Worst theater experience

[Mek]

While not the worst experience, I remember seeing 'Casino Royale' with my sister on opening night. A few seats down, a young man and his father kept talking through the entire film, like describing everything that was going on. At first I was annoyed, but about halfway through the movie I realized that the young man was blind and his father was describing what was going on the screen for him. =V

And when I saw the first Harry Potter film -a movie I was not keen on going to in the first place-, there were a group of fangirls who TALKED. THROUGH. THE ENTIRE. MOVIE. Even if I dislike Harry Potter, that was still just hnnnnnngh annoying.

Lastly, I saw Titanic with a childhood friend of mine and there were some teenage boys behind us who were kicking our seats and generally being disruptive. It was the first -and last- time I'd ever gone out to get theater security and they promptly tossed them out. The pissed off looks on their faces was worth it for a 10-11 year old like me.

Otherwise, I generally have decent-to-good theater experiences, usually because I wait until a week later to see a movie. The only movies I've seen on opening night/weekend were Iron Man 1 & 2, Toy Story 3, Hellboy and Thor. All of which were good experiences, amazingly enough.

 

[TenPoundHammer]

While not the worst experience, I remember seeing 'Casino Royale' with my sister on opening night. A few seats down, a young man and his father kept talking through the entire film, like describing everything that was going on. At first I was annoyed, but about halfway through the movie I realized that the young man was blind and his father was describing what was going on the screen for him. =V

My mom told me that when I was 5, she took me, some cousins, and a blind kid we knew to see Batman Returns. I don't remember a thing about this, however. According to her, we ended up watching most of the movie in the cry room for some reason.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

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!

It's posts like this that make me wonder why a movie buff would move out of Portland, and into Kentucky of all places.

 

[Bryangst]

There was this really obnoxious middle aged couple in the theater when I was watching Punisher 2004. There were maybe a grand total of 10 people watching the film and this couple was laughing about everything in the movie. Somebody get killed? They laughed. Frank and his wife sharing a moment on the beach? They laughed. Frank's retirement from the force? They laughed. Final showdown between Howard Saint's family and Frank? Laughing the whole time.

The majority of the people watching left about half way through because of this couple. Because the film was nearing the end of its run in theater and I hadn't seen it yet, I just moved closer to the front and tried to enjoy the rest of the show.


There were two other experiences that weren't the best, but they weren't horrible, I guess. During the midnight showing for Pirates: At World's End the audio and video start cutting out and finally cut out entirely. We had to wait about 20 minutes to resume the film and finish it.

My brother had two advance tickets for Star Wars Episode III: I Forget the Title and actually couldn't make it to the showing. They were for the first showing of the morning and he sold them to me for five bucks. My friend and I arrive at the theater and the line was wrapping around the corners of the building. We were at about the half way point in line when the staff from the theater came out to let in people that had advance tickets to the showing. There were a total of 5 people with advance tickets, my friend and I being two, and the rest of the line got angry and complained to management and gave us nasty glares when they were finally able to enter the building. While we still got to see the film, apparently there were enough complaints to get us banned from the theater for six months? Bleh.

 

[Monterey Jack]

My brother had two advance tickets for Star Wars Episode III: I Forget the Title and actually couldn't make it to the showing. They were for the first showing of the morning and he sold them to me for five bucks. My friend and I arrive at the theater and the line was wrapping around the corners of the building. We were at about the half way point in line when the staff from the theater came out to let in people that had advance tickets to the showing. There were a total of 5 people with advance tickets, my friend and I being two, and the rest of the line got angry and complained to management and gave us nasty glares when they were finally able to enter the building. While we still got to see the film, apparently there were enough complaints to get us banned from the theater for six months? Bleh.

What the hell? Getting banned from a theater for buying tickets in advance?! That is absurd

 

[Ioz]

My friend worked at a movie theater as an assistant manager. A customer wanted his money back because the only seats left in a theater were up close. My friend said that was fine, they'll give him his money back for the tickets. Then, he said he wanted his money back for the popcorn and pop that he had already ate part of. My friend said he couldn't do that. The customer got irate, had a temper tantrum, and threw his pop and popcorn at him. This got my friend worked up who escorted the guy out. Unfortunately, once outside my friend dropped dead of an unknown heart ailment that he had. One of the reasons I hate when customers act like jerks...

 

[Blipsy]

Surprisingly, I haven't had many problems with other people in movie theaters. The only time I can remember when another customer really hurt my enjoyment of a movie was when I saw "Gnomeo & Juliet." There was a baby in the row right in front of me that would loudly say "Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti" over and over again every 5 minutes or so. She'd go like that for about 2 minutes, be quiet for about 3 minutes, and then start all over again. And the mom didn't take her out until the movie was over halfway through! So, that was really annoying.

Most of my bad movie theater experiences were because of problems with the equipment. When I saw "WALL-E", for about 5 minutes halfway through the movie, the screen really messed up. The bottom half of the picture was on the top half of the screen, and vice versa. It really took me out of the movie and made it hard to tell what was going on, which sucked because I really loved it.

