My worst experience was when I was hold a seat for my fiancee. She was in the bathroom. The theatre was packed. It just so happened that the seat next to my fiancee's was also empty, and from a quick look, it was probably the last two together in the place. People were pretty cool, but this one guy kept coming down the aisle with his girlfriend, even though I kept waving him off. He starts to take my jacket off the seat and I say "sorry man, this one's taken". And he glares at me. I say "unless you want to watch this movie out of the hole in your ass, you'll back the fuck off". He said "why do you have to be a dick, you know no one is sitting here". I took one step towards him and his girlfriend grabbed his arm and said "I don't want to sit here anyway". He wisely left.

I'm not violent at all. But that was ridiculous. It was clearly his attempt to try and bully me into giving up the seat, but he ran into someone who wasn't going to take it. My fiancee ended up taking forever (she had been talking on her cell) so of course since it's 10 minutes into the credits and the seats are still empty I go from hero to asshole (and I can hear the whispering from behind me). Eventually she comes back so I don't look so bad.

I was pretty keyed up after that so I completely hated the movie since I couldn't just relax. I told her that's the last time she goes to the bathroom before the movie.

I've told this one on the forum before, but at this one movie I was at, there was about 10 people in this huge theater. This guy answered his phone once, and was pretty quiet for about 30 seconds. I let it go. It rang again, and this time he talked for like 5 minutes pretty loudly. This one guy went up to him and looked like he asked him to stop. He put the phone away. Then a third time. This time the guy that asked him to stop came up to him, ripped the phone out of his hand and threw it against the concrete floor, shattering it. The phone guy got up and went "what the hell man!". Then the other dude started SCREAMING "ahhh, ahhh, ahhhh!!!" and dancing around. It was fucking hillarious. The phone guy left saying "I'm getting the manager!" (to say what, I was talking on my phone during the movie?). I couldn't stop laughing for about 30 minutes.

BTW, the crazy dude just went and sat back down in his seat. I turned around about five minutes later to see him munching on popcorn. Hillarious.

I went to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith last week. I loved the movie, but hated the theater experience. Five minutes of commercials, twenty minutes of trailers, and poor quality picture quality are just a few of the reasons why I try to wait for the DVD.

Saw Batman Begins last night, pretty good theater experience other than the sound going from dolby digital to tv screen audio about half way through the movie..that and the weird laughing guy who laughed at the strangest things. I mean, nothing anyone would find funny ever..guess he was stoned. At the end a few people behind me were dissing the movie for its changing the origins.

But I speak with passion when I say the seats suck. No where near comfortability.

As someone who came from Australia, I have been quite disappointed with the movie theatres in the US. My peeve is that in Australia, the majority of movie tickets sold at the box office or online have allocated seating - there is no need to arrive at the cinema arrive to get the best seats. I find having to sit inside the cinema watching a blank screen or ads to be a waste of time. With allocated seating, the time could be better spent having dinner or a drink, knowing that you can arrive in the cinema just before the movie starts without having to sit in the worst seats.

What does everyone else think?

Why can't movie theaters have cell phone jammers? It could even be where the phone would work in the lobby,but not the theater.

I just about spit out my lemonade reading that. Too funny.

That Steven Soderberg has the right idea, with his new distribution deal I can skip the theatre and hit up the DVD shelf the same day. I hope more directors follow suit.

They aren't oblivious at all - they're just f'ing *ssholes that don't give a sh*t. By the way, nice post... my favorite was Mr Slurp Every Last Drop of Soda form the Cup then Crunch on Ice guy

I hate the Master Card commercial where a family is moving and they leave the dog '' Buster '' behind, by mistake. The dog basically hitch-hikes his way back to them, and they're all happy. I had to put my dog to sleep a few months ago, so every time I go to the movies, they play it durring " The 20 ". That damn commercial makes me tear-up really bad. Damn you Master Card and Regal Cinemas !

Thankfully they've renovated an old theater and built a new one down the street. Both are now top-notch technically speaking. For the most part I've been pretty fortunate with other poeple...though I still remember the two guys next to me threatening each other during 'Powder'... "I'll tear your head off BOY!" "F-U!"

Went to see BB today with a small audience and the sound cranked, it was great!

I generally hit the theater about 15-20 times a year, and I'd say that of that 15-20 I only have about 1 or 2 theater experience that I would call bad. This year it was when I went to Limony Snickett and a young couple and their toddler sat next to me. He didn't cry or anything, but they got tired of holding him after a 30 minutes, and sat him down in the seat beside them (and me) at which time he proceeded to crawl up my arm. His parents would grab him again, but soon get tired and put him back down and he'd crawl over in the seat with me again. I put up with that for about 30 minutes and getting more and more angry before I realized "What am I putting up with this for? We can just move down a few seats!"

