Bad Movie Theater Experiences

[BeastieRunner]

I absolutely hate assigned seating - which is another reason I hate going to see films theatrically these days. I remember not that long ago, when you could just go to a theater early & get good seats. It was a first come, first serve basis - which is the way it should be. And, if you didn't like your seat & there were extra seats somewhere, you could move.

Now that we have assigned seating the following occurs:

1) You typically can't choose the seats that you want - not necessarily due to others sitting in them - but due to the theater blocking out all the best seats.

2) You will get to your assigned seat & find someone else sitting there. Then, you will need to argue with them about your right to sit there. They may get belligerent, and you will then need to decide whether you want to bother getting into a physical confrontation with them (which almost happened to me once), threatening to call management, etc.

3) You may/will be forced to sit near people you don't know/have no connection to & who may be obnoxious/drunk/on drugs. As a result, you may want to get up & move your seat to have more room/space, but can't do so due to the other assigned seats.

Again, this is a lot more hassle than I need - when all I want to do is watch & enjoy the film. Life is too short to have to deal with this kind of crap.

GET OFF MY LAWN!

But in all seriousness the only problem I have with assigned seating is number 2.

Thankfully I have a spouse that can beat the crap out of everyone so it's never a problem.

[MiddleMan]

I like the assigned seating, they've been doing it in theatres overseas since the late 90s

[Godzilla2099]

Two Bad Theater Experiences easily come to mind

1. One of the Twilight Movies: On a date, hated the movie. One scene Jacob was took off his shirt and the girls in the theater went wild. I was bored to hell and figured I'd have some fun. I got up and started yelling, "Hey! Men are not objects! We have feelings and shouldn't be disrespected!" The theater erupted in laughter and boos. Didn't get a second date

2. Justice League: Loved the movie but not the experience. Before the movie started, the projector had difficulties. I hear a dad yelling on the phone saying "Your projector is broken and it should be fixed. My son is crying!" (I seriously wanted to cause a scene and tell him to shut the the hell up). Then there was another father complaining he paid a lot of money for the movie. (That father was bigger than Jabba the Hutt and had no problems spending $$ on snacks). I can't stand 'man bitches'

[Scott Taylor]

I like the assigned seating, they've been doing it in theatres overseas since the late 90s

In theory I like it as well. But in practice its a little confusing. Many times I find that seats which were shown as occupied (ie, I could not choose them) actually have no one in them during the movie.

[ROM Spaceknight]

But in all seriousness the only problem I have with assigned seating is number 2.

Thankfully I have a spouse that can beat the crap out of everyone so it's never a problem.

LOL. In all seriousness, however - I have to deal with unpleasant confrontations in my daily life on a regular basis, so I'd rather not have to deal with the same thing when going to the theater. Also, there are a lot of crazy people out there that will escalate issues in theaters - whether or not they involve assigned seating. And, if you get involved in a fight/altercation with someone - even if you're in the right - you could still get arrested/fined/cited because of this.

Switching gears, one of the last posts made me think of another complaint when going to the theater: the reel(s) screwing up when you're watching the film. That's happened to me several times over the years - typically it gets corrected, but it's still frustrating when it happens.

But in practice its a little confusing. Many times I find that seats which were shown as occupied (ie, I could not choose them) actually have no one in them during the movie.

I also hate this. I think this happens because the theater blocks out the best seats (for some unknown reason). Again, if you don't have assigned seating you don't need to deal with any of this. I miss the days when you could just get to the theater early, find a great seat, and no one had any right to tell you to move. I especially enjoyed theaters with stadium seating - my favorite seats there were the one(s) in the middle where the screen was roughly eye level - perfect.

[Midvillian1322]

GET OFF MY LAWN!

But in all seriousness the only problem I have with assigned seating is number 2.

Thankfully I have a spouse that can beat the crap out of everyone so it's never a problem.

I love assigned seating. Hate theaters that dont have the luxury sofa chairs and Luxury theaters and assigned seating go hand in hand. Sitting through a 3 hour movie in stadium seating sucks. But yea number 2 isnt usually a problem, I never go to the movies alone and me and most my family and friends are Samoan. People tend to not get belligerent with us.

[MiddleMan]

Lucky here in New England, most the theaters are being renovated to have the comfy chairs, or older theaters are being torn down and completely rebuilt with the new stadium seating

[TriggerWarning]

What is this assigned seating you guys are talking about? Granted my city is only about 100,000 and we only have two multi screen theaters, the largest has 17 screens, but its first come first serve on seating.

