with what you thought of the movie.
Check a few of these sites:
- Gofobo.com – probably the best website to check, you can put in your zip code and it will tell you all the screenings and how to get into them. (The majority are open to the public, but some are based on contests)
- Advancescreenings.com – Similar to Gofobo, but it seems like gofobo usually has a longer list.
- Facebook – A lot of studios have on-campus reps, and they’ll have Facebook pages like Universal at BU or Warner Bros. at BU. They’ll post about screenings that are exclusive to BU students, so just bring your ID along and you’re good to go.
An added bonus of some of these screenings is that actors/directors will come along and do Q&A’s sometimes, so you can do a quick write-up and count it as a cinematheque. (Plus bragging rights to your friends when you get a selfie with actors.) You’d be surprised by the amount of big-name movies that have screenings—so far this semester I’ve gotten to see Black Mass and The Martian, and Steve Jobs is having one at the theater by the common this Thursday (10/8).