But other than that, everything's been fine. Maybe I'm just lucky.

Oh man, that's some funny stuff. The American History X one is awesome too.

I saw ROTS twice this year, once at the midnight showing (which was excellent - no complaints), and cone at a 6-ish show (bad idea). Right at the beginning when Star Wars blared across the screen, some 3 or 4 year old kid directly behind my right ear started cheering "Yay! Yaaaay! Star Wars!", and throughout the whole movie it didn't stop. And he constantly kept asking questions to his dad "Where's Chewie?" "Where's Vader?" etc... I gave the Dad a dirty look, but he didn't do anything about his annoying kid. Eventually he wore himself out and was crying to go home until Anakin started burning and the kid started cheering again.

Batman Begins wasn't very good either. It was the midnight show and you think it'd great, but I was a little disappointed. The picture looked like crap, it flickered during big action scenes which took me completley out of the movie, and the whole theater smelled like urine .

All this talk about waiting for the DVD doesn't sound too crazy anymore.

i like going to movie theaters. i just hate it when people behind me constantly kick the back of my seat, or put their feet up on my armrest. i don't know if it's just me but its rude and annoying. also i hate when people talk a ton during movies, having the need to comment on every piece of dialogue and action is lame.

gotta love artificial butter on movie theater popcorn.

This article was on the cover of my local newspaper this morning:

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2005061645

Most prefer viewing movies at home

Poll respondents cite convenience, bad films

LOS ANGELES — The parking’s easy and there are no lines at the concession stand: Most Americans would now rather watch films at home than in theaters, according to an AP-AOL poll. At the same time, almost half think movies are getting worse.

Hollywood is in the midst of its longest box-office slump in 20 years, and 2005 is shaping up as the worst year for movie attendance in nearly a decade if theater business continues at the same lackluster rate.

In the poll released Thursday, 73 percent of adults said they preferred watching movies at home on DVD, videotape or pay-per-view. With more than two-thirds also saying movie stars are poor role models — Russell Crowe’s phone-throwing being the latest example — it may take more than a blockbuster or two to reverse Hollywood’s slide.

Just 22 percent said they would rather see films in a theater, according to the poll conducted by Ipsos for The Associated Press and AOL News. One-fourth said they had not been to a movie theater in the past year.

“I just prefer to stay home and watch movies,’’ said Mark Gil, 34, a mortgage broker in Central Square, N.Y. “It’s cheaper. You can go rent a movie for three bucks. By the time you’re done at the movie theater with sodas and stuff, it’s 20 bucks.’’

Films are getting worse, said 47 percent in the AP-AOL poll. A third said they were getting better.

“I don’t like movies as much as I used to,’’ said Tracy Drane, 38, a computer-technology worker who lives outside Dallas. “I’m a fan of old musicals and old AMC channel stuff. I could watch movies without thinking I’m going to see people in bed together and a lot of cussing. It has gotten much worse.’’

Many of this year’s big films — “Kingdom of Heaven,’’ “The Honeymooners,’’ “XXX: State of the Union,’’ Crowe’s “Cinderella Man’’ — have fizzled.

Those in the poll were most likely to be fond of comedies, followed by dramas and action-adventure movies.

Some in Hollywood think the slump — 16 straight weekends of declining revenue compared to last year — is a momentary blip due to so-so movies. They maintain the box office will rebound when better films arrive.

Others view the slide as a sign that theaters are losing ground to home-entertainment options, particularly DVDs available just months after films debut in cinemas.

But the poll found that people who use DVDs, watch pay-per-view movies on cable, download movies from the Internet and play computer games actually go to movies in theaters more than people at the same income levels who don’t use those technologies. That suggests the technology may be complementing rather than competing with theatergoing. Eight in 10 in the poll said they use DVD players at home.

Through last weekend, Hollywood’s domestic revenues totaled $3.85 billion, down 6.4 percent from 2004. Factoring in higher ticket prices, the number of people who have gone to theaters is down 9 percent, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

If that pace holds through year’s end, admissions for 2005 would total 1.345 billion, the lowest since 1996.

The wild card from 2004 was Mel Gibson’s unexpected blockbuster, “The Passion of the Christ.’’ That film drew a huge Christian audience, many of them not regular movie-goers. Taking “The Passion’’ out of the mix, 2005 revenues would be up 2.9 percent over 2004, and ticket sales would be virtually unchanged.

While 2005 has produced its share of hits — among them the final “Star Wars’’ flick, the romance “Hitch’’ and the animated tales “Madagascar’’ and “Robots’’ — audiences have found Hollywood’s recent offerings generally humdrum.

“I think this slump is product-driven,’’ said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations. “That to me is a much less chilling problem than some sort of cultural shift in people’s moviegoing habits. A cultural shift takes longer than 16 weekends of down box office.’’

