by Alex Billington
June 3, 2026
20 years ago it all began. 20 years later and we’re still here. Today, FirstShowing.net celebrates its 20th Anniversary on the web! Huzzah! June 3rd, 2026 is specifically the exact 20th anniversary of the launch of this movie blog website. The very first post was published on June 3rd, 2006 – it was a quick 3 sentence post about tickets being on sale for the new Superman Returns and Cars movies opening in theaters that summer. FirstShowing originally launched as a movie blog to talk about camping out right outside a movie theater in Colorado for the opening of Superman Returns (here’s the old post about that event). All these years later, while I’m no longer camping out for movies (is anyone still doing this??), I’m still obsessed with them and always on the watch. So much has changed over these last 20 years – Hollywood has gone through some rough times, the internet is a whole different place. But what hasn’t changed is my passion for cinema, my love of the movie-going experience, and my excitement for every upcoming release (especially sci-fi) and new project in the works. Thank you for reading FS and being a part of this website over these past 20 years.
While it’s fun to look back at all the years of movies and all the movie reviews and all the movie news that we’ve published (here’s our complete archives of 20 years of posts), I prefer to always keep looking forward. Time is linear and we’re always marching onward. And let’s be honest – there’s always more movies to be excited about coming up soon. Most importantly, I’m exceptionally proud that FirstShowing still exists 20 years later. Very few websites & movie blogs that launched around the same time as this one are still around. Many of them have been bought and reconfigured into blatant content mills. Others have shut down completely. Many of my friends and colleagues have moved on from movies. Others are still trying to make a name for themselves in the industry. I would love for FirstShowing to continue on for another 20 years. But it’s tougher than it has ever been to manage a website nowadays and keep it profitable and pay our bills and do what we love doing without stressing out every day. In the past 6 years, I launched a membership service to help cover our operating costs, along with asking for donations and support during the pandemic years. Luckily we’ve been able to keep the site afloat thanks to advertising partners, updates in HTML and server software, and a focus on trailer content instead of movie news – and I hope to keep evolving with the times.
Artwork designed & created by the very talented Liza Shumska – follow her work @kino_maniac.
Here’s to 20 more years! Most importantly I would like to say – thank you so much to all of our readers, our supporters, our fans these past 20 years. I really mean it when I say – FirstShowing would not still be here with you. Every click, every share, every time you interact with this website, it makes all the difference. This website has only been able to live on for 20 years because of that support, because you keep on clicking and that brings the traffic we need to keep on going. I am grateful that the choices I’ve made, how I run this site, and my style of movie news & movie coverage has connected with anyone out there. I have always tried to keep FS a special place –less ads, less rumors, less clickbait. I have taken risks and thrown away good money because I refuse to participate in harmful trends that have ruined the internet & destroyed so many good websites. FS is also still an independent business owned & operated by Alex Billington (me!). While there have been offers, I have never sold the website because I worry that it will not be handled with the same care and concern that I’ve put into it across these past 20 years. As I have said many times before – I want FirstShowing to be an informative, useful, and exciting website that does not participate in clickbait or SEO nonsense. I don’t want it to be overun with ads or popups – it should remain free and accessible to all.
Across these 20 years, I have also grown up and evolved as well. So much that I can’t even put it all into just a few sentences. I launched FirstShowing when I was only 20 years old, during the golden era of blogging. I was just a youngster who loved going to the movies and was (and honestly still is) so obsessed with them I was camping out for the next big release. However, sadly it seems as if blogging is dead now – at least the original version of it that helped launched the careers of so many people. I have spent these last two decades completely immersed in cinema and Hollywood mania and filmmaking. It has been a honor. I am lucky it has taken me so far and become so important in my life. I have learned so much about cinema – the good and bad sides of it, what works and what doesn’t, how Hollywood marketing works (and doesn’t), what kind of films I totally love and all the others I despise. I have also spent these last two decades at film festivals, celebrating my 20th visit to Sundance earlier this year, attending festivals all over the world. I got so tired of Hollywood, I started to distance myself from Los Angeles after first moving there in 2008. I love movies, but LA really isn’t for me. Now I live in Berlin on the opposite side of the world and I love it. And yet here I am, continuing to write about movies on FirstShowing.net, continue to tell stories about cinema and update this website and the release schedule, always doing my best to keep all of you excited about movies and festivals.
Thank you for joining me on this adventure. I am glad that you are a part of it, too. Movies are not a singular experience. Movies are made by teams of people, crews and casts and technicians and artists galore. Movie theaters are just the same – we all come together, all kinds of people of all different ages and backgrounds, and sit in these palaces of storytelling to be taken away on an adventure. Cheers to another 20 years of FirstShowing, another 20 years of unforgettable movies, and to always growing and evolving and improving, and always remaining passionate and joyful and inspired. See you at the cinema.
