TOD:
My mother has assured me she took me with her to the movies every week for the first several years of my life...and at least monthly after that. She says I "saw" a lot of films, including "An American in Paris" and "Singin' in the Rain."
My memory, however, marks three (count 'em 3) films as the "first" I saw. They are indivisible because I don't know which was first. They were all from 1956, though.
My memories are extremely vivid: I saw "Anastasia" and "The Ten Commandments" in a theater in Augusta GA; and I saw "War and Peace" in the Johnston SC theater.
I remember other movies from those early years, though, including "Hansel and Gretel", a live-action film that may have preceded the three named above. I also remember being taken to see "The Incredible Shrinking Man". Given that films did not have "wide" releases that we are now used to (i.e., some films would not play in the sticks until a year after release), it's impossible for me to flatout state, "Oh! XXX was my first memory of a movie."
That said, my strongest memory of the three first-named films is of "War and Peace." I don't know why I felt so engaged by this film. It may be I felt more comfortable in the smaller theater in my hometown. I remember being totally engrossed in the film and captivated by the production design. I couldn't imagine anyone living in such splendor and wearing such beautiful clothing. When the intermission came, I was very confused because I just knew the film could not be over. That was, to my knowledge, my first "intermission." My memories of "Anastasia" and "The Ten Commandments" are more scene-specific, but neither match my first memory of seeing Hepburn and Fonda walk away chatting in the ruins of a house at the end of "War and Peace."