in my old home in Concord CA. going to the theater was a great way to sit in a dark air-conditioned room on a hot ass afternoon. when they sold beer! whoa, i would do yard work, take a shower, and go and have a beer.

i've seen some mediocre movies trying to cool down.

With so much content now available on-line, I don't really miss going to the theater to see a film, although I'll still go once in a while for something special, or just to get out of the house for a while.

What I don't like about movie theaters is this new system of having to pick out a seat beforehand. Unless I'm very familiar with the particular venue, I really don't know where I'll want to sit until I get inside. Who does this really benefit anyway...the theater, or the patrons? So you can pick a seat while buying your ticket and then wind up sitting near people who insist on playing with their phones, or be noisily fiddling with food wrappers, or talking thru the whole movie. Or get stuck behind someone really tall, or blocking your view with big hair or a hat. I like to check out the audience before choosing a seat to hopefully avoid sitting near annoying people like that.

And I really don't like being subjected to an endless stream of commercial ads before the film begins...which is usually 15-20 minutes past the advertised start time. I can sit home and watch network TV if I want to see non-stop commercials punctuated by a few minutes of actual programming.

I suspect the assigned seating is to catch people sneaking in from another movie.

Or perhaps the theater owners use cameras to scan the audience for anyone recording and prevent DRM piracy.

Or perhaps facial recognition and just simple demographic purposes.

Or maybe they are tracking facial expressions on how the audience responds to certain scenes. To use viewers as unpaid lab rats and send the data back to Hollywood as user feedback, taken without compensation, for determining what kinds of films to create in the future.

My fave movie theaters here serve excellent beer, burgers, pizza, and bring it to your seat . . .

Yup that’s the style I go to. Definitely enhances the experience.

Esp when you are dragged to see Pride and Prejudice and surround by a bunch of weeping women

Or the 'English Patient' :eek:

That’s one of those “don’t let my glass get empty” sort of evenings.:D

Since you need a vest and a glock just to watch Batman.
Nah
Now drive in movies. I get fancy with that one.

In the 80’s one of our cinematography instructors explained how nothing on TV mattered because everyone on screen was smaller than you. In order to matter they had to be bigger than life..........thus the BIG SCREEN. Sort of like Rock & Roll, there’s 95dB ( ok )
And 114 to 120 a totally different animal.
He said you don’t care about people smaller than you........I think he’s right.
My 2 cents.

Rich

Couldn't care less. The last one I saw in theatre was Dunkirk or Bridge of Spies. Before that was probably Avatar. Before that was probably Master and Commander (in Luxembourg). I'm not a movie guy and am fine with catching it on DVD, Amazon Prime or an overseas flight.

For many years, I have been going at least once a month to dinner and a midnight movie with friends in Dallas (puts me back home at after 3am as I live an hour away from the action - lousy, combat-style driving on the way there and fun, deserted highways driving on the way home) - I miss that for the same reasons you mention (and don't give two shiits about the money I spend doing it). Booze is allowed in the theater, too! :D

nope
bad seats
dissapointing movies

don't miss it.

Don't remember the last time i've gone to an actual public movie theater, it's been over 15 years.

Have an excellent 1080 65" TV that makes even 720 look like 1080 and does 3D. My recliner is about 8ft from it. Have had visitors comment how clear it is. Also have had 5.1 surround sound that fills the room with no sweet spot since 1982. Have had visitors comment that it was surround anywhere in the room without hearing the sound coming from the closest speaker.

Plenty immersive enough for me. Don't miss public theaters at all.

I've always been an experiential person, eschewing "stuff" for spending time with friends, going places, doing things. The only stuff I have, Porsches, is just another way to surround myself with great friends, and get to dinner and movies.

We have booze here too but I never seem to have any. Dinner though, a great old fashioned, g&t or cabernet, that's where it's at.

Just like restaurants...it's not about $, never has been for me. They're just not something I enjoy doing doing for the "experience" ...and I haven't been in a theater in decades so....

GOML :D!

So many sourpusses...

If you never saw Gravity in an IMAX theater, you don't know what you missed.

Or Dunkirk in 70mm IMAX.

Saw it a few times in 70mm and in regular theaters. Completely different experience in 70.

I prefer lemon mouth :). I just don't enjoy going to theaters....or any event that requires sitting in your seat for extended periods of time....it just who I am and always have been. Different strokes....

The ones who should be crying are the men. Imagine all your assets being passed down to some indolent bum who isn't even related to you? The horror!
Women should leave that book ecstatic that they weren't born in 1820.