See blockbusters without breaking the bank

In a time when money is tighter than ever, one local movie theater offers to make your paycheck stretch a little further.

Touchstar Cinemas, located on East Colonial Drive near the Orlando Fashion Square Mall, offers second-run movies — usually between two to five months old — for $2.50 per viewing, and only $1 on Tuesdays.

John Leopard, one of the managers at Touchstar, said that the low ticket prices tend to bring in people who normally couldn't go to the movies.

"A lot of families can't afford $40, $50 for the family to go, but they can come here and all of them see a movie for about $10, $12 on regular days, about $5 on Tuesday," Leopard said.

Touchstar occasionally has additional $1 movie days, including this weekend.

"Saturday and Sunday all the tickets will be $1," Leopard said. "We'll be running some concession specials … $1 popcorn, $1 drinks, $1.50 hot dogs, $1.50 nachos."

Compare that to the $7.18 average ticket price in 2008, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners Web site, and the approximately $4 or $5 you'd spend on a soda, and you can see why students should know about this place.

Pritam Shah, a sophomore business major, said he didn't realize the theater existed, but for $2.50 it was definitely worth checking out.

Despite films being a bit old (right now most of the movies playing came out in late March or April), the movie selection at Touchstar is fairly well-rounded. 

Leopard said that their corporate office decides what movies they are allowed to show, but they are generally crowd pleasers.

"Action movies do really well here," Leopard said. "Horror movies do really well here, and the comedies like Role Models, I Love You, Man, those kind of slightly raunchy but funny movies."

Tim Gillmore, a senior history major, said he enjoys the theater, despite the movies being old.

"It is great to see cheap movies that have been out for a few months," Gillmore said. "I mean, they're still the same movies."

And don't think that the ticket price reflects the quality of the theater. While there isn't stadium seating or 3-D movies, Touchstar is working on upgrades.

"Auditorium No. 5 has all digital sound, several other theaters have Dolby surround sound," Leopard said. "We're old, but the theater's clean, and a lot of people say they like coming here better than anywhere else."