interesting observations at the movie theatre

[luvflorida]

Husband, DS24, DD15, and I went to the Harry Potter movie last night. We stopped on our way to dinner to purchase the tickets three hours before the movie started. Got back to the theatre 45 minutes before the movie started and walked right in. We figured we'd be able to get fairly good seats. Well, I guess they had let people into the theatre pretty early because the only seats left were the ones in the first two rows. We took four seats in the second row, and soon after, the show sold out.

Anyway, I've never sat that close to the screen before and all I can say is "OUCH!!" I had to slouch down in the seat and tilt my head back to see anything. And then I had to roll my eyeballs from side to side to catch all the action on the screen. I had quite the headache when I got home.

Now, to the interesting observations:

Five teenagers walked in wearing tall, pointy wizard hats and sat in the very front row. The people behind them waited for the hats to be removed but when none of the boys made any attempt to remove their hats, the guy behind one of them said, "Um, boys, if I had a magic wand I would wave it over your hats and cause them to disappear, but I don't, so would you please make them disappear yourselves?"

At the beginning of the movie, two people got into some kind of an altercation. I caught something like, "I was here first!" Well, you better believe I'm not going anywhere!" And I heard someone say something about the manager.

Before the movie started, DD15 got a call from a friend on her cell phone. Daughter's cell phone was on vibrate, so nobody heard her phone go off. She told her friend she couldn't talk because she was at the movies. Daughter then turned her phone off and put it in her purse. A woman was sitting two seats away and saw daughter pick up her phone and proceeded to glare at her, then shake her head. Like I said, the phone was on vibrate, nobody could hear it, and the movie had not started yet. Daughter saw the woman's reaction and I saw it. I just looked back at the woman. At the height of a very intense scene toward the end of the movie, a cell phone loudly goes off. Yep, it belonged to the woman who glared at daughter. It took her a little bit of time to rummage around in her bag, find the phone and turn it off. Groans from other people could be heard in the theatre. All I could think was, what goes around, comes around.

Oh, and during the movie, someone in the back of the theatre dropped something that sounded very heavy. I'm not sure what it was but it must have been round because everyone could hear it as it rolled from the back of the theatre all the way to the front of the theatre.

We thoroughly enjoyed Harry Potter, though!! In fact, daughter went again tonight with a few friends.

 

[Feralpeg]

I may be able to top your experience. DD, my sister and I went to Harry Potter last night. We were in a very large theater at the West Side of DTD. The theater has a balcony. When we got to the theater, we had planned on seeing the 7:15 show. It was 5:15. The 7:15 was sold out, but the lady in the box office told us that there were over 100 tickets left for the 5:30 show. We bought tickets and went straight to the theater. There were no seats left downstairs at all. We went to the balcony and found some fairly good seats. It would have been an enjoyable experience, but there was a lady sitting in the middle of our row who go up every 15 minutes. She would only be gone about 5 minutes and come back. By the six or seventh time she squeezed by us, I was ready to push her over the edge. If we hadn't had people in between us, I'd have suggested she move to the other side of us. I have no idea why she kept getting up. Then, to top things off, another person went to the area directly behind the last row of seats. There was a trash can there. She proceeded to throw up into the trash can during the movie. She did this a couple of times. I was so glad we were about six rows away. I can't even image what it was like for the people at the very back.

Other than that, we really liked the movie!

 

[luvflorida]

By the six or seventh time she squeezed by us, I was ready to push her over the edge.

This cracked me up, even though I'm sure it wasn't funny to you at the time!!

 

[DisneyMomOK]

Sounds like there was some "phone karma" payback for the woman that glared. And, yikes, throwing up in the theater!!! When we went to GOF the only excitement was (I am not totally sure, but I definitely think so) the guy next to my DH videotaping it (used his Ipod as a hard drive, I think).

Sharon

 

[Texan Mouseketeer]

We just got back from seeing this movie ourselves. Guy behind us talked and smacked his popcorn as loud as one could ever do the entire time despite us asking him to stop, telling him to shut up, getting the management in there to ask him to stop. Nothing worked. I don't get it. I think he should have been kicked out, but they didn't do it. I was going to get up a last time, but it was a good part of the movie and I didn't want to miss it! The place was sold out, so moving was out of the question, unfortunately.
DH and I never go to the movies for this reason - we've only gone for Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. We told each other tonight, thank goodness two of these series are done and there are only three Potter movies to go!

