The Perfect Theater Experience (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Tonight I was reminded why going to the movie theater is still such a fantastic optimal social experience. My college was playing The Incredibles in Ingle, the performing arts theater inside the student union. The place was utterly packed. We're talking people sitting in the aisles packed. It had a bigger crowd than Anchorman, a more typical college movie, and that was packed too. Full of college students, which would stereotypically be the worst audience.
But the crowd was hooked from the first shot. The crowd got all of the humor, and the domestic/real world parodying humor went down PARTICULARLY well. After moments of triumph, there were cheers. During the emotional moments there was dead silence. The biggest laugh of the night was when the goons are in the RV watching the news feed of the chaos and the one guy goes "Okay, so everyone takes a shot when they run" and then the cork of a bottle is popped off. The whole crowd was in stitches
DackAttac: That part was awesome. Surprisingly, the other huge laugh (though there were big laughs throughout) was with the two old guys going "That's old school." "No school like old school."

For every couple dozen subpar movie going experiences I've had, there comes the one perfect, excellent movie experience. It's times like tonight that remind me why home theater will NEVER replace the experience of going to out to a night at the movies.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Very true.

 

[Jim Barg]

Agreed.

Sitting in my living room and watching any of the Star Wars films is a whole different beast than watching a sold-out showing on opening day.

Sitting in my living room and watching Vertigo is a lot different than catching the film at an old-fashioned movie palace (in 70mm, no less!).

Granted, the magic of going to the movies has kind of faded for me since I've begun working at a theater. But moments like that remind me why people still go - even though prices are going up, even though it's more likely that something will go wrong (with just one projectionist per shift for 18 screens, the odds aren't good), even though more and more parents are treating the theatre as a day-care center. They go on the off-chance that magic will happen.

 

[Haggai]

For the right movies, college audiences can be great. When I was in college, I saw Trainspotting and Swingers on campus during their first run, and those audiences were tremendous.

 

[Chris Atkins]

Some of my favorite movie experiences:

TPM (my crowd really liked the movie, and every introduction of a classic character got thunderous applause).

Scream (people were actually screaming...loudly)

What Lies Beneath (more screaming)

AOTC (the Yoda fight in particular)