Worst theater experience

[Robin2099]

When I went to see the first Alien vs Predator movie, the movie stopped and we had to evacuate the theater because a hurricane was gonna hit in a couple of hours.

When I went to see the Friday the 13th remake, the theater was completely full, and it also featured a large amount of teenage girls. It's fun when girls scream and get scarred at movies but they screamed at everything and as loudly as they could. You would have thought someone was killing them.

When I went to see Tron: Legacy I was slouched down in the seat and someone sat directly behind me. He brought his leg up and over the chair and proceeded to kick me right in the face, and then he kept his foot on my face until I shoved it away.

When I saw The Green Hornet, the trailers played, and then the movie stopped and the screen was blank for 20 minutes.

 

[Blankments]

I honestly cannot name a bad experience at a theater, really. I can name one that I suppose would've been bad, that I know happened to a friend.

I bought tickets to Toy Story 3 on the morning of June 18 for the 6 PM 2-D showing. That night, a huge storm hit, knocking out the electricity and causing a tornado warning. Me being the huge Toy Story fan I am, I forced my family to go make it to the movie time, so we drove a mini-van ten miles in a tornado warning. Definitely was one of my more exciting moments of my life.

Anyway, when we arrived at 5:15 at the theater, it had turned out the electricity had been out there too, so our movie didn't start until 6:30 instead of 6:00. So, literally, within the last 20 minutes of the movie, the people before us had the electricity go off on them, forcing them to wait a half hour to see the end of the movie. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but I think we all know what happens at the end of Toy Story 3. That's right, the electricity went out right when they were holding hands in the incinerator scene. I'd just love to see how parents would explain that Buzz and Woody really didn't die, they just froze in time for half an hour to their four-year-old children.

By the way, my showing ended up having a minor difficulty... the first two minutes of it, the soundtrack was off a few seconds. There was also the time my showing of the first Shrek started an hour and fifteen minutes late, but that wasn't THAT bad. My other closest call with having a bad theater experience was on the opening weekend of Tangled, where the entire intro up to "When Will My Life Begin" had every line coming out, at the loudest, as a whisper. Other than that, I haven't really had problems at the theater.

 

[spongebob03]

I went to see Halloween H2O in a crowded theater with an air conditioner that bearly worked. What made it so worse was that it was over a hundred degrees outside.

Years ago, I went go see movie called I Got the Hook Up. At least I think that was the name of it. It was a movie staring Master P (when No Limit was the hottest thing in music). Everytime a song came on, people started getting up and dancing and singing along.

Speed Racer- Just the fact that I paid to see it makes it one of the worse movie theater experiences ever for me.

The Kids are Alright- Two ladies behind me whispered throughout the whole movie. They didn't stop AT ALL!!!!

High School Musical 3- The theater (which has recently closed down) was awful. I was the only one in the theater. But the seats weren't comfortable, and the theater had a weird raspberry sherbert smell. And on top of that, the movie wasn't good.

One of the many times I went to see How to Train Your Dragon in the theater, I went to see it in 3D at a theater I don't normally see 3D movies at. The glasses made the picture way to dark. To the point that it was hard to enjoy. What made me so mad about it was that I was gonna see it in IMAX 3D (my favorite way to watch it) at another theater. But the theaters computers shutdown right before I purchased my ticket, so they couldn't print tickets. They didn't know when it was going to be back up. And the next showing was to late for me because I had to go to work. So I went to another theater instead.

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

My friend I were on the other end of this once. We're, I'll be honest, kind of chatty, and we were watching, I think it was Jame's Carpenter's Vampires, which was boring anyway. We weren't talking loud, but we were sitting directly behind this mountainous, scary redneck guy and, about the middle of the movie, he turned around slowly in his seat, gave us a look that would freeze molten metal and said, in a slow, deep country drawl "You boys talk too much." There was menace in his words and he meant it, man, I don't think this guy and joking around were that acquainted.

We were quiet for the rest of the movie.

