Cineplex Coquitlam With Kids on $5 Weekend
Five dollars a ticket
On Saturday, September 5, I took my kids to Cineplex Cinemas Coquitlam and VIP.
They had only ever watched PAW Patrol on YouTube at home. When I found out the new movie was in theatres, and that Cineplex was running its $5 Weekend on exactly those two days, the math stopped being a question. Twenty dollars for a family of four is not a decision you agonize over.
Short version: the movie was good and the theatre was good. But if you are taking small kids to this particular cinema for the first time, there are a few things worth knowing before you walk in.
What the $5 Weekend actually was, conditions included
Get the conditions right or you will be surprised at the counter.
- Dates: Saturday September 5 and Sunday September 6, 2026, at Cineplex theatres across Canada
- Price: general admission $5, small popcorn $5, plus tax
- ★ That $5 is the in-theatre price. Buying online adds a booking fee of up to $1.50, so an online general admission ticket runs up to $6.50. Scene+ members pay a $1 fee; CineClub subscribers pay none.
- Premium upgrades available: UltraAVX, IMAX, D-BOX, 4DX, ScreenX, RealD 3D and VIP can all be upgraded to for an additional fee
- Excluded: 70MM performances (including IMAX 70MM), non-feature films, and Cineplex Events performances
- A portion of proceeds goes to the Canadian Picture Pioneers, a charity supporting people who work in Canada’s motion picture industry
There is really only one decision here: line up, or pay the $1.50.
Buying at the theatre saves $1.50 per ticket, which is six dollars for a family of four. But $5 Weekend draws a crowd. If you are walking in with two small children and “we’ll just catch the next showing” is not an option, six dollars for a guaranteed seat is cheap. That is not a money calculation. It is a kid-patience calculation.
When does the $5 deal come back? The pattern so far
If you missed this one, that is fine. Cineplex does not publish an annual calendar for its $5 promotions, but over the last two years they have come around twice a year: once in winter, once at the end of summer.
Winter — $5 Tuesdays
- 2025: January 14 to February 11, every Tuesday
- 2026: January 20 to February 24, every Tuesday
End of summer — $5 Weekend
- 2025: Saturday August 30 and Sunday August 31, branded that year as `$5 Summer Wrap Up`
- 2026: Saturday September 5 and Sunday September 6, over the Labour Day long weekend
So the shape is a run of Tuesdays in January and February, plus one weekend in late August or early September. If you are reading this in the fall or winter, the next one is most likely the January Tuesdays. Cineplex has never guaranteed the same dates twice, though, so check the official announcement around mid-January.
If you have kids, the winter $5 Tuesdays are the better deal. They run for five or six weeks, so you can pick your date, and they are less crowded than a single promo weekend.
Where it is, and parking
- Address: 170 Schoolhouse Street, Coquitlam, BC V3K 4X9
- Phone: (604) 523-2911
- Parking: surface parking around the theatre plus underground parking
Driving is the easy way in. If you are taking transit instead, start with the fare structure in the Vancouver transit and Compass Card guide for newcomers.
The auditoriums are split into three wings
This is the first thing you run into with kids. The entrances are split into cinemas 1–5, cinemas 6–10, and cinemas 11–20. The lobby is big, and if you start walking without checking your ticket, you will cross the whole thing and come back.
Read the auditorium number on your ticket before you move. That one step decides whether you catch the trailers.
The 6–10 entrance sits next to Backstage Bistro and a Starbucks beverage counter. Washrooms are right beside each entrance, which makes the pre-movie bathroom stop easy.
The 11–20 entrance is on the other side of the lobby. If your ticket has a two-digit number on it, head this way.
ScreenX and VIP — what a $5 ticket can become
This location has a ScreenX auditorium, which extends the picture onto the side walls for a 270-degree view. During $5 Weekend you can upgrade into it for an extra fee.
You cannot bring kids into VIP. Cineplex VIP auditoriums are restricted to guests of legal drinking age — 19 and over in British Columbia — regardless of the film’s rating, and valid physical government ID may be required. The seats look great, but book VIP with a six-year-old and you will be turned around at the door.
There is a CineClub display in the lobby. It is a monthly subscription that includes a ticket credit each month, and because it waives the online booking fee, subscribers effectively get $5 online tickets with reserved seating during a promotion like this. Worth running the numbers if your household goes more than twice a month.
You will walk past the arcade
One side of the lobby is a full arcade: ticket redemption machines, claw machines, racing cabinets, all lit and pitched exactly at kid height.
You do not simply walk past this. We got caught on the way in and again on the way out. Decide the rule before you enter the building — “one game after the movie, that’s it.” If you negotiate in the lobby, the kids win.
PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie — the story
This is the third PAW Patrol feature, a Canadian film directed by Cal Brunker, who made the previous two. Released August 14, 2026. Runtime 88 minutes. Rated PG for mild action and peril.
The setup: after rescuing a family from a boat fire, the pups get caught in a storm and wash up on an island inhabited by dinosaurs. There they meet Rex, a pup stranded on the island for years who has learned how to communicate with the dinosaurs.
Rex is a Bernese Mountain Dog who uses a wheelchair. He was introduced in the show’s Dino Rescue arc, and the film handles him with real care — several reviews singled that out as the thing the movie gets right. Your kid will ask why that dog is on wheels, and the film answers for you.
Meanwhile Humdinger, freshly out of jail, discovers a diamond reserve on the island, recruits a hunter and a demolitions expert, and sets off enough dynamite to wake a volcano. With the whole island in danger, the pups are pulled into rescues on a scale far bigger than anything they have handled before.
That is as far as I will go without spoiling it.
For what it is worth, audiences gave it an A on CinemaScore. Critics were split, but the grade that matters here is the one from the people who brought kids.
Watching it with a six-year-old and a four-year-old
Both of them stayed locked on the screen for all 88 minutes. The four-year-old never once asked to leave, which by itself makes this a successful outing in my house.
The look of it is genuinely different from the YouTube episodes they watch at home. The scenes where a dinosaur fills the screen are the reason to see this one in a theatre rather than on a tablet. The sound too.
There are moments that could scare a younger child — an erupting volcano, a couple of dinosaur chases. Neither of mine cried or got upset, and at ages four and six I think most kids will be fine.
One honest confession: I dozed off for about five minutes in the middle. Other than that, I enjoyed it as much as they did.
A short checklist for going with kids
- Check the auditorium number first — entrances split into 1–5, 6–10 and 11–20
- Washroom before you go in — they are beside each auditorium entrance
- Buy two small popcorns, not one large — two $5 smalls cause fewer arguments than one big bag shared four ways
- Do not book VIP — 19 and over only
- Agree on the arcade budget in advance — deciding in the lobby is too late
- The box office opens about 30 minutes before the first advertised showing — plan around that if you want the in-theatre $5 price
- Parking is surface plus underground — on a busy promo weekend, go underground
Wrapping up
The movie is worth it, and so is Cineplex Coquitlam.
A promotion like $5 Weekend lands differently when you have kids. Normally you look at four tickets and think “maybe we just watch something at home this weekend.” At five dollars a seat that calculation disappears and you simply go. If you like this kind of value math, the Wendy’s 2 for $4 breakfast in Canada post is the same idea.
And if you are looking for somewhere to take the kids when the weather is better, try Alouette Lake at Golden Ears without a day-use pass.
If this was useful, share it or bookmark it — pull it back up the next time a $5 promotion comes around.
I can survive. We can survive.
