Your Best Theater Experience.

Making out with a chick through the entirety of MY FAVORITE MARTIAN.

Aside from fingerbanging a girl during Dear God when I was in junior high...

Friday the 13th Part 3D on silver screen 3D! (Friday March 13th, 1998)

or...

The Godfather, Part II in 2001.

Wow, I forgot that Dear God and My Favorite Martian even existed.

My personal favorite was seeing 2001 at the Cinerama when it was rereleased. It's one of my favorite films of all time, and quite the experience on the big screen. There was an intermission and everything.

I saw the re-release of Star Wars:A New Hope on opening night at the Mann Chinese on mushrooms.

About two months before HELLBOY was released there was a free midnight screening in Austin. The audience was mostly comic/film savvy nerds, so we all had a great communal thing going on. After the movie ended, Guillermo Del Toro and Ron Perlman both took the stage to answer questions. We went to watch HELLBOY in our regular theater when it was released, and the experience was hardly a tenth as enjoyable.

2001 shown in 70mm at the London Imax a bunch of years ago, and Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm at the Ziegfeld a year or so back. The stark clarity of both prints put any 4k presentation to shame. Bliss.

For me, it's a toss-up between three.

We saw X2 opening night at this really cool theater in downtown Columbus, OH. It was the night before our junior prom, and we were able to get like 20 people together for dinner beforehand. I think we were the youngest people there, so we didn't have to put up with any obnoxious middle school kids on their first date. The movie itself just got a great crowd reaction, and we all came out laughing and pointing out little fan moments like we were 8 years old again. Needless to say, both prom and the third movie were letdowns.

I saw ROTK at midnight with about a dozen of my friends our senior year of high school. It was at that same theater, and we even went to eat at the same place. We stood in line for hours with people in costume, eating ice cream and watching the extended Two Towers projected on the wall. There were trivia contests, prizes, and even somebody from the local news came and interviewed us in line. The movie itself was great of course, but due to its heavy nature and the late hour, we mostly sat there in silence. It actually sort of hit me hard because it was the last movie and it made me think about all the friends I was going to miss when our own little "fellowship" split up and moved on to college. By the time I got home, it was so late/early I just took a shower and went to school. We all wore the little rings they gave us in line the next day as a sign of exhausted solidarity.

The last great experience was Revenge of the Sith. It was finals week in my freshman year of college, and we went with 20 people, mostly from our small honors dorm. We'd all been through a lot of crazy stuff, and everybody had dated somebody at some point, so it was nice to get them all together in one place to do something fun. That afternoon, we all got together in Star Wars t-shirts and watched the DVDs of TPM, AOTC and both volumes of Clone Wars (taped off of TV) to get us in the mood. Then we went into Manhattan and stood in this huge line around the block waiting to get into the AMC Empire 25 in Times Square, finally letting me experience the lines around the block they always mention when recalling the opening of the first film. I really liked the movie, even though it was hot and I had to pee the whole time. It was just so great to have everybody together in the city, surrounded by an enthusiastic audience full of lightsaber-wielding fans. After I got home, though, I was pretty bummed when it dawned on me that there was no more Star Wars to get excited about.

For me, it was probably that one time that no one fucking talked.

You lucky bastard.

I don't know if I've ever seen anything in 70mm. Does anybody know where in the NYC area they would show something like that?

Best theater experience: Seeing 'Star Wars' for the first time, back in 1977. I was 7 years old, and we saw it at the Cooper theater (not there anymore) here in MN. HUGE screen. I was mesmerized for the entire time. Nothing since has topped it.

Close second best: LEAVING the theater in the middle of 'Bean' for 2 reasons: a) it sucked, and b) my girlfriend promised me a blowjob if we left then and there.

Grindhouse.

A Tuesday, in Puerto Rico, at a 9:45 p.m. showing during finals week.

A) I went with a hot-ass Mexican exchange student with giant tits and a beautiful smile.

B) The theater was PACKED and ROWDY, in a good way. People were loving it and hollering and laughing and eating up the entire thing from beginning to end, hardly a moment of silence. My favorite bit: when the gunshot went off inside the car in Planet Terror everyone gasped and some guy in the back yelled out "YES!" in a hilariously pleased way.

C) She loved Death Proof and that made me want her even more.

***

I loved the crowd I saw the first Spider-Man with, too.

Same experience during the film Soul Man. That theatre was dead. Even the projectionist left.

As far as best theatre experience with an audience. I say it was Independence Day during the San Diego Comic Con. The place was packed with nerds and everyone was into it. We didn't know any better at the time.

How could you even get it up during Soul Man? That movie should come with a Surgeon General's warning.

