If it's Tuesday, There Must be a Long Line At New CIty Movie Theater

Although Tuesdays are typically reserved for the release of new albums, DVDs and video games, at the Clarkstown Mall Shopping Center in New City Tuesday is movie day.

At various points on any Tuesday, there will be a line running along a good portion of the shopping center, sometimes spreading as far as from Clearview Cinema 6 all the way down to C-Town.

This movie-going horde descends upon the shopping center on Tuesdays thanks to the Optimum Rewards Program from Optimum Online, the Internet service provider. On the other six days of the week, presenting the rewards card at any Clearview Cinemas will get you up to four movie tickets at a discounted price. But on Tuesdays, presenting the card will get you two free tickets to a movie at a Clearview Cinema.

And so thanks to that, multiple employees of Clearview Cinema 6 agree that Tuesdays are by far the busiest day of the week every week. With the busiest day of the week, of course, come lines.

"You have to get here early, or the movies will all sell out," said Junior Dastine of Spring Valley.

Junior and his wife Marie said they come to the New City theater mostly every Tuesday to take advantage of the free tickets. Last night, they went to see the 7:30 p.m. showing of "The Other Guys."

"We got the tickets at around 1:30 this afternoon," he said.

It was roughly around 1:30 p.m. when all shows of "The Other Guys" sold out. The remaining shows for that day were at 2:30, 5:00, 7:30 and 9:50. By early evening, all movies had sold out except for the 9:40 showing of "Cats & Dogs," which isn't completely free because of additional charges for 3D.

The line at 1:30 wasn't too bad, Dastine said, and estimated the longest they've waited on line for tickets to a movie on a Tuesday was about a half hour.

"Oh, no, much longer than that," Marie said. "We've waited more than an hour before."

She estimated the longest she's waited on line was close to an hour and a half, although she added that the combination of free movie tickets and the enjoyment sprung from seeing one of the "Sex and the City" movies made the wait well worth it.

Dastine and Junior estimated that they come to the theater about three times a month on days other than Tuesdays, and always use the rewards card to get discounts. Others, though, only go to Cinema 6 on Tuesdays.

"I don't," said Nanuet's Scott See when asked how frequently he comes to Cinema 6 on non-Tuesdays.

See was with his two young songs after just seeing "Cats & Dogs," which they both enjoyed. He said he likes to bring them in the summer because they have earlier show times.

It was forgetting about those earlier show times that led Jill S., also of Nanuet, to miss out on going to the movies last week.

"I forgot they open earlier over the summer and went over at around 1, but they were sold out," she said.

She said she and her husband go to the theater on Tuesdays frequently, as a date night, but never go on other days of the week. After forgetting about the early opening last week, she made sure not to miss out on seeing last night's 7 p.m. showing on "Inception." She got there to buy tickets at around 10 a.m.

"The wait wasn't too bad," she said. "It was only like 20 or 25 minutes."