I was going to say I loved Flight of the Navigator when I was a kid, but that’s just not possible if it was released in 1986 and I was born in 1966. Damn. I guess I’ll have to fess up to liking it (and Willow, FTR) when I was 20ish.
Anyhoo, I bought Flight of the Navigator on DVD a few months ago, and either it or I haven’t aged well.
It was probably not the first, but The Thing (1951) scared the hell out of me as a lad.
Disney’s That Darn Cat. I may have been taken to the cinema before that - and I almost certainly slept through some drive-in movies before then, but *That Darn Cat *was the first movie I really watched. I loved it, and my very indulgent (of some things) mother took me back to see every matinee before it left town at the end of the week. I think I was four.
Ah, that must have been it. Thanks!
I think I saw The Abyss at a drive in, but I barely remember it because it was late and I fell asleep.
The Lion King was the first movie I saw without my parents.
Maybe The Little Mermaid. I was 7 when it came out, so if that’s not the right answer, it’s probably close.
Well, er, my step-brother took me to see Billy Jack when I was six.
I’m pretty sure that I would’ve seen The Wizard of Oz during its usual Easter showings on CBS prior to that, but Billy Jack is the first movie I remember seeing.
At the drive-in, nonetheless.
My mom tells me that the first movie I saw in a theaterwas Lady and the Tramp, but I don’t remember it.
I remember seeing ads for Star Wars on TV, and wanting to see it, and knowing we were going to see it, and I remember having seen it and playing with my Star Wars toys, but I don’t remember actually sitting in the theater watching it, even though I’m pretty sure I saw it at least twice in its first theatrical run.
I do remember seeing Jaws, though. So maybe that was earlier - they were both around the same time.
ETA: having read other posts, I think it might have been Escape to Witch Mountain. I remember seeing that one (the little purse the girl had that opened up). Since that predated Star Wars by a couple of years, that would probably be my first memory of seeing a film in a theater.
Nitpick: Jessica Lange.
The first one I saw without some sort of parental figure (parent, grandparent, etc.) was Johnny Be Good when I was 13. By gum, was that a *terrible *movie! Also the first time I saw bare breasts on screen, and I felt horribly, terribly naughty. I remember slinking into the house hoping it didn’t show on my face like I had just lost my virginity or something.
Yep, and it did scare the crap out of me too. According to IMDB, I was two when it was released…surely Mom wouldn’t have taken me and I wouldn’t remember it back then. Re-release, I suppose.
Wow, that’s tough… let’s see… one of the following, probably, but I don’t recall what order I would’ve seen them in, I understood little of what I was watching at the time & fell asleep during some of them:
a) Mary Poppins
b) Those Magnificent Men & Their Flying Machines (?)
c) It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World
I assumed she meant Faye Wray, who was in the first one. (1933)
The first movie I remember seeing was Mighty Joe Young when I was about 4. It came on the late show. I couldn’t sleep and wandered into the living room. It had just started and my parents let me stay up to watch it with them. I absolutely loved the movie. Not long after that I saw King Kong but it didn’t have as big of an impression on me. Being that young, I confused the two movies. So every time we went near downtown Houston I started looking for King Kong climbing the skyscrapers. Of course, my father egged it on by suddenly exclaiming “Look! There’s King Kong!” I would swivel around and be desperately looking. I wanted to save Kong from all of the bad people.
The first movie I remember seeing at a theater was Jaws when I was around 6. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. I was so engrossed in it. It’s still one of my favorite movies.
I was torn between The Land Before Time, Bambi and Cinderella. After some IMDB work I saw that while the first two were in '88, the Cinderella re-release was in late '87. I only remember the mice singing on the big screen from Cinderella though. Those songs were always so damn addictive.
The earliest movie I remember was “The Birdman of Alcatraz”, watched on late-night TV when I was up later than usual because I was sick. It made an impact. My parents used to load us kids up in the station wagon and go to the drive-in. I remember seeing “Yours, Mine and Ours”.
StG
Empire Strikes Back, I was 4 and I remember pissing in my pants because I had to go but didn’t want to miss the fight scene at the end.
Mine was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which I completely loved and which began my lifelong interest in smart sarcastic guys. 
To this day I still have a crush on Gene Wilder’s Wonka.
I didn’t get to see the last few minutes, though, because they kid with us was having some kind of tantrum and my mom made us leave (he was about 4–I was about 6). It was several years before I finally got to see the end, and my 6-year-old self never really forgave little Ryan for not holding his outburst for about 10 more minutes.
The first movie I’m sure was some Disney flick - “Show White” or “Alice In Wonderland” or “Fantasia” - all of which I saw in theaters as a little kid, but I don’t remember in which one I saw first.
The first adult film I saw was Death on the Nile, which coincidentally I just rented. It was nowhere near as good as I remembered it.
Funny thing though, it was the first time I’d seen most of those actors - Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, Mia Farrow, David Niven - and even in such a weak film they all left impressions on me. For years afterward, every time I saw them I would think of them as being from that film, as if that was their biggest role ever.
Star Wars for me as well. I think it was in 1983 (born in 1980) prior to the release of ROTJ.