Promotional screenings are marketing tools that studios use to help generate awareness for the movie through mainstream media. These types of screenings will happen in most major cities across America and in Canada. Tickets for these screenings are given away through contests or sweepstakes by local radio, television or newspapers. Studios leverage the free tickets in exchange for the opportunity to be mentioned through the media. For example, when a radio station announces “Win Tickets to a special advance screening of Spiderman”, all radio listeners will hear the name of the movie, even through only a small number of tickets may actually be given away. This becomes a win-win as the radio station is able to provide exclusive screening tickets to its listeners and the movie studio saves money because they are not paying for an advertisement.

Some of the online forums often have people who report the latest promotions in each city. Most promotional partners will require that you are a winner, sign up on the partner’s website or attend an event and receive tickets in a giveaway. While the rise of e-ticketing is making it much easier to download tickets from home, some of the promotional partners may require winners to drive to their office and sign a waiver before they can receive the tickets.