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So happy that you helped me remember that early cinematic experience. There would be many more outdoor movies in my life, but I still remember the first. Bravo!

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I remember well my first cinematic experience. At the age of 4, I was sitting in the cinema with my parents, engrossed in the 1986 film King Kong Lives. Among the scenes, I vaguely remember King Kong getting a heart transplant, and that image left an indelible mark on my young mind. Strangely, I don't remember being offered any snacks, but considering it was a provincial cinema in the USSR, perhaps that was the norm. Interestingly, years later, the cinema closed its doors, giving way to the church that now stands in its place.

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Thank you so much for sharing this Elena. Do you remember the name of the cinema? or the church so I can take a look?

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That was over 30 years ago. Even the internet couldn't remember the name of the cinema. I heard it went bankrupt, and for a long time, it was just a pile of rubble. Then, they put up a church in its place. I haven't been back to those parts in ages. But when I see the pictures on Google Maps, it's like time hasn't moved at all there. It's like someone's memory of a town, you know, like Rust Cohle said. You can try to see the photo at the Google Maps link https://maps.app.goo.gl/uazHDD4FvmPteBQLA?g_st=ic

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Star Wars was (I think) my first proper grown-up cinema experience. It was in 1977, it was subtitled in Greek, I was right near the front (THE SCREEN WAS THE WHOLE WORLD) and it was in a cinema in Nicosia, Cyprus, in the south side of the city, in what is now called the Republic Of Cyprus. At the time my dad was coming to the end of his stint in the United Nations as an RAF aircraft technician, and the following year we'd leave for England. So I didn't know it at the time, but Star Wars was my introduction to the wider world - well, that and the National Geographics I'd been obsessing over since my dad started having them delivered. I don't even think I was aware was science fiction *was* until that viewing of Star Wars. I understood about half of it, and Princess Leia made me feel a bit funny, and I loved every second.

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My earliest memory is seeing Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome when I was around 3, I think. I think I couldn't sit still in the theater, and we got ushered out the door. My dad and older brother were not happy.

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Haha. Thanks for this Mikhail. I hope you made it up to them 😅

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This was fun to read! The first movie I saw in the theater was The Empire Strikes Back. I was probably around 7 years old. It's still my favorite Star Wars episode to this day. :)

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Thank you Steph. I bet that was mind blowing to see!

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Mar 24Liked by Gareth Bradwick

Loved this. My grandad and me went to see a Spider-Man film together where the storyline is that people have these badges at a conference and they are all getting hypnotised. We loved it and left the cinema ready to take on the bad guys. Thanks for this.

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The Lion King was my first cinema memory (1994). I think I've probably told you this story before, but we went to McDonalds before the film and I got a Happy Meal with a toy of Scar which I remember I loved until the film finished and I found out Scar was the bad guy...

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