Box office revenues have been down every weekend since late February. “Batman Begins,’’ which opened Wednesday, could snap the streak this weekend. But if business is off again, Hollywood would match a 1985 downturn of 17 weekends, the longest recorded slump since analysts began keeping detailed box-office figures.

The 1985 slide came with similar dire predictions that movies on videocassette would devastate the theater business, Dergarabedian said. Box-office grosses were stagnant into the late 1980s, then rebounded strongly.

In the 1950s, some analysts foresaw the demise of movie theaters as people stayed home to watch television. While business plummeted from 4 billion or more admissions a year in Hollywood’s glory days, movies remained a prime entertainment choice.

“Going to the movies is a social event, like going to a football game, like going to the ballet, like going to a play,’’ said George Lucas, whose “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith’’ is this year’s biggest hit. “Something you do to be social with other people. I don’t think that’s ever going to go away.’’

From the early 1990s through 2002, box-office grosses climbed steadily as studios perfected their blockbuster marketing machines and cinema chains built new theaters with improved seating, sound systems and other amenities.

But ticket sales reached a modern peak of 1.63 billion in 2002 and have fallen since, down to 1.51 billion in 2004.

A handful of big hits could salvage Hollywood’s year. Still to come this summer are Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise’s “War of the Worlds,’’ Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’’ and the superhero adventure “Fantastic Four.’’

am i the only one who enjoys a raucous crowd at a theater?

i went to see deep blue sea in a packed theater and the audience helped make the movie fun. there were huge cheers for when

and in MI2 when tom cruise popped a front wheelie on his motorcycle prompted an 'aw hell' from someone in the audience. too funny.

Raucous crowds can be good. For instance, when I saw Starship Troopers and The Lost World, the crowds participation made the movies better. The crowd at the midnight show of Revenge of the Sith was great too. The movie had two restarts, the lights came back on during the previews and back off again....twice! I thought the crowd was going to riot.

Another story I have is when I saw a flick at the end of it's run and the theatre was completely empty, a old couple came and sat right in front of my girlfriend and I. I was in disbelief.

Also, is there anything more uncomfortable then going to a movie with a good friend of yours for the first time and the guy/gal turns out to be a big talker? I seriously will not talk during the whole movie. I don't check my cell or watch or anything. I rarely rarely ever talk during the movie. Of course I hate it when other people but what do you do when your good buddy keeps yapping?

BTW, the American History X story. The guy did all that right after the dinner table speech Ed Norton gives about Lincoln freeing the slaves. I guess he didn't agree.

Saxon

Even though I live in "polite" Toronto, my ambition is to never have to go to a theatre again. I've spent years building up my home theatre and I frankly find it superior to "the movie-going experience". Too many bad experiences that have to do with the lack of supervision (i.e. personnel) and picture quality, mostly...

But the list of beefs is long: Tickets that say "9 4 5", which is supposed to mean you paid 9 $ for a showing in Hall 4 at 5 PM; self-service food bins where you do all the work and have no place to put your gloves in the winter without them falling in some conveniently placed ice water bin; the lack of affordable, healthy treats; uncomprehending acneed teenage employees who don't understand English and/or the word "toilet"; halls the size of a walk-in closet; entire basketball teams filling a row who won't get up when you want to get to the last available seat (held together with duct tape); the general absence of signage; unpopular films shown in a dungeon three floors below the residual water level, where hoboes elect to sleep; people who take up two or three seats each with their winter clothes when some patrons have to sit on the stairs; the cellphones with musical MP-3 tunes; the long, arduous wait for the feature watching Britney Spears' tits endlessly shill for Pepsi; the parents who encourage their kids to spill unwanted portions of food on the floor where it belongs; 4-year old kids running around the hall during R-rated movies ("Bram Stoker's Dracula").

I was once in a googleplex hall where the lights did not dim after the start of the feature and one of several patrons who went on an aimless expedition trying to find "the person responsible", which took all of 20 minutes. That was pretty much the low point.

The last time I was in a theatre was for a showing of "Madagascar" where a four-year old kid with the loudest voice imaginable did a hilarious running commentary on the movie experience (e.g.: "Daddy, he kicked him in the CROTCH!"), which was actually more entertaining than the movie...

It really depends. if it's an audience that's on the same page or really into the movie, i.e. Lord of the Rings or Star Wars audience at a Midnight preview, then it's cool. If it's just the regular folks or a crowd with young stupid asses then it can be kinda crappy.

