When I was a kid, you paid $2 and you could go all summer. It was downtown, and we would hitch a ride, or someone would take us. We would waste many a day in the dark throwing popcorn. About 4 hours later, someones Mom would pick us up. Try that now.
In the mid 1970’s my wife told me their thing was being dropped off at Southcenter Mall near Seattle. Try THAT now.
My Mother did that in the 1960’s, the movies were her babysitter. My brother and I saw everything that came out, cost us 25 cents a piece and you could stay and watch the film as many times as you wanted and we did. To this day we can quote dialogue from movies. We saw the very first James Bond movie in 1962, I was 7 my brother 5 and it was amazing.
In my teens then, if you went to the movies on a date, you sat in the front row of the tier so everyone could see you.