Do you have a memorable movie theater experience?

No that's fine. I'll accept that. I was a movie drop off several times as well. Jaws 2 was the first time i can recall but nothing memorable about it.
I did also recall 2 of my birthday partys when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I wanted movie parties with my friends. The 2 movies I chose during the early years? The Hindenburg and King Kong (1976) Hey, I had eclectic tastes for a little kid. It had been Disney movies up until then.

 

Boy, do I! Wish I could tell y'all about it.

 

Pretty sure, but I was awfully young at the time so I guess it's not inconceivable that I'm misremembering. I'm 100% confident of the "Blue Lagoon" part (for obvious reasons) but it's possible I've got the film I intended to see wrong.

On the other hand, I also remember that hit movies use to have much longer stays on the screen back then (the newspaper ads would boast things like "31st Record Breaking Week!") But I don't know if that would apply to "The Black Hole" as my understanding is that it underperformed at the box office.

 

I was 13 in the summer of 1980, and I just can't imagine "Black Hole" was still playing. You're right that movies did play longer back then, but only for big hits - which "Black Hole" wasn't. Maybe you meant to see "Empire Strikes Back"? Or maybe "Battle Beyond the Stars"? Both were out at the same time as "Black Lagoon"...

 

I've had many memorable movie experiences:
• Seeing a revival of 2001 in super-wide screen "Cinerama" at the old United Artists theater in Louisville.
• Watching M*A*S*H and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on acid.
• Seeing Mary Poppins upon its first release at the same United Artists theater. The pit organ was raised and a medley of songs from the movie were played! We stayed for 3 viewings.
• Attending a free sneak preview of Star Wars when no one had any idea what it was. We all got a free May The Force Be With You button, which I still have, and a program, which my old roommate stole.
• I agree with others - seeing The Empire Strikes Back on a big screen was such an overwhelming experience. Vader's confession to Luke caused the crowd to go NUTS.

And, any visit to the old United Artists theater (now Louisville Palace) was memorable. What a beauty.

 

Anyone here have recent thoughts about the Cinerama Dome in LA? I only went the once back in 1985 but I thought it was awesome. Just wondering if it was/is that great or if I was just an easily impressed yoot!

 

Watching 'Goodfellas' for the first time while high in a theater off of Dupont Circle in DC. A group of young Hispanic guys sat down in row directly in front of us and laughed hysterically at the scene where Karen Hill's boyfriend gets the crap beat out of him in his driveway.

 

Once I was shot into space and forced to watch bad movies by an evil scientist.

But it's okay because I built some robot friends to help me get through the ordeal.

 

In my mid-teens...going to the late-night showings at the arthouse theaters that never checked id nor cared if people drank or smoked pot inside....getting "out there" and watching The Groove Tube and giggling at how silly it was - at least to a 16 year old that was somewhat high.

 

Another male hand coming from the other side of the same girl.

 

Coming at this from another perspective...when I was in high school I worked at a suburban movie theater for about a year and a half. This was before the days of multiplexes, so it was a single-screen one with a small lobby and only one level. I took tickets, ushered when necessary, changed the marquee and cleaned up after the last show.

I just have general memories, like hanging out with the projectionist upstairs after the movie started and reading his dirty magazines, or talking with the girls who sold tickets and ran the candy stand. (Funny, I remember that several of them, and some of my fellow ushers too, smoked openly in the lobby. Seems crazy now.) Also, the popcorn was not popped fresh but brought in pre-popped in giant yellow bags, which you dumped into a warming bin. The room where they stored the bags was almost unbearable to enter, it smelled so bad.

I suppose my most memorable experience was when we had a Saturday matinee with some Disney flick, and the place was just totally overrun with kids. We had to string several yellow clotheslines out into the parking lot all the way to the edge of the busy street just to bring some sort of crowd control and funnel patrons through the one set of doors. When it was finally all over, the carpet in the lobby was embedded with endless bits of trampled popcorn left behind. Clean-up that day was not fun at all!

 

I worked at a theater during high school as well. I remember the giant popcorn bags, cleaning the butter dispenser, trying to collect money for Roy Rogers charity before the movie started and only hearing crickets. Ahh the good old days. The theater was actually one of the nicest on Long Island, Lots of seating, huge 70mm screen, balcony. Long gone now, turned into a fitness club i believe. It was only during a few months in 1986 but I remember starting on the end run of The Manhattan Project then it switched to About Last Night then At Close Range and I left just as Nothing In Common started. Not exactly blockbusters.

 

I swore it was called the Metro, but a Google search reveals nothing of the sort. I don't think it was the Uptown, or was it...?

I remember it was one of the great old single movie theaters of DC, but I only went to it the one time.

