Cinemas will have a lovely time-travel vibe to them this weekend. Some are screening one of the most joyful films of my childhood, a fish-out-of-water classic in which a group of people from the 23rd century wind up in 1986, but that’s only one reason why. The other is that it’s National Cinema Weekend, and tickets for most screenings will cost €4. So retro.

Led by a cross-industry group called Cinema First, this weekend is an extension of the National Cinema Day initiative that has run in Britain and Ireland since 2022, and it’s a good thing, a great thing and not a sign of desperation at all.

Five stars from me, and let’s not worry about the fact that an increasing pool of people would rather watch free but glitchy, distraction-filled illegal streams than pay to sit still in a darkened auditorium for a couple of hours, as the gods of cinema intended.

Popcorn expenses are not included in this maths and, as ever, may require a small loan. But, at many cinemas, €4 represents just a quarter of the usual evening-time cost, meaning anyone in a position to cancel all other operations in their lives could go to see four films this weekend for the price of one and come away happy, if a little cold from the overly zealous air conditioning you get in cinemas these days.

Technically, Irish screenings were never €4 on a regular basis, as average prices had already edged past that sum by the time the euro was introduced, in 2002. It was the mid-1990s when prices were the equivalent amount in Irish pounds. That feels like a long time ago, and it is, but ticket inflation since the turn of the century is still staggering to contemplate.

Irish people are flocking back to the cinema. What’s going on?

Cinemas have edged up their prices so cleverly and consistently over the years that you forget what it used to cost. When I was at the Irish Film Institute last week I was struck by a promotion for its year-round offer of €5 screenings for holders of its 25 & Under card – an amazing deal – and spent a solid 10 minutes wishing I could have availed of prices that cheap when I was under 25. If only cinemas had felt a more urgent need to retain the custom of my generation, I thought.

My second thought was I’m so ancient that prices probably were about €5 when I was in my early 20s. Then I remembered I’m a hoarder and I can check. My box of old ticket stubs tells me I paid €5.25 to see a weekday matinee of “Sweet Hom” – Sweet Home Alabama – in December 2002 at UGC Cinemas, the site of what is now Cineworld Dublin.

At the same cinema I went to a morning screening of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason in November 2004 for a mere €4.50. In January 2004 I paid €7.50 for an evening showing of “Girl With” – Girl With a Pearl Earring – at the Screen Cinema (RIP), while as late as September 2005 I could still spend an afternoon indulging in “Pride & P” – the brilliant one with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen – at Cineworld for €6.80.

From the archive: A farewell to Dublin’s Screen and the rest of the old-school arthouse cinemas

There was one outlier, datewise, in my collection. I still have a stub for True Lies at the Savoy (its glorious old Screen One, RIP) on a Sunday evening in August 1994. It was so popular we could only get seats right up the front and spent the film staring up. The price, according to the invoice-like paper my ticket is printed on, makes me want to weep. It was £2.50.

Today, special weekends excepting, cinemas actually make a virtue of high prices. I roll my eyes at chains that specialise in premium tiers that invite filmgoers to “upgrade” their seats to something vaguely comfortable.

But I am a sucker for those pricier formats. I will pay €19 to see The Testament of Ann Lee in 70mm at the Irish Film Institute. I will pay €20.94 to see One to One: John & Yoko in the Imax at Cineworld. I’m not so keen to pay €21.99 to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day in Cineworld’s “sensory cinema” 4DX format – I prefer nonvibrating chairs – but that’s what it costs for the pleasure.

This increasing focus on premium formats reveals the real challenge for the industry. It needs to offer experiences that can’t be replicated at home. It needs hype. And, somewhat alarmingly, it needs reminders of the very concept of cinemagoing. So all releases will be going cheap on Saturday and Sunday thanks to National Cinema Weekend.

I’ll be succumbing to nostalgia at the 40th-anniversary re-release of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, forgetting about my fantasy of a disposable income that keeps pace with the cost of living for a while, and laughing as I watch a 1980s-bound Kirk and Spock ponder the meaning of “exact change”.