Movie Theater Experiences

[tenia]

On one end, I understand how one can go on an afternoon screening of a Disney movie and can expect having children being loud during the movie.

However, I would have loved being able to sit through Shaun the Sheep and being able to properly enjoy the movie without being disturbed by all these children, the same as I would have loved being able to sit through (at the time) Spider Man 2 without having a 4yo child playing with his toys in the stairs within the screening room.

So there's fault on both sides : clearly, bringing a child young enough not to behave is clearly not respecting the other customers there : they're paid to have their movie experience of the week / month / semester, and they're not even able to enjoy properly the movie. But on the other end, you can expect certain things when going to see a Disney movie.

[Zot!]

If you expect to "watch" a children's movie during matinee hours, woe be it to you. Those showing are just meant to be children locked in a room with candy and soda with limited supervision. Sort of like if you go to Rocky Horror Picture Show to watch the movie, but less regulated. If you go to an evening show, I would expect a little more decorum, but do consider that most kids are products of today's 24-7 hyper-saturated entertainment juggernaut. A movie is not going to be a thing of wonderment to a good majority, who can watch Cinderella I,II, and III simultaneously on phones and I-Pads. You can't stop this. This is the new normal. Wait a couple of weeks after release, and should be fine.

[mfunk9786]

Also, wonderment doesn't always = silence. What leaves one kid speechless might have another tugging at his mom's sleeve asking questions about what he's seeing, etc. This is why there are late shows.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

I hate it when adults bring their noisy kids to movie theaters - show some consideration for the rest of us who paid good $ to enjoy the movie, tools! In this day & age, it shouldn't be that big of a deal to wait 3-4 months for the film to hit DVD/Blu so you can watch it at home, and you can always watch it earlier re: streaming.

I specifically remember seeing the re-make of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in Fall 2003 - a family with several small kids (including an infant) had the bright idea to bring their children to this extremely violent, R-rated film. I remember the kids being somewhat noisy, but thankfully in this case the sound was turned up very loud in the theater - so it didn't make that much of a difference.....

[tenia]

This is why there are late shows.

I don't see why I should specifically go at evening / night shows (through which I might sleep) just to avoid yelling children.

Where I live, there is a theater which also provide rebates when you go at screenings around 2pm. I'd like also to use this to avoid paying the full price when I could easily avoid this.

[MichaelB]

I don't see why I should specifically go at evening / night shows (through which I might sleep) just to avoid yelling children.

We're talking specifically about daytime shows of kids' movies. As far as the cinema's concerned, they're the primary audience.

That said, I've been to many, many such shows in recent years and I can't recall any issues with "yelling children" - the occasional interruption here and there, but nothing outrageously distracting. I bribe my own kids to keep quiet, which has been 100% effective so far - they don't get a treat afterwards if they haven't earned it by behaving themselves.

[tenia]

We're talking specifically about daytime shows of kids' movies. As far as the cinema's concerned, they're the primary audience.

I would do a difference between a matinee and an afternoon screening though.

Why children disturbing the screening by being loud should be considered differently than any other person disturbing the screening ? I went to see Tomorrowland last week end and had a group of teenagers being awfully loud in the row just behind me. I told them to shut up after 20 min, the couple next to me told them too, and finally, I had to go down a couple rows to hear them less. Finally, a guy from security came twice to tell them to shut up.

I just want to spend 15€ and actually be able to enjoy the movie completely, if possible not at a screening at 10pm. Otherwise, I'd just wait 4 months, buy the BD and watch it at home.

I also feel for the parents : why would you bring a child that might start crying 3 min after the beginning of the movie, forcing you to go out of the screening room, with the possibility you can't stop easily or quickly the child from crying, preventing you to go back inside ? I've seen this years ago at a screening of Disney' Tarzan. The mother wasted her time and money (I hope she got a refund because she literally stayed 3 min).

[Lost Highway]

I remember having been to theatres where they had sound proof mother/child sections, which I thought were a great idea, but I haven't seen one of those in a while.

Otherwise I really wouldn't go to a matinee screening of a kids film, you simply have to take into account that this is their time to see a movie and that there will be noise. Rowdy teenagers are a different issue, they should be old enough to know better.

With advancing old age, I do get hugely irritable in cinemas these days. Glow phones, people chatting, rustling candy wrappers, seat kicking all sets me on edge and I frequently tell people off, at a couple of times getting threatened with violence even though I try to be polite. Thankfully in the UK parents are unlikely to take small children to disturbing R-rated movies, something I experienced on a regular bases when I lived in the US as we don't have an adult rating where you can take children.