My fondest memory of an intelligent movie theatre crowd was watching Werner Herzog's Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht (1979) in Montreal in an "art house" when it first came out. This German film was a talking remake of the original Murnau Nosferatu (1922) of course; it was in German and had English subtitles but the audience of cinephiles was mostly French-speaking. This was before Quebec laws that made it mandatory for foreign films to be also available in a subtitled or dubbed French version. As the vast majority of French-speaking Canadians also understand the other official language (which cannot be said about the English part of the population), this was no great ordeal in itself, however. Halfway through the really scary parts, though, three English-speaking Yahoos (two males and a female) started making loud derogatory noises about the film like they were watching the kind of sleazo drive-in living dead B-film they were used to. Needless to say, that didn't go down too well with this audience of purists who were already a little pissed at having to read English subtitles for the benefit of a few minority imbeciles who didn't seem to appreciate what they were getting. After a few unheeded warnings, the trio was forcibly evicted by what seemed to me particularly burly representatives of the World Federation of French-speaking Filmlovers who were only too happy to oblige, to the general applause of the audience. Everybody present felt like something politically important had just happened...

Wow. If that were in California and English speaking brutes watching a movie subbed with Spanish did that to Spanish speaking audience members who were acting like asses, they(the brutes) would get arrested then sued.

Depends on the film.

With The Devil's Rejects last night, the crowd easily made the film a lot more enjoyable. Whenever there was humor on screen, the whole crowd busted out laughing. Whenever there was a death scene, the whole crowd busted out into cheers and applause. Easily on par with the advance previews of Serenity or the midnight showing of Revenge of the Sith.

Sometimes an active crowd can make a terrible film tolerable and sometimes it can boost your apprecation for a great film.

However, I wouldn't want an active crowd for say an indie drama.

Way to miss the point completely... For your comparison to work you'd have to imagine a strange science-fiction world where an audience of English-speaking Californian filmgoers are forced to watch a foreign film with Spanish subtitles because the Spanish minority makes it politically and economically impossible to watch films in your language and then three of these pesky Spanish-speaking overlords walk into your theatre to make fun of the film. Now you have a comparison.

Just the thought of that makes me shudder.

Figured I'd share a few of my fav / least fav movie crowd experiences:

Best Experience

By far, this has to be the annual Showgirls showing in Chelsea. A packed theater fill of people who know the movie (and all it's terrible, terrible acting and dialog) by heart. The ushers pass out clappers and lights beforehand and everyone knows just when to use them. Hilarious stuff. Anyone who has been to this even knows what I'm talking about.

Worst experiences:

3) Bourne Supremecy: Just as a car chase starts some yahoo yells "GO JASON BOURNE!!"

2) Just saw the newest Star Wars movie at the Loews near Lincoln Center (Manhattan). Idiots cheering through the whole movie I can take I guess. but half way through the movie I see I light shining on the seat in front of me... What is it? The cell phone of the idiot guy behind me. "You waht's up? Nothing, just watching Yoda kick some ass..." Damn fool. At least he turned it off soon enough.

1) Went to see Crash at the same theater. I figured to avoid an obnoxious crowd I'd wait until it had been out a few weeks. No luck. Before the movie started I got up to get my girlfriend an Icee. I said excuse me to the couple in my aisle before I tried to get by them - instead of doing the half stand, they sunk lower in their seats! I said an audible "OK..." and just walked right by. I accidentally stepped on the ladies toe and she yelped. Whatever - she should have moved. On my way back in, instead of going through my aisle past those people to get to my seat I figured I go through the enarly empty isle behind my seat and then step over the chair. Well, the lady at the head of that aisle was apparently reserving the whole row for her friends. When I asked her to get by she said they were all taken. I quickly tried to explain I was trying to get to my seat on the other side and she just yelled "you better not take my seat" in a thick Puertorican accent as I walked by. Idiot - I just said I wasn't going to take your damn seats.

SPOLILERS FOR THE MOVIE CRASH BELOW

During the part in the movie when Don Cheadle is joking with his girlfriend about how all those different races learned to park cars on their lawns the same lady yells out "That's not funny, he's talking about Puerto Ricans!". Sigh.

The scene after the store owener "shoots" the little girl and nothing happens they show him in the store, slumped in his chair. Again, the same lady whispers loudly to her friend "he shot himself!". Damn moron. If you can't tell by then the guns had blanks in it you are just plain stupid.

END SPOLIERS

Towards the end of the film this middle age white guy up front stands up, turns around and yells "shut the fu*k up!" to the guy sitting behind him (who apparently was one of many people talking through the whole movie. Freakin hilarious!
After the movie the two started yelling at each other and actually got a bit violet. The guy who got yelled at stormed out shouting racial slurs ("stupid cracker! learn something from the movie!") Of course, that's like the pot calling the kettle black right there. Once they were both out of the theater they were still jawing at each other. The white says "what are you gonna go, kick me?" So of course the guy starts kicking him. The popcorn guy called security who got there pretty quickly and broke them up as my girlfriend and I walked away.

What a bunch of morons at the movies these days...