Do you have a memorable movie theater experience?

We went to see the opening of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK without having a clue what kind of movie it was. All we knew came from this poster:



It had Harrison Ford in it and was a pedigree of Spielberg & Lucas, which was good enough for us. All I gathered from the poster was that it had something to do with a truck...

Harry

 

Star Wars would be my #1. I'll always remember the opening with the giant spacecraft emerging overhead, and continuing and continuing and continuing. Blew this 12 year olds mind right there.

Being terrified when Don Knotts fell into the basement of the haunted house in The Ghost and Mr Chicken. Also of note was that I saw it at a very large mall for the early 70s (Square One in Mississauga) that allowed parents to dump their kids in the theatre unattended as they went shopping. That wouldn't happen these days.

My 7 year old friend and I not walking into the Disney movie we were meant for but instead sneaking into Billy Jack and the Born Losers. A literal eye opener. That same year seeing The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and when Sinbad carried Caroline Munro through the surf and put her down there was a brief glimpse of her nipple. Such a surge of electricity went through me that if I had a bag of corn kernels they would have started popping.

The Empire Strikes Back and smoking confined the the rear 10 rows. It was the start of something.

Eyes Wide Shut and during a super dramatic, revelatory, profound scene with the soundtrack keyboards pounding...the whole audience broke out laughing. The movie rolled over and died right there.

Pokemon, the only time I ever fought sleep at a movie, with my son imploring me to stay awake.

The most recent Hobbit and noticing my right ear was ringing due to the volume. I watch the rest of the movie with both ears finger plugged.
Sadly it's evident I haven't had any positive memorable movie experiences for a long time. Bummer.

 

In college I worked at a movie theater, a smallish "art house" (~280 seats) in Palo Alto, CA. We showed Thoroughly Modern Millie and the projectionist decided to play with the audience. The house lights were dimmed but never off. There was a scene where Millie unknowingly throws a cigarette into an open window of a fireworks factory. Then there's an explosion. The projectionist would very slowly dim the house lights down to off, then when the explosion came he cranked the sound and fully flashed the lights.

I would know about when that scene was coming and I'd stand at the back of the theater just to see people jump out of their seats. Worked every time.

 

Fame (2009) - A fight broke out between two teenage girls in the audience.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - My sister threw up her popcorn.

Fighting Temptations - The screen went black in the middle of the movie.

 

When I moved to Chicago in the late 70s, there were still a lot of the old movie palaces that ran movies all day long. I started work in the afternoon, so I went to a LOT of movies in the morning. The theaters were usually packed ( people and rodents!) and the crowds were very vocal and very fun. Sometimes you had to watch the movie standing on your chair if there was an especially rat-attended show. Good times.

 

That is awesome! Reminds me of George Costanza from Seinfeld:

 

Small town theatre showing The Green Mile. It's hot, the A/C isn't working and it's unbelievably dark in the theatre. When Michael Clark Duncan does his first magic thing, a lady a couple of rows up from me looks at her friend and goes, "Girrrl, he got POWERS!" and they high five and laugh hysterically. I thought that was funny and will never forget it.

Seeing Saving Private Ryan in the front row was a terrible experience.

Forgot the movie, but the theatre was dead silent when the movie started and when that Dreamworks kid sitting on the moon throws his fishing line into the moon pool, my friend goes, "AWESOME!" and the whole, packed theatre erupts in laughter.

 

My very first time in a movie theater I've never forgotten. My big sister took me to see "Yellow Submarine" and "Let It Be" in the summer of 1970. I haven't seen LIB on the big screen since.

 

I think one of the most fun movie theater experiences was when I went to the Spike and Mike Sick and Twisted Festival about 15 years ago. There was a lot of audience participation and hilarious animated shorts, some good (like the original South Park related short "Jesus Vs. Santa"), and some truly disturbing ("Sloaches Funhouse", "Beyond Grandpa").

 

I saw the premiere of the restored 3D version of Dial M for Murder in san Francisco. Frenzy was on first. I went to see it again, knowing I'd just stay for the second feature. The place got about 90% filled, and the fools selling tickets assumed people would leave. Frenzy ends, no one stands up to leave. Over a hundred people are crammed at the back. All of us seated people start to laugh. They turned a lot of people away. Dial M was great.

 

I haven't been able to go to movies for at least the last 6-7 years without bringing along earplugs. Surprisingly, I didn't have to use the earplugs at Avengers 2, which was a "very good but not great" film for me.

 

The one really great movie experience I ever had was going to an "arts cinema" 25 years ago for Douglas Fairbanks Sr's 1922 version of "Robin Hood". The theater had a live piano player for the musical score. The audience got into it by cheering Robin Hood and booing/hissing the bad guys. At the end the audience stood up and cheered/applauded the film and then turned around to cheer/applaud the pianist.

 

My Gramma took me to see 2001 when it came out. I was 8...

Thanks Gramma!

 

On the opposite side of that coin, during the scene with the botched execution, a woman at the screening I attended freaked the f--k out! She started shrieking and wailing like the scene was real and taking place in front of her.

