Traxan

Curious to know what was the strongest audience reaction/applause you've witnessed in recent years. I don't go to the theater much, but I do remember one quite vividly: Godzilla blasting atomic breath down the throat of the second MUTO. Man did the crowd go nuts.

Your experience?

TGM

Han Solo's appearance in SW:TFA trailer.

Draven

"Uncle Fucka" in South Park:BLU. It was like we were witnessing a live performance with the hootin and hollerin and applause.

Michael Corvin

Most memorable has to be the bus scene from the original Final Destination. Packed house and every mother fucker in the place jumped in sync. Man, it was epic. It was just like the test screening footage they used in trailers.

E Unit

Hannibal Lector removing the flesh mask in the back of the ambulance. Never heard so much shrieking in my life prior to that moment. Almost equal was in the same movie when Buffalo Bill reaches out to grab Clarice Starling in the dark.

Troy Stiffler

Grindhouse opening night at around 9PM. You could just feel that everyone was there for Tarantino and Rodriguez. Lots of moments to cheer or lol in both parts.

First time I ever remember applause at the end was Fight Club. So many people were worked up over that movie back in 1999.

Oddly, both of those had disappointing theatrical runs. I was sure Grindhouse was going to be a huge hit because Planet Terror was so brisk and enjoyable.

caligulathegod

At a 24 hour Horror Marathon during the Midwest premiere of Dead Alive (then called Brain Dead), when the Kung Fu fighting priest announced that, "I kick arse for the Lord," the place exploded.

Crocker Jarmen

Cache, the scene where the guy goes to visit the kid's father at his apartment

people were practically falling out of their seats. It was so out of the blue I was totally flabbergasted.

During a midnight screening of Friday the 13th Part 2, when Jason broke through the window without his mask the guy sitting next to me jolted and screamed this high pitched Ned Flanders shriek at the top of his lungs and the entire audience laughed their ass off.

Pulp Fiction had lots of loud reactions during the needle-to-the-heart scene, blowing Marvin's head off, but the loudest shocked expressions always were from the shot where Butch pushes that basement door open.

mike7162

The crowd went nuts when Yoda pulled out his lightsaber in Attack of the Clones - it actually drowned out the sound system for the duration of the fight scene, like a Beatles concert.

Why So Blu?

This. QT was actually at our showing at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Josh-da-man

I'll bet those three people woke up everyone else in the theater!

joe_b

(Harry Potter spoilers)

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Josh-da-man

Probably quite a few crowd pleasers in that movie...

rw2516

Humanoids From The Deep. When the humanoid baby burst out of the pregnant girl's stomach. Place went nuts.

Used to go to the $1.00 midnight movies on weekends in the 1970s. They were always counter culture stuff like Woodstock, Alice's Restaurant, Easy Rider, etc.
Everybody there was either drunk or stoned. Once the trailer for The Odessa File was shown before the movie. There was a scene in the trailer of a big neo-Nazi rally. Everybody in the theater stood up and began "Sieg Heil!"-ing the screen.

majorjoe23

Since I'm in the Midwest, it was the 128 ounce bladder buster I saw someone order before Godzilla 98.

mphtrilogy

Rocky 2

bluetoast

Lawrence of Arabia in September. 900 people, and a lot of first timers. So there were a lot of laughs (and one or two at normal moments), and gasps at a certain reveal. I've seen it 6 or 7 times in theaters, and that was the biggest/most reactive audience by far.

Groucho

-- "He did too much LDS in the sixties" -- Star Trek IV
-- "Always bet on black!" -- Passenger 57

and most recently, watching La La Land over the weekend:

Ash Ketchum

Most recently, it was during SHIN GODZILLA this past October when the Big G lets loose with his flame breath in Tokyo for the first time. The audience roared and applauded.



50 years ago, it was YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE when the ninjas streamed into the volcano and the swordsman started slicing up Blofeld's workers.

Hulkabrgr

I saw Jaws at a special screening at Radio City Music Hall in 1996, and even though we all knew it was coming...Ben Gardner's Head caused the whole place to jump

asianxcore

Off to the top of my head, Grindhouse (2007) & Godzilla (2014).

I saw Grindhouse in a packed theater opening weekend and the audience reacted during just about everything.

The audience I saw Godzilla with was also full (opening weekend) and a specific scene near the end of the film had everyone cheering.

resinrats

Independence Day opening weekend. The first time I ever heard an audience start cheering and clapping is when the first missile makes it through the alien shields. They cheered again when the ship over Area 51 started blowing up.

DWilson

I remember seeing "Die Hard" the first time at a crowded evening show at one of the town's bigger theaters. When John McClane finally gets the drop on Hans Gruber (a great moment), the ovation was so loud that neither I nor the friend I saw it with could hear the line that immediately followed ("Happy Trails, Hans").

Hokeyboy

Similarly, when the Peter Jackson "King Kong" abortion remake came out back in 2005, it put a sold-out audience in the megaplex's biggest theater a near-coma for obvious reasons.

When King finally closed his eyes and SLLLLOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLYYY fell off the Empire State Building, someone in the theater didn't exactly YELL out, but announced in a louder-than-normal voice, "FINALLY!!" and I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. The timing, the tone, the cathartic release of frustration at this bloated mess of a movie, it all culminated at once into this communal geshreit the hardly abides the telling... except that it does!

EddieMoney

I remember seeing this at a midnight showing. Packed crowd, and nearly everyone seemed to doze off.