That said, it is very annoying to go to a movie weeks after an assigned run and you go sit only to have the only other people in the theater choose the seats directly behind you. Seriously, a completely empty theater and you sit right behind me?

[Midvillian1322]

What is this assigned seating you guys are talking about? Granted my city is only about 100,000 and we only have two multi screen theaters, the largest has 17 screens, but its first come first serve on seating.

That said, it is very annoying to go to a movie weeks after an assigned run and you go sit only to have the only other people in the theater choose the seats directly behind you. Seriously, a completely empty theater and you sit right behind me?

Luxury theaters have recling seat in sofa like chairs. Almost all those theaters have you pick your seat off a screen when you buy tickets. When I lived In Las Vegas half the theaters were Luxury+ theaters and more were being converted. I gladly pay the couple extra bucks for a ticket. These theaters have huge gaps between rows so people sitting by you is never an issue. And you sitting in a lazy boy basically with plenty of arm room.

[Lee Stone]

My worst Theater Experience would be...

Convincing my friends to ditch their PG-13 or G-rated film to watch Sliver with me back in 1993.
I remember reading the book and loving it.
And Sharon Stone and William Baldwin were two of the more attractive stars at the time...

But the movie took a more perverse turn from the book, not even really following the story much.
The movie latched onto the voyeur angle and pretty much stayed there.

About the time that Sharon Stone started pleasing herself in the bathtub I slowly sunk down in my seat with embarrassment.

[Bat-Meal]

When I went to see the first 'Fantastic Beasts' with family, there were a group of teenagers in there. Right before the movie started one of them threw-up in the corner. Everyone in there just sat through the whole film with the stench of puke in the theater. That film still makes me think of vomit.

When I went with family to see 'Zootopia', about 20 minutes into the film, just as Judy is disappointed with her job as traffic control, a fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate the building. It was a false alarm. We all got given free double passes as compensation. Until much later, when I saw the film elsewhere, that was where the movie ended - with Judy getting her dream of being a police-officer only to end-up bored in traffic control. It was a short film, and more realistic than I expected.

[DebkoX]

Went to an empty cinema in Montreal on Christmas Eve. Roughly 60-80 seats, about 7 seven inside. A family sits behind me for some reason and kid keeps kicking my chair. I ask nicely and they apologise. Kid continues soon so I moved seats.

[HowitzerJoe]

What is this assigned seating you guys are talking about? Granted my city is only about 100,000 and we only have two multi screen theaters, the largest has 17 screens, but its first come first serve on seating.

That said, it is very annoying to go to a movie weeks after an assigned run and you go sit only to have the only other people in the theater choose the seats directly behind you. Seriously, a completely empty theater and you sit right behind me?

USA is the only country I think that still has people standing in long lines just to get to the theater door. Everyone has to run to their seats, and hopefully you get a good one. It's pretty ridiculous. Most other places around the world I believe have you pick your seat the time of purchase. Now specialty theaters have assigned seating in the USA, but I think the general ones it's still people lining up for hours just to have a chance at finding a good seat.

[TriggerWarning]

I hate going to super hyped genre movies on opening weekends because to me other fans screaming, clapping, gasping, orgasming, and such over scenes ruins the experience for me. But with Endgame I also didn't want to be spoiled which I knew inevitably would happen so even though I knew the audience would diminish my enjoyment I bit the bullet and went yesterday.

Great movie but I wanted to kill so many people in the completely full theater. Three teen girls sitting next to me who were gasping and crying "oh no" every time something happened that might put a good guy in peril which was most of the movie. Or clapping and yelling "yay" every time Captain Marvel showed up, they apparently REALLY loved Captain Marvel. All the people who whooped and screamed during certain scenes. There is a scene near the end that is very prominent for which characters it shows vs which it does not (you know the one if you've seen it) and several people screamed "its all the _________." Trying not to be spoilerish for those who haven't seen this. Another scene near the end where a certain character does something awesome to which another character says "I knew it" and the audience erupted in cheers and clapping which drowned out the movie for a bit. Another scene where you could hear people sobbing - I'll admit to getting some dust in my eyes during the scene but I wasn't having loud wracking sobs over it for everyone else to listen to.

Can't wait to actually go see this again in about a month when the theater won't be so packed so I can actually enjoy it without annoying audience participation.

[TriggerWarning]

What is this assigned seating you guys are talking about? Granted my city is only about 100,000 and we only have two multi screen theaters, the largest has 17 screens, but its first come first serve on seating.

Interestingly my theater started doing assigned seating a week ago with Endgame being the catalyst I guess. We have joined the rest of society.