First movie in a theater–Them! 1954.
First movie on tv–black and white cowboy movies made in the late 1930’s/early 1940’s.
We didn’t have color until way after the annual showings had halted so the transition between Kansas and Oz was totally lost, as well as the “horse of a different color” gag. I didn’t see Wizard of Oz in color at all until I saw it on the big screen at a film club. Then I understood what all the fuss was about. A few years ago a nearby theater showed Oz. I had to talk DesertRoomie into seeing it (“I’ve seen it a million times on television.” “You haven’t seen it at all.”) – hell, it was only three bucks and they included a small bag of popcorn. She thanked me later.
Earliest movie I can recall by title was the animated Animal Farm at a drive-in. It was paired with the Fleischer brothers’ Gulliver’s Travels that had to have been dragged out of the vault, but I fell asleep during that one.
I vaguely remember a movie that might have been earlier but I haven’t been able to track it down. It involved a family on a passenger ship that caught fire or something blew up on. The ship wasn’t in immanent danger of sinking but it was fraught with danger. I mainly remember a scene with a tyke trapped in a cabin with most of the deck missing so it was open to the cabin below and there were flames licking around the hole. Two adults were trying to coax her along the narrow edge left by the bulkhead and she wasn’t buying it.
It was in color and – no – it wasn’t any of the Titanic movies.
101 Dalmatians, with my parents at the old Oxford drive-in in Maine. That probably wasn’t the first, but it’s the earliest I remember.
First film(s) I ever saw at a theater must have been around '61 or so, and was, as I recall, a double bill of Mothra and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, even though since then I’ve always had the impression that Disney films didn’t normally double up with non-Disney flicks. Quite a lot of spectacular imagery, though: I took the idea of a city-sized moth pretty calmly, but those tiny little singing girls freaked me right on out. I sometimes wonder if they didn’t inspire the Lady in the Radiator in David Lynche’s Eraserhead.
Searching back through old Disney movies I remember seeing as a kid, I’m saying it’s probably The Jungle Book in its original release in 1967. I would have been six.
The first in a theater was definatly Disney’s “The Black Cauldron”. I remember for weeks beforehand, wanting to see this movie more than anything in the world, due to blanket media advertising on TV, newspapers, tie-in toys in cereal boxes etc. Even at five, I was a sucker.
Before this, I remember seeing on TV a scary black-and-white movie, sort of a tales-of-the-crypt effort. It had a Vincent Price-ish narrator, who bookended several short horror movies. The only one I clearly remember veatures a guy whose life is somehow tied in with a ticking clock. I distinctly remember this guy running round a cemetary in a storm, as the clock ticking grows louder and louder. Anyone name this? It could have been a tv series either. Frightened the crap outa me. Very Possibly a dream.
You sure were. It was an awful film.
The Jungle Book. I was four or five-ish. I’m sure MommaHomie took me to movie before that, but that’s the one I remember.
It would have been a revival, as it originally came out about 3 years before I was born.
I saw Escape to Witch Mountain in 1975 as well (I was 8). The same year I saw Jaws and The Hindenburg. I remember E2WM more than Hindenburg, but Jaws was the best of the 3 by far.
Flipper with Chuck Conners. I thought that was so cool to live on a beach.
Maybe you saw it in a school auditorium. Movies like Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Old Yeller, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I remember seeing projected on the big screen, but I wasn’t born yet for any of them. They were all part of some kind of school field trip. So we saw them projected on the big screen, but not in a movie theatre during teir actual theatrical release.
In particular I remember seeing Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day in a high school auditorium when I was in the first grade. A kid in my class pooped his pants because he was afraid to go into the highschool bathroom.
Walt Disney’s The Shaggy Dog. I remember holding the “My Little Golden Book” based on the film, standing in the rain to get tickets, and seeing Fred McMurray switch into the dog.
My mom started taking me to movies pretty much since I escaped the womb (1974). I was quiet and well behaved, and not easily disturbed by mature content, so we saw a lot of movies together of all types. It’s hard to pin down which one came first, or which ones I actually saw in the theater as opposed to on tv. My best bet, based on memory and wiki would be Star Wars (1977) although looking at my list it looks like 1982 was the year I really started doing the movie thing. Other films I associate with seeing in the theater in early childhood are:
Star Wars (1977)
Jaws (or Jaws 2?) (1975/1978)
Superman (1978)
Muppet Movie (1979)
Alien (1979)
Amityville Horror (1979)
Star Trek (1979)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
9 to 5 (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Superman II (1981)
Quest for Fire (1981)
Chariots of Fire (1981)
Time Bandits (1981)
ET (1982)
Annie (1982)
The Dark Crystal (1982)
Summer Lovers (1982)
Fanny & Alexander (1982)
Poltergeist (1982)
Victor Victoria (1982)
Places in the Heart (1984)
There used to be four movie theaters in my town, now there is one. The best one was the “dollar theater” which was still a dollar as late as 1984 since I remember they had to raise it temporarily above a dollar just for the very long “Places in the Heart”. That one became a Blockbuster Video. Another one also became a Blockbuster Video but eventually was paved over to make a parking lot. A third was turned into a community stage theater (I’ve heard that before it was a regular theater it was a naughty film place). The fourth is still a theater, and was a twin theater when I was a kid but has since expanded to 6 or so screens.
Other films I associate with early childhood but can’t recall if I was actually in the theater:
Wizard of Oz
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
The Black Hole
Snow White
Jungle Book
Peter Pan
Herbie
Benji
Rocky
Freaky Friday
The Rescuers
Saturday Night Fever
Grease
Midnight Express
Escape to (Return from?) Witch Mountain
WhyNot, thanks 
What a nice ending – now I want to go out and rent it!
On TV, The Wizard of Oz
First film in a theater, Mary Poppins, 1964
I saw The Sword in the Stone in the theater, too, but I’m pretty sure it was after Poppins.
Probably third film in a theater was The Sound of Music, 1965
At the Drive-In theater I remember Born Free, 1966, and The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming, also '66. (That might even have been a double feature) Then Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, 1968.