Grindhouse

The 40 Year Old Virgin. I don't think I've crowd as a well behaved as this one has. Which was quite ironic considering the movie. But they laughed at the right jokes and the waxing seen to this day still brings tears of sweet, sweet laughter to my eyes.

Rocky Balboa. Never before have I wanted to jump out of my seat and start screaming for someone to win. God damn what an experience.

I wish I felt like I saw the same Rocky Balboa everybody else seems to love. I grew up watching all five of the previous movies countless times on television, so it's not like I was rooting against this one. But it just did nothing for me but remind me that there was a movie called Rocky that came out 30 years ago, and all the inspirational dialogue sounded ripped from some high school coach's playbook. The crowd I was in seemed pretty bored, which couldn't have helped. The best they could do was some polite applause as the training montage began.

I'm glad you had a good time with it though, and I mean that in a non-sarcastic way.

Seeing Touch of Evil at Film Forum, 1998 or 1999, when that re-edit came out. I had just realized that movies weren't only for mindless entertainment. There was a succession of films I saw in about a three year period that left me kind of staggering around the trashcans outside the theater area, fumbling with rolling papers and tickets stubs, trying to get my head together. I was a very impressionable youth, youth was real. Everything was serious. PURPOSE! REASON!!! Touch of Evil is the one film I remember watching most.

Star Trek: First Contact on opening night.

Maybe it was just the luck of the draw, but I'm yet to hear an audience erupt into applause like that one did when the end credits rolled up.

Haven't seen a Trek film in the theaters since.

You know, funnily enough, I remember "Star Trek Generations" being a pretty cool experience at the cinema. Me and my two best friends went to see it as a treat for my 17th birthday.
I'm not really a fan of "Star Trek" but for some reason, I remember this being a real great night. We all got REALLY INTO the movie, even though deep down we knew it wasn't all that good, lol.
Oddly enough, I saw "Batman Forever" later the same year with the same two dudes, and that was a cracking night out aswell. In fact, these are probably the two best in my life.
We saw "Batman Forever" in an old style cinema (before the multi-plex took over the UK), and after the movie we came out and saw a bat fly over us! Wierd or what? Brilliant night. One of the UK's most beautiful summers aswell, as I remember.
Maybe it ain't the movie, maybe it's just who you're with I guess.

"Rocky Balboa" was a great experience aswell.

EDIT I remember also seeing "True Lies" with those guys, and "Jurassic Park" and "Cliffhanger" with only one of them.
Those were great experiences too. And "Demolition Man".

I should go to the cinema with these guys again... EVERY time was brilliant.

Even if the film was shit, we still managed to have a great time. We still managed to make seeing "Chain Reaction", "Scream 2", "Armageddon" and "Junior" fun.

My mom took me to see Undiscovered Country and watching those opening credits on dvd takes me back every time. I'd seen the first five movies on vhs and that was my first Trek film on the big screen. She also took my friend and my sister and I to see Generations on what I think was opening day. There were two guys probably in their early twenties sitting a few rows in front of us and seeing how much they were getting into it I somehow took it as a good sign of things to come. As a side note, the aforementioned First Contact screening I attended by myself while my mother and sister saw Jingle All the Way in another aud. Afterwards they mentioned a trailer they'd seen saying something about the Star Wars movies getting re-released. This was the very first news I ever heard about what we now know as the Special Edition.

Another top notch theater experience I totally forgot to mention is Hero on its U.S. opening night back in august of '04 at the Ballston Common Regal. Partially it's because this was the last hurrah of a very cool summer for my friends and I, but mostly because this was the biggest theater I've seen in my life. The screen was so huge that the picture seemed to be stretched at the corners just so it would fit, and that made those wide shots of the armies in Peking even more breathtaking - it looked real! Combined with an incredible sound system that made me sink into my chair during the Qin army's attack on the calligraphy school, it probably made for the highest quality presentation of a movie I've ever experienced.

I saw it again a few weeks later with a different group of friends at a different theater .... no where near as good.

Oh, and damimegood, I'm now officially sold on seeing Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm especially since I've never seen such a print before. AFI Silver is showing it next weekend and I'm going come hell or high water.

300
Imax

It's pretty easy for me to recall the great viewings of Star Wars and LOTR or the childhood/pubescent-shaping events of ET and Batman (89), but one experience stands out.

Seeing a new print of Jason and the Argonauts at the beautiful Loew's theater in Jersey City (May 2004). Harryhausen was there, signing books (I got my J&A dvd and William Stout "Tribute to Harryhausen" monster sketchbook signed) before and stayed for a gracious Q&A. Movie history right before my eyes and all for $8! Seeing the skeleton and hydra scenes in that amazing classic theater on the big screen was an utter joy.



http://www.jcedc.org/loews.shtml

...

