Best experience in a cinema

[CreasyBear]

Star Wars: A New Hope (Special Edition) - Opening day January 31st, 1997. A day which will live in infamy. Sold out crowd. Just a wonderful, awesome experience to finally see it on the big screen.

Star Wars Prequel midnight shows - These were just THE BEST! The experience of friends and me waiting in line for hours, table, chairs, coolers, and playing cards in hand, waiting to get into the theater and the absolute energy in the theater, especially for Episode 1, was just unmatched by anything I've experienced in a movie theater. It was the closest a movie theater has come to feeling like a rock concert.

The Dark Knight midnight show. In fact, damn near all midnight shows were extremely memorable. I'm sorry, but 7PM preview shows just aren't the same. The type of people that come seem different and there's rarely as much giddy excitement in the air. The 7PM previews for TLJ and ROS don't even begin to compare to the frenzy and energy in the theater during Episode 1-3.

2001 in 70mm - Finally was able to see 2001 in theaters for the second time, but this time in 70mm! The quality and experience was wondrous!

Avengers Endgame at the Alama Drafthouse - My first experience at an Alamo and it was so very memorable. I'm not a big MCU fan, but the energy from the crowd at this early Friday morning show was some of the best I've experience since ROTS in 2005.

Avatar midnight 3D showing - About as close as I can imagine to seeing Star Wars opening day in 1977. Just blown the f**k away.

[Phreakuency]

So many.

Avatar in 3D - just otherworldly! Mind-blowing visuals and 3D like I've never seen or even imagined.

Cloverfield - there was something about a shaky cam monster film done right on the big screen. It was menacing and real. The walk home with the Mrs was surreal, we kept expecting the creature to come for us over the buildings.

Paranormal Activity - we only had a crappy tv and it's on speakers at home at the time and experiencing this one in a cinema was terrifying. The overhead footsteps of the demon in the roof gave us the shivers.

Birds of Prey - for a slightly different reason. This was the first digital Dolby Projector/screen and Dolby Atmos cinema I've found in my local area and wow it made every other cinema seem lame in comparison. Ive never seen a movie in the cinema look so good or sound so good. State of the art sound and the base felt like it was thumping on the ground below us. Incredible. Will be spending the extra travel time to head to this cinema more often for sure.

[Star Lord]

The Avengers- Opening day, April 26th 2012. Awesome crowd and seeing this many heroes team up for the first time on screen was unforgettable. The audience went crazy at the now iconic circle shot.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens- This was the first Star Wars movie I watched in theaters. From the opening crawl to Han Solo sayng "Chewie we're home!" it was amazing.

Thor Ragnarok- Opening day, 3rd November 2017. It was a blast!

Avengers: Infinity War- Opening day, 26th April 2018. Felt like watching a live concert with the audience clapping and cheering at various scenes through out the movie. When Thor appeared in Wakanda there was so much of excitement!

Avengers: Endgame- Opening day, 26th April 2019. Nothing will ever top the experience of watching this first day, first show.

[Thomas Irwin]

1. Seeing Body Snatchers (1993) during a 24 hour sci-fi film marathon at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA.

2. Seeing Center Stage (2000) with someone I was dating at the time.

3. Seeing Evil Under the Sun (1982), as I was in a private psych hospital at the age of eleven for severe depression. This was the one and only time I saw the outdoors in the entire seven and a half months!

[Arawn]

Originally Posted by Star Lord

Felt like watching a live concert with the audience clapping and cheering at various scenes through out the movie. When Thor appeared in Wakanda there was so much of excitement!

Yeah, people around me were going nuts just from Wakanda and BP appearing early on in the film.

Originally Posted by Porco Azzurro

A more civilised age.

Lasted about a week, if that.

[mcvitie]

From recent memory, this little lot were jaw dropping in IMAX laser...
Dunkirk
Apollo 11
Free Solo
Blade Runner 2049
And although the film wasn’t much cop, Ghost in the Shell (2017)

[Toxoplasmic]

Seeing Inland Empire in 2006 in a packed old school Art Deco theatre on opening night. Once the pounding ominous opening credits started to roll it was like being teleported into another universe.

[Roonan]

Best personal experience was probably Jurassic Park. But the Star Wars releases between 97-05 were the best collective experiences I had.

[BaronVH]

This is an easy one, and it is sadly a bygone age. It was Return of the Jedi on its original release in a domed 150mm theater that was packed. The line went all the way around the theater prior to the show. Not an empty seat inside. The final scene with Luke, Vader, and the Emperor. The entire theater erupted in applause. This was hundreds of people. There are only a handful of these theaters left in the world, and with the nature of moviegoers these days, I doubt this could ever be replicated. I bet if you plopped a person from the future in that showing that talked and texted like people do today, they would have been beaten and ejected by that audience.

[Damon1281]

The Empire Strikes Back

I saw this at a packed house at the Cooper Theatre in Denver Colorado. I remember the screen being massive and curved and I sat fairly close. The trademark scrolling text at the beginning of the movie couldn't be read without turning your head and the picture was bright. No cellphones and state of the art sound! It was bliss!