 

[Crazoo]

Interesting experience...I hate going to movies on opening night. I'd rather wait a few days so I can get a decent seat without having to go really early and the theaters not all packed with people.

 

[the kabuki]

And this is why I don't go to the movies!!!

 

[Crazoo]

And this is why I don't go to the movies!!!

You shouldn't let other people interfere with what you want to do.

If you wait until the 2nd weekend or go on a weeknight, it won't be so bad.

 

[Lil_Tink]

Lol I saw it. The guy infront of my almost bought out the consession stand. Then there were about 8 teenagers my age behind me and one was running through the seat aisle (dont even know why) and almost fell and tumbled over me and down the theature lol.

 

[Jamesbyr]

Exactly! Go the second week. Don't be part of the hype!

 

[Barb D]

We had a fussy baby in our theater. It was a 6:20 PM showing, sold out with people who had paid $9 apiece to be there. And the parent would not take the baby out! Get a babysitter next time! And if you think the baby will sleep through the whole thing and take a chance on bringing him, be prepared to give up your OWN $9 and remove him from the theater at the FIRST sign of fussiness!

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Anyway, I've never sat that close to the screen before and all I can say is "OUCH!!" I had to slouch down in the seat and tilt my head back to see anything. And then I had to roll my eyeballs from side to side to catch all the action on the screen. I had quite the headache when I got home.

LOL! Welcome to my world! Handicapped seating is a lot of times in the first 2 rows around here, depending on the theater. It's so bad a lot of times I tell my husband and friends to go sit where they are comfortable and can enjoy the movie. Totally stinks!

 

[Daxx]

Daxx's Wife here. DS9 and I went to see HP & GOF on Fri. and then, again, yesterday b/c Daxx wanted to see it. Fri. was def. a "better viewing" b/c the theatre we were in was the larger of the stadium theatres. The Sat. movie was in the smaller of the stadium theatres, so w/all the people, it felt very boxed in. Well, wouldn't you know ... there were about 30 kids between 3 and 7 around us. I said to DS9, "they're going to be crying!" and he agreed. Sure enough, they all started to howl (and I mean howl) when Voldemort came on.

I know some kids can handle that kind of stuff ... and I know there are some kids who can't. If your child gets scared easily, or is 3 or 4, don't take them. The whole Voldemort thing isn't pretty.

 

[florida-again]

Me and my ex-bf went to see a kids film, on a saturday afternoon. Naturally it was full of kids, naturally they were noisy and annoying. Fair enough in my opinion, it WAS aimed at kids.

But my ex-bf had a bit of an 'age-confusion' problem - as in, rather than acting like the 16 yo guy that he was, he would act like a 90yo woman!

So he marches up to the guy working there, and in his loudest, most clipped british accent said 'this is an absolute disgrace, how one can be expected to enjoy the film is absurd. The noise is preposterous and I shan't be returning to this establishment again'.

The guy working there looked at him like 'what the &*^%$?????' Here was some short teenage boy, talking like some cranky, rich old lady! I have never been so embarrassed! Needless to say I dumped him soon after that!

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

I copied and pasted this from another GoF thread, as it fits here:

DD 11, DS 7 and I went to the midnight showing on Thursday, and again this afternoon. Both kids loved the movie, and I wanted to see it again to decide how I felt about it (it takes me a while to process it all). The midnight showing was packed - two theaters originally slated for the showing filled up with so many people still buying tickets that the cinema opened another theater! We arrived over an hour early to the pleasant surprise that the theater had been remodeled to provide stadium seating and fantastic new speakers. A group of college students kept everyone entertained before the movie began by holding an impromptu trivia contest, even dividing the theater into the four Hogwarts houses to keep score. My kids want to attend the midnight shows for the rest of the films from now on!