I would have to say, the best time was during a Scorsese triple feature. My girlfriend had never seen a Scorsese film, and here we had "Taxi Driver" followed by "Mean Streets" and then finally "Raging Bull". It was fucking awesome, probably the best triple feature in the HISTORY OF MOVIES.

Though, admittedly, the midnight screening of "Snakes On A Plane" was really something else. I've never seen an audience so excited.

As most of you know, Grindhouse isn't making to the foreign markets in it's intact form. But I'm about to go see it in a little theatre, Illegaly projected from a dodgy taiwanese bootleg DVD, hopefully making it even more grindhousy. This could be something special, or it could be fucking horrendous. I guess I'll find out in about 2 hours.

I just mentioned this in another thread, but probably when I was a kid and we saw Jaws. Such a huge movie, such a really huge phenomenon for that summer. I was 11, and my stepdad's kids were 12 and 9, and the three of us snuck in. Seeing that movie on a huge screen, excited to death to be there, pulling one over on our parents - it was just a real rush.

By far for me it was seeing South Park:BLU for the first time in theatres...I went with my three best friends back then and remember feeling like this film was catered to us and that we were being transposed into the movie as the boys seeing "Asses of Fire" for the first time
It's the movie where I found my humor and an undying love for Stone and Parker and their genius.

A second to that was definitely the LOTR trilogy...I guess the geeky Star Wars excitement of my generation. Me and my friend even became co-presidents of the Tolkien Club at school...and shit like that I normally wasnt into.

Midnight screening of Day of the Dead with my dad in 1985.

Resurrecting this old thread to mention Enter the Void. Last night I got to bear witness to patented Gaspar Noe audience collapse. The guy got up during one of the many colored strobe/swirling camera sequences took about ten paces up the aisle, walking like a zombie, and dropped. He came to a few seconds later and left the theater muttering, "I guess I entered the void too hard."

It was the hightlight of the picture.

Waiting on line with two of my best friends for 18 hours outside the Ziegfeld Theater to get tickets for the Phantom Menace premiere. That line was like Woodstock for Star Wars fans - pitched tents, people in costumes, news reporters, the works. Before we all knew what a letdown the movie itself would be, there was such a great sense of excitement and camaraderie. Everybody was chatting with the people near them in line and basically getting their geek on.

The narrowly-averted race riot at the end, when it seemed there wouldn't be enough tickets, was pretty memorable too.

Most recently, going to my local repertory theatre a couple of months ago and watching a packed showing of the original prints of Predator and Die Hard back to back with a bunch of fellow Gen X's and Y's whooping, hollering, clapping and cheering at all the best moments and lines is certainly the best film experience I've enjoyed in the last decade or more.

Just a wonderfully cathartic and incredible shared film experience that's all too rare these days. Everyone walked out of the cinema smiling at each other and nodding knowingly.

I feel like this begs for a "Most Inappropriate Movie You Finger-Banged a Girl To" thread. I have a good one.

I went to see Die Hard last night and it was much the same. A lot of people had been in the cinema bar beforehand which probably helped with the jovial atmosphere. Everyone laughed in the right places - Hans & Ellis scene, Johnson & Johnson etc. Lots of cheering at the big moments and a huge round of applause at the end which is very rare for a British audience.

It was the first time my girlfriend had seen it and she absolutely loved it depsite having no time for action films

And best of all, after the credits had rolled to 'Let it Snow' we walk outside and it was actually snowing, cue a rousing/slightly drunken rendition of 'Let it Snow' in the car park.

Seattle Film Festival
"The Empire Strikes Back"
May 21, 1980 -- 12:01am

I hate you so much.

One of my worst:

Seattle Film Festival
"The Return of the Jedi"
May 25, 1983 -- 12:01am

Thank God I wasn't standing in line waiting for the 3am showing of Empire. A missing-chromosome dude in front of me was talking loudly to his friend as they exited about how COOL it was that VADER was LUKE'S FATHER and how LUKE GOT HIS HAND CUT OFF!!

You could see the dismay on the faces of those we passed.

I have a few:

-- Seeing Star Wars for the first time at a drive-in in 1977. It looked like the opening crawl was literally rolling up into the sky. Really got things off to an epic start.

-- Superman in 1978. The first movie I was allowed to go see by myself (thus sparing me from having to sit through Grease with my sister). Opening credits + Williams' score did me in right there.

