Discounted Movie Tickets for All
By Colin McMahon | October 26, 2026
Students at UAlbany can access cheaper movie tickets fast just by heading to the Campus Center.
Want a movie ticket? Fast, affordable, and quick?
If so, head to the Student Association office in Campus Center West B84 where Shannon Beal and Ash Lundburg are offering movie tickets to students for $9.25, a 40-50% discount.
For a ScreenX or IMAX film, Regal will charge the difference, typically $8-9, according to a Regal employee.
Beal, Executive Office Manager of the Student Association, said she and Lundburg buy around 200 to 500 tickets in bulk from Regal using budgeted money from the Student Association’s activity fee on an as-needed basis. This turns out to being a few times a year, depending on how many they buy each purchase. Tickets are $9, with the 25-cent profit flowing back toward reimbursing the activity fee.
The tickets can be used at any Regal cinema in the country.
“The more people find out, the more they come in,” said Beal, adding that the ticket-discount program is still recovering from pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.
After COVID, when students returned to campus, “a lot of people didn’t realize we had the deal,” said Beal. She added that pre-COVID ticket sales could reach as high as 200 or more on Friday nights.
Now, Beal and Lundburg sell about 20 tickets during peak days.
Across the country, movie theaters are inching toward audience levels seen before the pandemic, which shut down theaters and gave a boost to streaming services. Ticket sales in 2025 reached more than 50% average pre-COVID levels, up from ~20% in 2020, according to Pew Research Center.
Despite the $17.99 movie ticket price without the SA discount, 87% of Gen Z, a demographic largely composed of college students, saw at least one movie in 2025, according to a Fandango Study.
They’ve turned up to movies more consistently and frequently than any other generation.
Beal said she hopes they show up for the discounted tickets, adding there’s been a “steady increase” from pre-pandemic levels.
The deal has been going on since before Beal’s time, who’s spent more than 10 years in her position.
When she first started, the discounted tickets were $7. Prices have risen with inflation.
Every year, the Student Association votes on whether or not to make that fee mandatory. Most years it’s voted to be made mandatory, as it provides extra money to the budget, which then returns to the students through events and programs.
Shannon and Ash accept credit and debit, but not cash. Certain credit cards may charge an extra small rate. American Express outlies with a rate of 5%, but most credit cards generally charge 2.5-3% more.
Shannon and Ash said they plan on continuing the deal indefinitely, as long as people keep buying the tickets. Each ticket a student buys pays for itself.
This year has been productive for the theater industry. Indie, and small-budget films have been breaking through to the top of movie-goer’s lists, looking at films like "Obsession," "Iron Lung," "Backrooms," and "Marty Supreme" on the rating platform Letterboxd.
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