Regal Cinemas is offering a special bonus to its mobile application users during its 2017 year-long classic film festival.

The theater chain will be showing 14 classic films chosen by Turner Classic Movies over the course of 2017. Customers can purchase a year-long pass to see these films, with a few bonuses for Regal’s loyalty users.

“Regal is excited to partner with Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies on this TCM Big Screen Classics Series Pass, and offer our guests a chance to see these timeless favorites at a valuable price,” said Ray Nutt, senior vice president of business relations at Regal Entertainment Group.

Cinema vérité
While a massive wealth of films are available for purchase and on home video, many viewers sometimes prefer seeing a good film on the big screen.

But if a movie-lover was not lucky enough to see a film when it first came out, their chance to see it on the big screen is gone.

Regal is attempting to do something about that for lovers of classic films.

This year, Regal Cinemas is teaming up with Turner Classic Movies to turn back the clock and give visitors the chance to see a variety of classic films in theater.

Fourteen of these films will be playing at Regal theaters around the country. Customers who want to attend these films can purchase a pass that will get them into every showing for $50.

These passes are only available in limited quantity. The first 1,000 customers to pay will get a season pass that gets them admission to all 14 films over the course of the year.

But Regal is offering a special bonus to viewers who are a part of the brand’s mobile loyalty club, the Crown Club. Every Crown Club member who purchases a $50 pass will also receive 5,000 bonus points on their rewards account.

These points can be redeemed for a variety of prizes, including movie tickets and concessions.

By offering this bonus, Regal is leveraging its loyalty programs to drive foot traffic to this limited-time event.

Mobile ordering
For general release films, movie theaters do not actually make much money from the ticket sales themselves. Instead, theaters make the majority of their money from concessions and other theater-specific products.

For that reason, it is important for the industry and individual theaters to offer their own special events and promotions to drive sales.

Regal is taking this approach directly with the launch of its classic film festival, an effort to bring more customers into the theater and to offer a unique cinematic experience. The chain is leveraging its mobile platform to help encourage consumers to come in.

Other theater chains have begun using mobile to help boost concession sales. AMC Theaters recently partnered with mobile movie ticketing app Atom Tickets to offer mobile concessions ordering, allowing consumers to skip the line and go straight to their food and to their seats (see story).

As the year goes on, the amount of season pass tickets sold will reflect how viable this strategy is, or if Regal should have done more to promote the event than a point bonus for loyalty users.

“Many of these films are celebrating milestone anniversaries, and there is no better time to re-watch or catch them for the first time than in the movie theater,” Mr. Nutt said.