A greatest hate is knowing, demonstrative hipster laughter at classic films in arthouse venues where people really should know better. Apparently now many classic movies can only be enjoyed ironically by large sections of the audience.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I bribe my own kids to keep quiet, which has been 100% effective so far - they don't get a treat afterwards if they haven't earned it by behaving themselves.

How did they enjoy the Boro retro?

[mfunk9786]

Question relevant to how I'm seeing Mad Max Fury Road tomorrow - has anyone here seen a movie at a UA/Regal 'RPX' auditorium? [apparently this stands for "Regal Premium Experience"] We had access to a discount, so the tickets that'd normally cost, with convenience fees, $19.50 a pop were $13.50 (same price that normal tickets would be) so we decided to give it a shot. Apparently the screen is gigantic and the sound is cranked up to absurd volume levels, which I'm a little intimidated by - but is it really anything that unique in comparison to, say, IMAX?

I've done it a few times, and haven't really found it to be worth the extra money. Even the truly massive RPX screen at the Continental here in Denver doesn't have the same dramatic impact for me that IMAX does. There's something unique about the added height of a true IMAX experience (not those newfangled phony shoebox IMAX auditoriums) and the way it fills your field of vision. The main thing I've noticed with RPX is indeed the "absurd" (almost oppressive) volume level. Still, it sounds like the deal you got brings these close to the price of a regular ticket, and it seems that if ever a movie called for "play it big and loud," this is the one.

So a quick anecdote: I, and a few other vocal people there, bought tickets to the day's only 2D showing of the movie. However, we were handed 3D glasses and a check on Fandango revealed that the screening had changed to 3D, and the one three hours later was now 2D. Myself and another guy asked the manager if we could get refunds, and he explained that "corporate" changed it and there's nothing he could do. He then got quiet, pulled us aside, and asked if those in the theater were all in agreement that 2D would be our preference, and that if we heard any complaints, we'd direct those people to "theater 7" for a 3D presentation. He said, with some pride, that he could manually switch the screening over to 2D before it got started. And he did! Weirdest movie theater experience I have ever had and I'm still going to at least write a strongly worded email to Regal about the bait and switch.

Also: I defy anyone to explain to me how RPX is worth the extra money, especially in this day and age of reclining seating and dine-ins. It wasn't even all that loud.

Since I sent an email to Regal about how shitty it was to change over from 2D to 3D after tickets were sold (literally about 2 or 3 sentences long, vitriol level low-medium), I've gotten three envelopes in the mail - one from Corporate, one from the General Manager of the theater, and one from the Regional Manager of the area, totaling three separate apology letters and a total of 6 RPX readmission tickets and 2 IMAX readmission tickets. At nearly $20 a ticket for those premium auditoriums, that's $160 in summer blockbuster value to LQ and I.

I have to say - I'm calling it, I accept their apology. Though they might want to keep the envelopes coming, why put a stop to a good thing?

[Tawfik]

Quite at a funny/annoying experience yesterday at the Cinematek of Brussels. I went to see Finnis Terrae (Jean Epstein, 1929) which is a silent film, hence accompanied by a pianist.
I've never had any bad experiences with the pianists of that place who usually manage to do a good job illustrating softly the movies. But i don't what happenned yesterday, but the pianist went completely berserk on his piano, he was playing very aggressively, very fast and very dramatic tones to illustrate this quiet film. Finnis Terrae is about a bunch of fisherman on a quiet and mysterious islands at the end of the world. the place Jean Epstein gives to the deep sea makes it a true character of the movie.
But this Pianist completely ruined the whole movie trying to win an ability contest or something, he basaically never looked at the screen, he basically focused on technic and speed! I don't know if the dude was on cocaine, but gee that was terrible! I don't know if any of you had a similar experience, and honestely i don't wish you to!

[Altair]

So I saw Tomorrowland (I'm not sure if I should add the horrible subtitle, A World Beyond, which makes it sound like a theme-park ride), and the Showcase cinema showing it from a 4K projection was zoomed in! The rating card that appeared before the start of the film was cropped on all four sides and you could tell throughout the film that this wasn't remedied - feet were missing when they obviously shouldn't be, heads were unusually close to the frame line or were trimmed off at the top. To add insult to injury, the screen had three strange vertical lines down it as well... Digital projection has been trumpeted as an end to incorrect aspect ratios and projection flaws, but apparently that isn't the case.