Not sure I've ever seen someone lose it like that at a movie - it was nuts how upset that woman got...

 

I fell asleep during Pulp Fiction and stayed asleep for most of it. What can I say, I was tired. I appreciate the film now anyway.

 

I was a teenager(that's a long time ago) and went to a movie theater called the Rugby, known in my neighborhood as the 'Scugby' for how dingy it was. There was a double feature of 'Harold & Maude'(on first) and another movie that escapes me. Well, all through 'Harold & Maude' were many comments, loudly made by many about the relationship, 'Grandma gets it', etc. About 3/4 through the movie, a guy gets on the little bit of stage in front of the screen and starts to sing and dance, and the already raucous crowd starts to cheer him on. An usher was dispatched to get him off from there, and the guy took the stairs stage left, chased by the usher, then ran across the front and went up the stairs and back on the stage at stage right, usher in hot pursuit, and this went on for a good ten minutes, with the crowd howling, throwing stuff, etc. They finally sent a second usher to corral the guy and took him out, at which point the entire theater booed for quite awhile! To this day I laugh whenever I think about it.

 

seeing HELP! for the first time when it hit the local Theater!

 

My Mom took me to the movies almost every week back in the 60's...she loved movies and it carried over to me...great times...

 

The one that stands out for me was the movie Rocky.

At the time, no one knew the name Sylvester Stallone, so there were was none of the unfortunate or inherent "baggage " that would later be attached to his name on future projects.

I saw it with a couple buddies from work as a Saturday afternoon showing. One of my friends attending was a real cinema buff, and he had already caught a bit of the buzz that was just starting to circulate about the film, so the movie was his suggestion.

I remember it was a fairly full showing, not overflowing, but fairly well attended. And within just a few minutes, you could tell that the house was being drawn into the film. It became fairly quiet for a Saturday afternoon matinee. Everyone was focused on the screen and on the story. Before our eyes, Rocky became for us a truly noble loser, who had never been cut a break in his life, who deserved it more than anyone else in the story (along with Adrianne) and fairly quickly, we all began to really feel for this guy. It was magical. He became an actual living person for the audience and we began to share in his struggle to become someone more than who he was.

Our empathy and sympathy for Rocky bumped up more than a notch when he finds Adrianne and gains an ally in Louie. Suddenly, this exhibition fight against Apollo Creed seems possibly winnable and we are drawn into Rocky's struggle to train and prepare for what may be the only break that he will ever receive.

It is Rocky himself whose wisdom defines the upcoming fight when he confesses to Adrianne that he knows in his heart that he is no match for Creed but that if he can remain standing at the end of the 15th round, then he will be able to say that he has accomplished something that no man ever has, to go the distance with Creed.

His desire to just go the distance became the wish of the entire audience at that point, and I remember that people were so engrossed in the story that you could have heard a pin drop.

Like a previous poster mentioned, the audience at our showing became so caught up in the action, that it became an actual fight. Suddenly people were shouting and cheering every time Rocky landed a blow, and each time Creed landed a blow, there was a collective groan or exclamation of empathy for Rocky's obvious pain.

At the end of round 15, there was such a loud collective cheer that it was a bit hard to hear the dialog for a few seconds.

And then, at the end scene when Rocky and Adrianne embrace in the ring, the entire audience, stood up and applauded ! I had never...ever...witnessed a standing ovation for a movie before, and it really, really moved me.

That is without a doubt, my most memorable movie moment.

 

Earthquake in Sensurround.

 

Just thought of a few more:

House Of Dark Shadows - hell, sometimes the TV show gave me the creeps! My parents WARNED, PLEADED with me not to go. I went. The movie was more graphic and violent than the show ever was. Woke up at 2AM screaming. I could hear my father......GD IT!!! I told YOUR son not to go.

The Exorcist - I'll admit it, not a fan of "modern" horror pictures. Anyway.....as a compromise, my friend and I went to an afternoon screening. When the flick was over, I was looking around corners! I look back at that movie now and can't believe how creeped out I was. Maybe being 14 had something to do with it......

Harry Potter(can't remember which one) - saw one of the installments a few weeks before it was to leave the theater. By luck, I get "the commentator" behind me. Yep.....he's telling his friend EVERY thing that's coming next. I turn around and tell him to zip it. Told him - if I want a commentary track, I'll wait for the damn DVD.

 

A bad song from a bad movie in a bad mall theater. I hope you had a girl beside you, at least...

 

I saw Withnail & I in a London theater in 1988. That was the first time I ever saw a movie in a theater that sold alcoholic beverages and allowed smoking. ^^A far cry from my usual suburban experiences up to then^^

 

WINGED MIGRATION
Seen this in a arthaus cinema in 2001.
If your interested in birds( not the Dolly kind) migration you may find this fascinataing. Beautifully filmed, stunning camera work. Soundtrack features Robert Wyatt singing, Nick Cave music.

 

That sounds like way more fun than any movie I've seen in the last 20 years!