When I saw "Cars", for the first half of the movie (until the tractor tipping scene), the sound was VERY low for some reason. Dialogue almost came out as a whisper, and I had to really strain to hear what was being said. Luckily, it was fixed halfway through the movie, but that experience still sucked.

When I saw "Hercules", my family and I were late and ended up having to sit in the front row. I don't have very vivid memories of that time (I was only 4), but I'm pretty sure none of us enjoyed having to sit there.

Another bad experience I had was when I saw the 3D version of "A Christmas Carol" in a theater I hadn't been to in years. The theater had added new seats since that last time, and those seats were incredibly uncomfortable. They had no headrests, so if I tried to recline in them, my neck would just rest on the top of the seat. That, compared with having to wear those 3D glasses, (and the fact that the movie wasn't very good anyways) lead to me getting a headache. I'm never going to that movie theater again.

 

[Novapocalypse]

I've had a few annoying moments in a theater, but honestly most of my trips to the theater go pretty averagely. But one time I will certainly never forget was going to see Spider-Man 2. It was the day the movie was released, and my dad and I had been planning on seeing it opening day all week. Now I'd seen most movies opening week, but as far as I can remember this is the first time I'd caught a movie opening day. So we were going to the 1:15pm showing of the movie, we got there about 20 minutes early. We saw the parking lot nearly empty and people going up to the box office and then getting back in their cars and leaving. (this theater wasn't a big one at all, it had only 2 screens and tickets were $3 a pop.) So we walk up there, and the girl there told us that the film had gotten damaged during the midnight showing, and that it would be Friday at the earliest before the movie was back up. Regardless, we made an effort to see it in driving 20 miles to get to another theater's 1:20 showing, and we were scared to death that we'd be late. We made it, got a drink and some Twizzlers, and literally the moment we got in our seats, the previews were over and the actual movie started. We managed to get pretty good seats too, despite the theater being incredibly packed.

 

[Brad Redfield]

I've got a few:

- Resident Evil: The theater we were in smelled like liquor and urine.

- Finding Nemo: Near the beginning when they meet the shark character, the two characters go into the darkness... and it stayed like that for a few minutes. Then the lights came on and someone over the speakers said that a tornado was coming and told us to evacuate. It was terrible outside. Like, huge gusts of winds and a downpour. Thankfully we got to my cousin's car and made it home.

- Spider-Man 2: During the scene with Peter's confession, this kid stands up and starts yelling. Then an older guy (sitting next or behind him) gets up and yells back at him. "You wanna fight? Let's take it outside." or something like that. The two left with ten people going with them.

- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: When Harry was riding on Buckbeak's back, this girl randomly stood up in the audience and screamed, "I LOVE YOU, HARRY!" ...What the hell...?

- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Kid sitting behind my sister would keep kicking her seat and even tugged on her hair once. Thankfully he stopped during the climax of the movie. That's not the end of it, though. A speeding jeep almost rammed into us because they just had to go sixty in the parking lot. And we realized it was the same kid and his stupid family. ARGH.

- Pulse: Around five teenagers came in about ten minutes after the movie started and wouldn't shut up throughout the whole movie, even after being warned by the usher around the hour mark.

- Thor: This wasn't too bad but man was it annoying. Thankfully this was the second time I saw it but near the end when

Spoiler

Odin restores Thor's power and Mjlnoir flies into Thor's hand

this guy in the theater started to freak out. Like he won the lottery or something.

 

[Storm Eagle]

There was this really obnoxious middle aged couple in the theater when I was watching Punisher 2004. There were maybe a grand total of 10 people watching the film and this couple was laughing about everything in the movie. Somebody get killed? They laughed. Frank and his wife sharing a moment on the beach? They laughed. Frank's retirement from the force? They laughed. Final showdown between Howard Saint's family and Frank? Laughing the whole time.

Who were these people? Beavis and Butt-head?

My friend worked at a movie theater as an assistant manager. A customer wanted his money back because the only seats left in a theater were up close. My friend said that was fine, they'll give him his money back for the tickets. Then, he said he wanted his money back for the popcorn and pop that he had already ate part of. My friend said he couldn't do that. The customer got irate, had a temper tantrum, and threw his pop and popcorn at him. This got my friend worked up who escorted the guy out. Unfortunately, once outside my friend dropped dead of an unknown heart ailment that he had. One of the reasons I hate when customers act like jerks...

Well that just sucks. Sorry about that. I hope karma gets that guy good.

Surprisingly, I haven't had many problems with other people in movie theaters. The only time I can remember when another customer really hurt my enjoyment of a movie was when I saw "Gnomeo & Juliet." There was a baby in the row right in front of me that would loudly say "Ti Ti Ti Ti Ti" over and over again every 5 minutes or so. She'd go like that for about 2 minutes, be quiet for about 3 minutes, and then start all over again. And the mom didn't take her out until the movie was over halfway through! So, that was really annoying.

And my friend wonders why I don't like sitting near babies in theaters.