 

I'm pretty sure it was the Uptown - that's long been the "go-to" big theater in DC. I can't think of any other DC screen where you would've been able to see "LOA" in a big, impressive presentation...

 

It just doesn't ring a bell, but I'm sure it was the Uptown. I just checked Google images and it doesn't even look familiar. But it was 25 years ago...

 

Seeing this picture has me thinking what the Saenger will look like when it reopens in the fall. Built in 1929, been shuttered since Katrina flooded it. They said they found the ORIGINAL blueprints and a lot of surprises are in store. Can't wait to be back in this grand old landmark.

 

I went with my fellow dork friends to see The Kids Are Alright in 1979 at a theater in my boring suburban town. The theater projectionist was playing "The Who Sell Out" over the sound system as we walked into the theater. I wasn't familiar with that album yet. I recognized "I Can See For Miles", and was intrigued by the hard pop of the rest of the album. I had liked The Who. I had "Tommy", "Leeds", "Who's Next"......
The theater was known for a great sound system, for such a bland town- Covina, CA. When the movie began....WOW! Such energy! The surprisingly vocal audience was yelling "TURN IT UP!". The projectionist did just that. It seemed the audience were all somehow now friends and were connected to the events onscreen. The disparate personalities of the band were obvious! I became a Who FANATIC that day! We stayed and saw it twice, and went again the next weekend! I can still channel that excitement of me as a 14-year-old when I watch that movie.

That's why I always prefer to go to a theater if I'm interested in a new film! (which I rarely am these days) It's the shared experience. Except when people are rude. Hence the rarity of going.

 

yes, the 70mm restoration of Vertigo at the Ziegfeld in NYC in 1997. Unbelievable.

other mentionables were seeing Short Cuts (1993) and Fargo in the theater. I've never seen Fargo look that good since.....it had a gorgeous gloss on film that has not transfered to video.

 

Do you remember if it was a big, curved screen? That's what the Uptown has:

 

I was 13, and at the time, there was a commerical promoting the Ontario Meat industry or something similar, "Put pork on your fork".
I LOVED horror movies, so I went to see Linda Blair in Hell Night on the opening night. During the movie, the maniac is referred to in slang as a "gork" at one point, and during a scene when the maniac is rising from the floor...we see a carpet rising, knowing it's him under there....one of the teens takes a pitchfork to the carpet, so I shouted out; "Put Gork on your fork" and the whole room seemed to explode in laughter. I was really proud of it, and the next time I saw the flick, some else yelled it out, so I wondered if they had copied me.

 

I love the Uptown's Cinerama. I've been lucky to catch 2001, Blade Runner, Alien and other classics there and be blown away even if by blow-up prints. Most recently caught Argo there.

 

I've not been to the Uptown in ages - I need to see something there in the near future!

 

When I saw "Vertigo" at the Ziegfeld in 1997, the audience burst out laughing when Scottie Ferguson tells Judy Barton -- as he is completely making her over into Madeline Elster -- that she has to put her hair up in a bun. She resists, but he says, "Judy, it can't matter to you!" and the audience went collectively nuts at his sexist nuttiness.

 

Living in Columbia, MD, it's rarely worth the hour-plus schlep. I happened to be in the area while Argo was playing so I took advantage of the situation. Back when I lived near UDC and could walk there, well, that was different.

My most immediately remembered experiences at the Uptown (aside from what I mentioned already):

Camping out with friends for the Empire Strikes Back SE premiere.
$40 parking ticket when seeing The Fugitive.
Being dragged to a late show of The Phantom Menace after a twelve hour shift and getting a bad feeling about galactic taxes before nodding off.
Seeing Michael Douglas's larger than life dimpled chin in The American President (which did not benefit from Cinerama!).

These days I don't go to the theater as much. Maybe some repertory at the AFI Silver (where during a slow hour I recently had a private showing of The Master in 70mm) or at the Charles in Baltimore.

What little mainstream viewing I do is usually at AMC Columbia where I've only had one memorable experience: seeing The Dark Knight Rises a week after "the incident" I sat my ragged, stubbly self down with messenger bag in my lap. Two burly guys sat a few seats to my right. They seemed to be enjoying conversation. After a few minutes, one turned to me in my normal uniform (t-shirt, opened button down shirt and cap) and with serious intent asked what was in my bag. "Sketchbook, pencils, kneadable eraser," I told him, leaving out perhaps mention of some *cough* sugary boxed contraband. He sized me up and said, "good." Long pause, then he turned back to his friend. They kept kidding until the previews, when they got up and left not to return. I felt luckier than Cool Hand Luke pulled over at a stoplight.

 

When I saw The Help, laughter began to build in the audience as the maid came with the specially made "chocolate" pie, and erupted loudly when it began to be eaten.