-- Raiders of the Lost Ark at midnight about ten years ago. The AMC at Pleasure Island was doing a retro program over the summer, and I had to go see Raiders again. And damned if that film didn't work just as well, grainy old print and all. That may have even added to the charm.

-- Fellowship of the Ring, first midnight showing. Just sitting there having it dawn on me that they'd nailed it is one of the most wonderful experiences I've ever had.

-- Attack of the Clones, first midnight showing. My version of Harry's Godzilla. Hot crowd and great atmosphere combining to elevate a film much higher in my estimation than where it eventually landed.

Oh yeah, I wish that Pleasure Island still did that retro thing. Or heck, the theatre they have at Universal should go back to doing the retro thing also. I mean, that was how I got to see the likes of Die Hard, Rear Window, The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, The Birds, Jaws, the first two Indiana Jones movies, and several others on the big screen. The rather pitiful attendance those screenings got, though, explains why no chain theatre around the area does it.

I'll say that some I remember very well:

* Seeing the first Paranormal Activity. I know, people still poo-poo the film, but I had heard about it since '07 so I was happy that the first midnight screenings were in Orlando. I think I was one of the few who knew anything at all about it. The packed crowd lost their minds and that made the experience great.

* Watching Black Dynamite at the local arty theatre in the area, The Enzian. It's one of those places with tables and you order food to be brought to you. It was packed in that small joint also, and the crowd was rabid for it. It got standing ovations! It was a few days before it came out on DVD too, so at least with me there was months of waiting to see it. The movie more than delivered and the crowd was wild for all the jokes.

* The new Friday the 13th. I'm serious. It was another midnight screening. It was the perfect crowd to see a slasher film. I wish I could have that sort of crowd for all the movies I see, but especially that kind of flick. I realize now along with many others how bad the movie is (having never even seen it again) but the audience loved it and some ladies around me sounded like they soiled their pants during the loudest jump scares.

* I'll at least never forget being one of about two dozen people who was there at the 7 PM Friday night showing at Pleasure Island of Hatchet II with the great Kane Hodder in attendance and listening to his Q&A before and after the film. The movie itself wasn't too fantastic but the fact that the movie only lasted a few days on the big screen, the celebrity appearance, and the low attendance made it a memorable experience.

* The aforementioned Enzian was one of the first places in the U.S. to start a weekly run of Let The Right One In back when it finally got a limited release. I went to an evening screening and me and the rest of the crowded place were blown away by how great the movie was.

The CinePlex at Universal still shows older films, they just do a poor job of publicizing it. As in putting the title on the marquee and hoping people notice it. For example, they've been showing It's a Wonderful Life since around Thanksgiving, with little to no fanfare.

Seeing THE DARK KNIGHT at midnight at an IMAX screen. Crowd went absolutely dead silent when the blue burning bat appeared, and it was an amazing collective experience. Crowd went apeshit when the Batpod did its 180 against the building.

Also, seeing SCHINDLER'S LIST. No one got up or did anything (except weep) for a good full minute after the credits rolled.

ETA: THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER at age 14, at one of the last HUGE theaters in town. Packed house. Fun flick.

Yeah I've been debating whether or not to post my experience having sex during a screening of Chicago...

It wasn't a great movie, but it was appropriate that during the bit where Renee Zelwegger is playing the part of wooden puppet on Richard Gere's lap, I was mid coitus.

Maybe I've ruined the thread.

How about this. Return of the King, 2003. Sure it's cliche, but I had been going through a creative dry spell coinciding with the doldrums of trying to get through the final two years of college. Watching that movie, opening night, seemed to wake up the artist in me again.

There.

Oh god yes Rich.

I'd booked Gold Class tickets to see it with friends the night of release on Boxing Day '01, but realised my first watch had to be a solo affair as I'd waited for so long and this was so god-damn personal for me I couldn't share that first experience, so I went and saw it that morning alone.

Just watching it unfold and realising Jackson has made the film I'd been seeing in my head since I was ten years old, seeing this world that was so ingrained in my imagination come to vivid life, was one of the most incredible and personal film-going experiences of my life. Then it ended and I realised I'd have to wait a whole year for the next instalment and a whole two years for the end.

I walked out of that cinema on the kind of high I've only felt a few rare times in my life and if I hadn't already been booked in to see it again later that night, would have walked straight up to the counter and bought a ticket for the next session there and then.

Thanks for making me feel a little bit younger, it doesn't happen much any more.

Another one of my best is seeing Aliens in a theater during its initial theatrical run. The entire theater erupted in cheers when Paul Reiser turned to find that xenomorph behind him.

A midnight screening of Enter the Void with fellow film students - front row. The fact that it was in an extremely seedy and run-down art-house theater made it even better.