[Lost Highway]

So I saw Tomorrowland (I'm not sure if I should add the horrible subtitle, A World Beyond, which makes it sound like a theme-park ride), and the Showcase cinema showing it from a 4K projection was zoomed in! The rating card that appeared before the start of the film was cropped on all four sides and you could tell throughout the film that this wasn't remedied - feet were missing when they obviously shouldn't be, heads were unusually close to the frame line or were trimmed off at the top. To add insult to injury, the screen had three strange vertical lines down it as well... Digital projection has been trumpeted as an end to incorrect aspect ratios and projection flaws, but apparently that isn't the case.

I thought the film was based on a theme park ride.

I always go and complain. If a poor presentation like that isn't fixed pronto, I ask for my money back and go see the film somewhere else.

[RossyG]

To redress the balance...

I saw Mad Max: Fury Road yesterday at the Brighton Odeon (UK). I didn't actually care much for the film itself, but the crowd were well behaved and the projection was excellent.

[criterion10]

Pardon my ignorance, but has assigned/reserved seating been around for a while? I nearly went postal yesterday while attending my local AMC multiplex, known for showing both the latest mainstream spectacle and arthouse fare (it's where I saw Blue is the Warmest Color, for fuck's sake), decided to surprise me with this "upgrade". I asked the teller for a ticket to Trainwreck, and he flipped around his computer screen and asked me to pick a seat.

That's right: Going to a movie is now like going to a baseball game or an opera. One must choose their seats online in advance and be limited to their assigned seating of choice. And to add insult to injury, this change has been timed with renovating the entire theater (21 auditoriums) with bigger, reclinable seats (sorry, folks, but a movie theater is not supposed to be the same as one's living room), that in turn noticeably decrease the number of seats each auditorium can hold. Read here and here for more information on this disturbing new trend.

Everything about this is so wrong that it's quite difficult for me to put it into words. It was rather telling when, after complaining excessively about this horrendous improvement, an usher remarked to me that I should now always buy my tickets online in advance. The spontaneity of being together with a few friends and suddenly deciding to go catch the newest flick has been killed. Going to the movies has become corporatized to the utmost extreme and is now an "event" for the privileged in the same way that going to a Broadway show is. (For the record, my friend and I couldn't even buy two seats right next to each other -- which ended up not being a problem, as we found two handicapped seats right smack in the middle of the theater that no one was using. Still, my point should be self-evident.)

I told AMC they would never see me there again, and that I'd go to a nearby Regal instead... to which one of the ushers replied that Regal soon would be doing the same practice. So, is this the future? Is this where we're headed?

[swo17]

The bigger issue here is that, at least in my limited experience, the most disruptive people seem to be the ones securing the best positioned seats, but once you discover this, moving away from them may not be an option.

[sir_luke]

Yes, it's been standard practice at my AMC for quite a while now, and I despise it just as much as you do. I actually went to see Inherent Vice one night and got there about 30 minutes early. There was a long line for tickets, and when I was reading the scrolling marquee, there was no SOLD OUT indication for IV as there was for other films, but when I got up to the counter, I learned that it didn't say the theatre was sold out because the row of handicapped-only seats had not been purchased. I go now pretty much exclusively to my local independent theatre or some of the smaller chains that are behind on all the newfangled alterations (that only serve to make the moviegoing experience more frustrating).

Just as annoying as someone using their phone or talking is the new phenomenon of hearing the squeeeeeaaking leather of the recliners as each person gets his/hers to *exactly* the right spot

[willoneill]

I'm of two minds on the whole phenomenon. Here in Ottawa, reserved seating is currently only for specialty screens (VIP, AVX, D-BOX, and IMAX), so it's not an issue for me the majority of the time. On the plus side, it's nice to be able to pick out seats ahead of time, and not need to get to the theatre 30 minutes in advance and have to wait in line before even entering the theatre. I still get to the theatre with enough time to make a washroom run, get a snack, and take my seat before the trailers begin, however. Which brings me to the first negative, which is that reserved seating allows people to just walk in whenever they want and disturb everyone, which for many people is during the trailers, or even during the first 10-15 minutes of the movie. It's also not only difficult to plan a group trip to a movie, but Cineplex also has a weird policy (that I've also seen a baseball stadiums) where you can't buy seats that would leave single seats empty. By which I mean, if there's three good seats empty together, and you only want two, well, you can't buy those two, because then that would leave one empty seat on its own. I've successfully argued that one in person, but online that's just impossible to do.