I've had a few annoying moments in a theater, but honestly most of my trips to the theater go pretty averagely. But one time I will certainly never forget was going to see Spider-Man 2. It was the day the movie was released, and my dad and I had been planning on seeing it opening day all week. Now I'd seen most movies opening week, but as far as I can remember this is the first time I'd caught a movie opening day. So we were going to the 1:15pm showing of the movie, we got there about 20 minutes early. We saw the parking lot nearly empty and people going up to the box office and then getting back in their cars and leaving. (this theater wasn't a big one at all, it had only 2 screens and tickets were $3 a pop.) So we walk up there, and the girl there told us that the film had gotten damaged during the midnight showing, and that it would be Friday at the earliest before the movie was back up. Regardless, we made an effort to see it in driving 20 miles to get to another theater's 1:20 showing, and we were scared to death that we'd be late. We made it, got a drink and some Twizzlers, and literally the moment we got in our seats, the previews were over and the actual movie started. We managed to get pretty good seats too, despite the theater being incredibly packed.

Lucky. VERY lucky.

 

[suss2it]

My friend worked at a movie theater as an assistant manager. A customer wanted his money back because the only seats left in a theater were up close. My friend said that was fine, they'll give him his money back for the tickets. Then, he said he wanted his money back for the popcorn and pop that he had already ate part of. My friend said he couldn't do that. The customer got irate, had a temper tantrum, and threw his pop and popcorn at him. This got my friend worked up who escorted the guy out. Unfortunately, once outside my friend dropped dead of an unknown heart ailment that he had. One of the reasons I hate when customers act like jerks...

I don't think any other story is gonna top that.

 

[DaffyDonaldQW93]

the DTS was bad in a non-digital screening of "Tangled".

also a classic theater's "Looney Tunes Festival" played the same cartoon TWICE

 

[archer3600]

my worst was being dragged to paranormal activity 1 and 2. not much worse than seeing something thats totally fake and people non stop talking about how horrible the movie is and not shutting up about it. i just wish i could get my money back now.

 

[HG Revolution]

Still, even at 13, with Asperger's heavily clouding my ability to discern good writing, characterization and plot, I still thought they both sucked.

Wait a minute, Asperger's clouds your ability to discern quality? I have Asperger's and can't say from my experience that was ever an issue except when I was a little kid, but I don't think most little kids have much taste in general. On the other hand, the obsessive aspects of Asperger's seem like they'd be suited for critiquing movies.

Worst theater experience? Easily when my sister started throwing up in the middle of Night at the Museum and we had to get a cab for my grandpa to prevent him from catching any germs.

 

[Spideyzilla]

I
- Finding Nemo: Near the beginning when they meet the shark character, the two characters go into the darkness... and it stayed like that for a few minutes. Then the lights came on and someone over the speakers said that a tornado was coming and told us to evacuate. It was terrible outside. Like, huge gusts of winds and a downpour. Thankfully we got to my cousin's car and made it home.

This reminds of one. It happened to my teacher, not me, and he told us about it once. They were at a drive-in, seeing Twister. And, of course, there is radio bulletin saying that there was a tornado in the area. This bulletin came at the exact same time as the scene in the movie in which the tornado destroys a drive-in. So they're watching that happen on the screen and find it could happen in real life in a few minutes. Amazing. And lolz, that is indeed a tragic story, my condolences.

 

[King9]

My third time seeing Kung Fu Panda 2. It was me and two other families. One had a baby that whined intermittently and the other had some strange child that literally seemed to be speaking gibberish. Add to that the theater itself was awful quality. It smelled. Uggh, awful experience.

 

[NewcomerDC]

My worse experience was seeing Monster House in 2D. For an advance screening, I didn't like the fact that the film's scenes were shown out of order. I didn't let anyone know about this, but I should have. In fact, I think I did but I can't remember.

Second experience was seeing the film Paul, another advance screening, earlier this year. When Paul tries to bring Simon Pegg's character to life, the screen went to this rainbow colored snow. Then, the screen became this light show for a while as if the person running the projector was squeamish of said scene and didn't want anyone else to see it. I'll get the chance to see the film with no interruptions come August on DVD.

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

Some fat lady shushed me for whispering to my brother during Green Lantern. Actually she "asked politely" in a really nasty and loud voice. I thought about dumping my soda on her head and going "oops" when I went for a bathroom break, but decided against it. Someone brought a toddler who made a running commentary of questions throughout the entire movie anyway, I didn't hear her shushing him.

 

[nachonaco]

Some fat lady shushed me for whispering to my brother during Green Lantern. Actually she "asked politely" in a really nasty and loud voice. I thought about dumping my soda on her head and going "oops" when I went for a bathroom break, but decided against it. Someone brought a toddler who made a running commentary of questions throughout the entire movie anyway, I didn't hear her shushing him.

Sorry, but if you talk in a theater you deserve it.

 

[Lord Dalek]

It's posts like this that make me wonder why a movie buff would move out of Portland, and into Kentucky of all places.

Yeah I don't get it either.

BTW how's that Cinemark dump in Clackamas working out for you?