Having lived in US for 10+ years I am familiar with Costco discounted AMC & Century movie tickets, the phenomenon that was "MoviePass" this past year and AMC's 5$ Tuesday movies.
I love watching Hollywood movies but at least on cineman.ch movies are typically ~19CHF.
Are there budget friendly ways to watch movies in Zurich in theatres instead of at home?
That's for Kitag cinemas only: https://kitag.com/en/
There are similar cards for allmost all other cinema chains.
The "Arthouse Card"/"Kinokarte" is valid in all Arthouse cinemas, as well as in the Riff-Raff and Houdini cinemas: https://kinokarte.ch/
https://www.arthouse.ch/kinos/
The there's the Kosmos-Karte, valid at the Kosmos cinema: https://kosmos.ch/community/kosmoskarte
And at last there's the Arena-Card for all Arena cinemas:
https://arena.ch/de/sihlcity/arenacard
I'd be really glad, if the consolidated their offerings somewhat...
That's only true of Kitag. All other chains like Arthouse, Arena etc. are still cheaper on monday, although the price has gone up to 14 Fr.
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Another nice offer is the "Sneaky Sunday" at the Riff-Raff. They allways screen an upcoming movie as a preview. (Next Sunday it's "If Beale Street Could Talk" and on the 17.2. "Vice".) If you got the Kinokarte/Arthouse Card, or the Carte Blanche from Tagesanzeiger, the tickets are only 10 bucks and this includes a drink at the bar (beer, wine, prosecco or soda).