 

[KPTitan]

I haven't had any bad experiences... yet. Although, when we went to see Revenge of the Sith (this was the first time I've been into an indoor theater, the last few times was at a drive-in that no longer exists), there was a teenage couple sitting next to me. The girl of the couple has never seen any of the Star Wars movies, so naturally she had to be asking her boyfriend questions throughout the whole thing. It's like, "shut up and watch the freakin' movie! You'll find out..." Even at home, it drives me nuts when people are talking during a movie.

When I went to see Wall-E with my friends, we were practically the only ones there, besides maybe 2 teenage couples or somethin'. I was really expecting it to be packed-full with families. The next time that I plan on going to a theater, it'll be to see National Treasure 3. We'll see how that experience turns out, considering the popularity of those movies amoung families.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Every movie I've seen at the local movie theater in Maysville, Ky. Bad sound (three out of 4 theaters are in MONO, MOOOOONOOOOOOO!), duct tape visible on screens, a leaky ceiling in the concession stand (they had like five buckets and a kiddie pool at one point), and total derision for movies I actually want to see.

Ever wanted to visit the theater from hell? THIS IS IT!

 

[FireWarrior]

Rango - An annoying boy kept asking his Dad was happening in the movie so he had to explain everything. And they were right next to me. I gladly told them to be quiet.

Sucker Punch - More of a technical issue but the audio for the dialogue was painfully low. I could barely hear the actors speaking but the other effects were plenty loud (if not a little loud)

Thor - I actually went to see this one twice (great movie by the way) and both times I had something annoying happening. First was when there was a giant group of high school kids talking and talking about random stuff that was not even related to the movie. I told them to be quiet but they were jerks about it. Second time there was a like a group somewhere in the theater that kept laughing every time Hogun spoke. I'm sorry that Tadanobu Asano has an Japanese accent (he is Japanese of course!) but that doesn't mean you have to laugh every time he speaks!

 

[Michael24]

Remembered another one, when a friend and I saw Traffic. During every scene set in Mexico, there was a Mexican family two rows behind us that would be laughing and joking as the characters spoke because (according to my friend, who was also Mexican) the dialog they were speaking was different -- and apparently more obscenity-laced -- than what the subtitles were saying. It was very annoying.

 

[YamiYusei1]

When I went to see Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D in February, everything was going great. My dad and I got there early, so there were only a few people. We got the best seats, in the highest row at the top. I had a big "Gullywasher" (as my dad calls it) soda, big bag of popcorn, and some Twizzlers. So, during the previews, a couple more people come in and sit near the bottom, no problem. Then, some teenage girls come in dressed up as characters from the movie. They sat near the bottom, again, no problem. Then as the previews stop, tons of people flood in! They were quite noisy as well, and as luck would have it, a bunch of smelly fat people sat next to me!!! Gross! During the movie, they have the nerve to ask each other what's going on, what's that, etc; If you don't know anything about the movie, then don't go see the movie. Finally, at the end of the movie, the fat guy sleeping drooled on me and that. was. it. I took his face and shoved it at the rest of his stupid, sleeping family. The woman says "Oh, how rude", and I said "Know what's really rude? You fat, smelly, slobs, who sleep through the movie that you and other people paid to see, and who ignore the fact that people want to watch the movie!". So, they left (albeit slowly). I went to go see the movie again the next week, and thank the Lord everything went fine. And that, was my worst movie experience.

 

[Storm Eagle]

