Here’s how to get tickets to the 'Bill & Ted’s' screening at Metrocenter

Better get a move on if you'd like to attend, dudes.

May 10, 2023

Alex Winter (left) and Keanu Reeves (right) as Bill S. Preston, Esq., and “Ted” Theodore Logan. Alamy Stock Photo

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Want to see "Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure" at Metrocenter before the iconic and now-defunct north Phoenix mall is torn down? You’d better get a move on, dudes.

Harkins Theatres is presenting a special screening of the 1989 sci-fi comedy at its Metrocenter 12 multiplex on Sunday, May 21, as part of a farewell party for the mall, which is set to be demolished this summer.

The screening will start at 5:45 p.m. Tickets are $5 each (plus a $1.75 processing fee) through the Harkins website and are already going fast.

It's not surprising, given the beloved status of both Metrocenter and "Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.'

Back in 1987, the mall was one of several businesses in the Phoenix area used as locations for the film, which respectively starred Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves as protagonists Bill S. Preston, Esq., and “Ted” Theodore Logan. Valley landmarks like Mesa’s Golfland Sunsplash and Coronado High School in Scottsdale stood in for locations in San Dimas, California, the setting for the movie.
In the case of Metrocenter, it became the San Dimas Mall, a place where Abraham Lincoln, Socrates, Billy the Kid, Gengis Kahn, and other legendary figures recruited by Bill and Ted killed time before helping the pair with their history report.

The scenes offer a glimpse of Metrocenter at the height of its popularity when it was brimming with shops and attractions like its famed ice rink. The mall, which originally opened in 1973 and became a favorite hangout for generations of Valley residents, gradually transformed into a ghost town over the following decades before permanently closing in 2020.

Earlier this year, Metrocenter's owners revealed the 70-acre property will be demolished and redeveloped into multifamily housing, restaurants, retail spaces, and a park.

Last month, the city of Phoenix announced plans to hold a farewell party for the mall that originally included an outdoor screening of "Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure."

Phoenix New Times was unable to reach a Harkins Theatre spokesperson for an explanation why the Metrocenter screening was moved indoors.

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Benjamin Leatherman is a staff writer for Phoenix New Times where he focuses primarily on arts, culture, music and nightlife. He joined New Times in 2003. Prior to that, he contributed to magazines such as Tips & Tricks and The Wrestler. Benjamin has earned multiple awards from the Arizona Press Club including an award for sports enterprise reporting in 2009 and an award for statewide arts reporting in 2014. He holds a bachelor’s of arts in journalism from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Contact: Benjamin Leatherman

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