[ rant mode ] Today's experience was the worst I've had in a theater. We went to our small, local cinema for this time, and it too was packed. Two young women in front of us kept checking their cell phones throughout the movie, and a family behind us brought two toddlers and an infant. The baby alternately whimpered and screamed until the father finally left with it after an hour or so. One toddler, apparently a future sports broadcaster, enthusiastically announced every move the actors made throughout ("The dragon breathed fire on Harry, mommy. Now Harry has his broom. Harry is flying on the broom," ad infinitum...), while the other toddler continually either demanded candy and drinks at the top of her voice or cried, whining that she didn't like the movie. Interestingly, both children were quiet during the maze and Voldemort sequences. Go figure. [ / rant ]

LindsayDunn: I noticed that the new theater's handicapped section was right in the center of the theater, between the upper and lower decks, in probably the best area to view the movie. My kids and I were talking about how (literally) painful it is to see from the front when I noticed the designated area and realized what an annoyance it must be to *have* to sit in a bad spot. I'm glad to see theaters wising up and offering better for people who have no choice.

 

[Marseeya]

Daxx's Wife here. DS9 and I went to see HP & GOF on Fri. and then, again, yesterday b/c Daxx wanted to see it. Fri. was def. a "better viewing" b/c the theatre we were in was the larger of the stadium theatres. The Sat. movie was in the smaller of the stadium theatres, so w/all the people, it felt very boxed in. Well, wouldn't you know ... there were about 30 kids between 3 and 7 around us. I said to DS9, "they're going to be crying!" and he agreed. Sure enough, they all started to howl (and I mean howl) when Voldemort came on.

I know some kids can handle that kind of stuff ... and I know there are some kids who can't. If your child gets scared easily, or is 3 or 4, don't take them. The whole Voldemort thing isn't pretty.

We won tickets to an early viewing last week and there was a huge balcony section reserved for the press. So many of them brought entire families of pre-school aged children, and like your experience, there were well over 30 in this whole huge theater! Don't these people read the books? I'm not arguing a parent's right to let their kids see whatever they want, but many of them very obviously couldn't handle being in the theater for 2 1/2 hours. I have to give them credit, though, because several parents took their kids out. That's not something I see very often in a theater -- normally, parents let them fuss.

 

[Daxx]

Don't these people read the books? I'm not arguing a parent's right to let their kids see whatever they want, but many of them very obviously couldn't handle being in the theater for 2 1/2 hours. I have to give them credit, though, because several parents took their kids out. That's not something I see very often in a theater -- normally, parents let them fuss.

I agree w/what you're saying! Even if they don't read the books, don't they read the reviews or pay attention to the ratings? Every review I read said this movie wasn't appropriate for the little ones. Sure, you have to use your best judgement and Io agree that it's a parent's decision to let their kids see whatever they want them to see ... but as you mentioned, are pre-schoolers really ready for this type of movie experience?! Not only in length, but in content. A few parents in our show got up w/their little ones and left, which was appreciated. The child behind us sobbed for the rest of the movie. I felt bad b/c I wonder if that child's going to have nightmares for a week.

 

[bicker]

This is one of the major foundations for the whole "Home Theater" movement in the United States. Since movie theaters are no longer a great place to view films, people are making a room in their homes a wonderful place to enjoy movies. And despite some directors' objections, it is going to push studios to start releasing films to DVD the same time they're released to the theaters. And I, for one, cannot wait. There are some films that I feel I would enjoy more in a big theater, but I'll want to restrict my visits to theaters in the future to those that charge so much that folks there are serious about enjoying the movie, rather than disrupting the enjoyment of others.

 

[ducklite]

We had a fussy baby in our theater. It was a 6:20 PM showing, sold out with people who had paid $9 apiece to be there. And the parent would not take the baby out! Get a babysitter next time! And if you think the baby will sleep through the whole thing and take a chance on bringing him, be prepared to give up your OWN $9 and remove him from the theater at the FIRST sign of fussiness!

No kidding!!

Anne

 

[LindsayDunn228]

MickeyMonstersMom,

Thankfully, a good deal of the handicapped seats are in the middle section, where the walkway is, but not always. I have had to see quite a few movies from the front row and it stunk.