This one wasn't particularly bad for me, but there was the time I went to see Iron Man 2 with my friend. I got to the mall that has a theater, and I was waiting for my friend to arrive. I was waiting in the parking lot, and he called me to tell me he's in there. Mind you, this is just a couple of minutes before the movie is scheduled to start. I had already gone there to buy our tickets in advance. So when we went in, sure enough, the seats were full, except for a couple, which were right next to a woman with a baby. He thought they were good seats, and maybe they would have been if there wasn't a woman with a baby right there. I'm sorry, but if you ask me, any seat near a baby is NOT a good seat. So I just decided that we should just go and exchange our tickets for a later show time. There were about three hours until the next showing, so we just went back to my place for a bit, and headed back to the mall theater again. We made the show in time, and we got good seats. Well, I thought we got good seats, until the movie was over, and he was complaining when we left. My friend is a big guy, so he complained that he was getting hot when all the seats were starting to get filled. At first we sat one seat apart from each other, but then he ended up having to move next to me with more people coming in. When we had left the first time, he asked me if I think there aren't going to be any babies in the next showing. Well, there weren't. There were kids there though, but that's cool because the kids were well-behaved. I didn't have a problem with the theater getting full either, but I'm just kind of sorry my friend had to end up complaining.

 

[ToonFaithful]

Went to an IMAX screening for Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen in the summer of 2009 and the audio was off for 15-20 minutes of the movie. Didn't bother me though because the movie was pretty meh.

 

[Lonestarr]

1408 - These three teenage girls would not shut the hell up.

Cirque du Freak - The sound was off for the first ten minutes or so. I mean, it's one thing when your fellow moviegoers ruin things for you, but when employee incompetence ruins it...

 

[Storm Eagle]

1408 - These three teenage girls would not shut the hell up.

I had to put up with that sort of thing when I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. This couple were behind my friend and I and they'd talk every now and then. One of them had a cell phone that rang, and whoever it was had the nerve to actually answer it and talk on the phone. Now when I went to see The Two Towers, there were six little kids in front of me if I remember correctly. They talked before the movie started, but didn't say a word while the movie was going. I'm proud of those kids. They ought to show that grown ass couple how you really act in a theater.

I also had this one guy who was probably around 13 or 14, talking loudly and making comment when I went to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

 

[Monterey Jack]

Went to an IMAX screening for Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen in the summer of 2009 and the audio was off for 15-20 minutes of the movie.

That sounds like more of a blessing than a curse.

 

[Link1130]

Cirque du Freak - The sound was off for the first ten minutes or so. I mean, it's one thing when your fellow moviegoers ruin things for you, but when employee incompetence ruins it...

Do you know it was employee incompetence? There are several things that could go wrong with a projector or sound system that wouldn't necessarily be "incompetence." Simple mistakes happen, even to very competent people. Sometimes there's just mechanical failure. Sometimes its just something that happens; no one's fault.

I doubt you meant anything by it, but unless you actually know it was employee incompetence declaring it as such is ignorant.

*****

With that said, I thought of another "from the other side" experience.

I worked at an all digital theatre for about a year. It was the first year we were open and only the second all digital multi-plex for the company (the first was opened not even a month prior). One projector, for some reason, would randomly and sporadically cause these odd red lines to appear vertically across the screen. It would do this for a show, we'd stop it, reset the projector, sometimes it would be fixed, sometimes not. It would go away for months at a time and then reappear for some reason. We couldn't figure it out or plan on it. Basically, for a while, our only course of action was to hope resetting the projector would work for this one show and, whether we succeeded or not, pass the theatre at the end.

One time when this occurred we stopped the projector, like normal, and I went into the theatre to make an announcement about what was going on, etc. With this theatre I usually opened with a brief into that went, "I apologize for the interruption. With new technology comes with new problems..." and I would go from there. This one time, though, this older gentleman, 50s maybe, stood up and said, "But its not new!"

He went on and explained that he had worked on DLP technology back in the 80s, it wasn't new, and he knew exactly what the problem was. He explained that we had three lamps in our projector and one of them was doing something to another. He didn't know what he was talking about; I don't doubt he had some experience from "back in the day," but that experience didn't apply to our projectors (which distinctly only had one lamp). I quietly listened, assured him we were working on the issue, and continued on. He, however, continued to try to press his "expertise" on me. Eventually I just had to blow him off so we could get the movie started again.

Once it was over I waited at the exit to the theatre to hand out passes. Several people, as they were passing by, apologized about the man and assured me they understood we were working on the issue and thanked me for the passes. The man, though, resumed trying to tell me how to fix our projectors as he was leaving. Fortunately, his wife shushed him, told me to ignore him, and said she really enjoyed the show.