The only other positive I've seen is that with reserved seating, you never get people showing up just before the movie and asking you to shift down one spot so they can sit together.

[Raymond Marble]

There was a move toward reserved seating in theatres around a decade ago--in 2003 I moved from St. Louis (Missouri) to Canterbury (England) and some theatres in both places did the reserved seating thing. It didn't last long then, and my guess is that it won't last long now. That said, it doesn't really bother me, nor the new recliners; if it does wind up sticking around this time, I'll neither be terribly happy nor terribly upset.

But, since I like to complain too, some AMCs are remodeling to incorporate a bad Alamo Drafthouse-style in theatre dining experience, and, while I love the Alamo, I HATE the AMCs that are doing this. There's a tiny light at the top of each armrest that you can never turn off (it's there so that you can always read the menu!), the food is sub-Applebee's crap, and, at least the few times I've been to one of these theatres, the wait staff talk openly over the movie, taking orders. This may only be a test market thing and not something they're doing nationwide; either way, while I generally like AMC as a chain, they're really making a mess with this one.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

In China (as I think I've mentioned before), reserved seating has been the norm for years—it was already the case when I arrived in 2007. I liked it, since a) I'm particular about where I sit in a theater, and this way I could guarantee where that would be, and b) it meant I could arrive at precisely the advertised screening time and skip most of the annoying "pre-show" without getting a crap seat. I was pleasantly surprised when I returned to the U.S. and discovered the Drafthouse had switched to an all-reserved-seat system, but then I found they tacked on an extra $1.50 to reserve online. At least in this city, it's all but mandatory to book in advance for an evening or weekend screening of any moderately popular movie that's been out for less than a couple of weeks, or for most of the revival/event screenings that Drafthouses are known for. In one instance, I naively tried to buy a walk-up ticket four hours in advance and was told it was sold out, and this was for an 11 P.M. Tuesday screening of a movie that had been out for a week and a half. So I've been attending first-run movies at the nearby Regal and AMC theaters, which are cheaper than even the Drafthouse's base ticket price (I remember when the Drafthouses here had the cheapest first-run tickets in town because they did so much business with the food and beer), but require me to play the old-fashioned game of showing up 30-60 minutes before the screening to get a good seat at a popular movie. With apparently everyone else now following in the Drafthouse's footsteps, I guess these theaters will eventually change over to the reserved-seat model, and I have little doubt they'll also follow the Drafthouse policy of online surcharges. (I'm also none too happy about theaters copying the Drafthouse "dining experience," which I despise, but that's another rant.)

[D50]

Most (all?) Asian movie theaters are reserved seating. I also remember pointing to the row and specific seat I wanted to purchase and seeing where all of the previous purchasers were - which was an exception and not a universal experience.

[tenia]

Going to a theater, chosing your seat (so the insurance you can sit right in the middle or not), having a nice seat that doesn't break your back in half or squeak, AND there will be less people around ? That seems like a nice deal to me.

This being written, in Luxembourg, the theater multiplex I'm going into has always had reserved seating, and you also can't leave empty spaces when booking. However, the theater is usually quite empty, so while the reserved seating is compulsory, people then seat a bit wherever they want (plus, it's sometimes hard to know if you chose seats at the distance you wanted from the screen).

[MongooseCmr]

I agree with the sentiment completely, but no reason anyone has come up with for being mad seems that bad other than the no blank spaces rule. Booking in advance seems nice but showing up early does the same thing. Just seems like a solution to a problem that didn't exist, and an invasive change to tradition, but I can't really justify being mad over it

[Perkins Cobb]

It would become a problem if you need to move away from some disruptive idiot. If MoMA ever does this, their software had better designate some bag rattler-free zones.

On the other hand, for the Film Forum screen that has one and only one seat with an adequate eyeline, it would be handy to reserve it online in advance.

[D50]

I arrived and sat at a Regal theater right when the trailers started (timing or what) and even though I had a perfect seat, I got up to go find the manager to turn down the volume. It was painfully high, and I have hearing loss in my right side. She said she'd take care of it, got back, and had to sit somewhere else. Waited through another trailer and it was still too loud. Repeat, seat taken again. Sound was finally right.