 

[Philo & Gunge]

My other closest call with having a bad theater experience was on the opening weekend of Tangled, where the entire intro up to "When Will My Life Begin" had every line coming out, at the loudest, as a whisper. Other than that, I haven't really had problems at the theater.

When I saw Tangled, the entire soundtrack went completely off at the beginning of the movie. And on Thanksgiving no less. You heard the Walt Disney Pictures music for a second and then it just faded into complete silence until the intro to When Will My Life Begin. We all spent the whole movie waiting for the sound to go out again. But we still got refunds so it's all good.

 

[Muthablood Pucka]

When I went to see "Hop", some kids kept kicking my seat and somehow, the theater messed up and show that "Mars Need Moms" movie. By the time the theater put on Hop, the movie was near the end and the theater refused to give back refunds.

 

[Meow]

When I saw "The Grudge" in theaters, this little kid sat in the seat next to me and started trying to talk to me. That was pretty annoying. I don't know where the heck his parents were. There were also some obnoxious teenagers who laughed pretty much throughout the whole movie. I don't even know if the movie was good or not. I couldn't get into it with all the distractions.

I tried to watch "Alien vs. Predator" at some discount theater, and 5 or 10 minutes into the film, it skipped a whole scene. We got up and got a refund. I noticed that most people stayed for some reason.

I know there has been some chatter from little kids during just about every animated movie I've ever seen in theaters. When I saw "Tangled" there was this little girl behind me who kept asking her mom questions. One particularly long conversation they had was about whether Gothel was a bad person or not. It was just a continuous back and forth with them. The mom was whispering, but the kid wasn't. It wasn't enough to spoil the movie, but I was pretty annoyed.

 

[Spideyzilla]

I tried to watch "Alien vs. Predator" at some discount theater, and 5 or 10 minutes into the film, it skipped a whole scene. We got up and got a refund. I noticed that most people stayed for some reason.

They should have given you a refund for actually paying to see that garbage.

 

[TenPoundHammer]

1.) When I was 8, my mom took me to our local one-screener (Lake Theater in Oscoda) so I could see Mr. Holland's Opus with the German exchange student who was living with us at the time. The audio and video kept cutting out for rather long periods, but it was eventually fixed.

2.) I can't remember what movie it was, but at least once (also when I was still very young), Mom and I had to leave because the Lake doesn't show a movie unless they have more than 10 customers! (This same theater never showed The Polar Express because literally no one was showing up!)

3.) I also remember seeing Titanic at the Family Theater in East Tawas, the next town over. Protip: Don't show Titanic to a 10-year-old. They'll be scared by the water, disgusted by all the mushy romantic stuff, and bored out of their gourd because their attention spans can't digest a 3 hour movie. I think I spent about half the movie just looking at all the old stuff they had on display in the lobby.

(The Family theater is really interesting. It was already a fairly small single-screener, but they twinned it in 2000. As a result, it is now two VERY tiny auditoriums. They don't run a lot of trailers, just locally-made ads. It's a really interesting viewing experience.)

4.) Rugrats in Paris and Pokémon: The Movie 2000: I was 13 so obnoxious kids wouldn't have bothered me — not that there were many kids at all, because I think the Lake was just barely over its 10-customer threshhold in both cases. Still, even at 13, with Asperger's heavily clouding my ability to discern good writing, characterization and plot, I still thought they both sucked.

I don't remember a thing from P2K. My mom called it "so bad I couldn't even sleep through it". And this is a woman who can't even sit down to watch Wheel of Fortune without falling asleep.

4½.) 102 Dalmatians. Saw it at the Family right after it was twinned. Better presentation, bigger audience, movie still sucked.

You'd think I'd have run into a bunch of noisy kids while seeing Rango at a multiplex in Saginaw, but amazingly, there were only about 10 people in the whole auditorium (of which maybe two were kids)! I think all the children were siphoned away by Hop. Their loss.