[bradnoyes]

It's not a good movie and even by my second viewing I thought it was terrible, but for whatever reason the stars aligned when I first saw Event Horizon in the theater and it was just the most intense experience I've had in the theater. I was still in high school, it was the first movie I saw after smoking a now-legal-in-my-state substance, and I was with a friend who was also on the same wavelength. We were incredibly freaked out from start to finish.

But yeah, we went back with more friends the next weekend and this time sneaked a few beers into the theater and the magic was gone.

Originally Posted by BaronVH

This is an easy one, and it is sadly a bygone age. It was Return of the Jedi on its original release in a domed 150mm theater that was packed. The line went all the way around the theater prior to the show. Not an empty seat inside. The final scene with Luke, Vader, and the Emperor. The entire theater erupted in applause. This was hundreds of people. There are only a handful of these theaters left in the world, and with the nature of moviegoers these days, I doubt this could ever be replicated. I bet if you plopped a person from the future in that showing that talked and texted like people do today, they would have been beaten and ejected by that audience.

Just last year I went to several viewings of Endgame that ended in a similar fashion, so that era isn't quite bygone.

[Archedamian]

I saw Fantasia in a theater and I was the only person in the theater for the showing. It was glorious!

[SteelbookCat]

jurassic world in imax
and the end of spiderman 1 everyone stood up in the theater and cheered

[tcripe]

Force Awakens. Not even close.

[dkelly26666]

Certainly my most memorable one was Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ". In 1988, that film drew enormous controversy and protests.

When it opened in my city, I went down on opening Friday afternoon, and the entire city block was completely encircled twice around by two picket lines. Dozens of protesters with signs shouting and stuff. I had to break through the picket lines to get up to the theater, there were cops everywhere, and there was a lot of media (radio and TV). There was a massive line for the box office, too. In line, people were being interviewed by the press. Once I bought my ticket, I got to the doorway and was greeted by police, who proceeded to give my brother and I a light pat down. A lady had to open her bag. Once inside the cinema itself, there were armed pivate security guards there. A guard instructed everyone on etiquette before the film began. The lights went down, the film played, and I thought it was an awesome, poetic, visually and aurally striking experience. I loved it.

When it was over, we came back out into the hot August sun, and there were reporters waiting at the exits to get comments and reactions from people. And there were even MORE protesters surrounding the place and chanting. It was insane. As my brother and I broke thru the lines to leave, we got just a little down the street and then looked back at the chaos from a distance. It's still surreal.


To this day, I've never again seen a film, before or since, cause THAT level of controversy.

I have loved the film ever since, and have seen it dozens of times over the years.


Another great one was going with a group of people to a giant, elegant theater in 1982 and seeing "E.T." there for the first time. People crying and cheering and applauding when it was over. Such a unifying, communal experience that was back in 1982.

As a young child, I saw "Psycho" in a theater with my mom. It terrified me, yet I knew even then it was brilliant.

Seeing "An American Werewolf in London" in a packed Friday night cinema with a bunch of rather enthusiastic college kids was an uproarious experience.

I remember seeing "GoodFellas" for the first time on opening night, even while watching it I knew this was going to be one of my favorite films of all time, before it was even over. When it was over, a man behind me said to a guy with him, as we all got up, "That's the best one I've seen in a long time." Amen, brother.

[mastadge]

Possibly Alien/Aliens double-feature. Or going back, the Star Wars special editions opening night with my Star Wars buddy were pretty magical since I was <i>just</i> too young to have seen the originals theatrically and Star Wars was pretty much my life.

The movie that got the biggest "boost" from seeing it in the theater as compared to home video was Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which is so much better played large and loud. Sorcerer is also up there in this category.

[trevanian]

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS opening night at the late lamented Cinema 150 in Santa Clara, CA, which is where I saw 2001 several times on reissue, suffered through the Sensurround version of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and also where I fell asleep on FAMILY PLOT.

Had to wait in line 2 hours, which was enough for my folks to go about nuts, but afterward on the drive home my friends and fam were all looking at the streetlights and the lensing drops of rainwater on the windshield like they were lights on an alien spaceship -- it transported us all. Only time I remember audiences delivering multiple ovations during a film, too.

[Flash3000]

Another memory I have re: this topic.
In 1985 I was in 7th grade and every Saturday I was allowed to catch a train in to Melbourne with my friends. I used to get $20 pocket money and would buy McDonalds, a 12 inch vinyl (remember them) and go see a movie. This one Saturday I remember calling my father asking permission to come home just after 6pm because I wanted to see 2 movies. He said yes. The movies were Back to the Future and Beverly Hills Cop. My memories of that day still make me smile. A great experience.

[kyloren]

Avatar
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Endgame

Deathly Hallows, Force Awakens, Infinity War & Endgame were built up on HYPE-overload for obvious reasons. I was lucky to be in a sold out audience that heightened every moment with no douchebag distractions.

Avatar just blew me away because I had no idea what to expect.

[RossyG]

Seeing the Back to the Future trilogy on original release brings back fond memories. For the first I bunked off school with a friend to see it opening day. For the second, four years later, I went with a different friend and for the the third I persuaded another friend to skip work (his first job at a video rental shop) and come opening day.

Nothing remarkable about any of these events, but the films were great and I was a teenager so it was a fun time. I was actually risking a caning seeing the first film. I was on two warnings for truancy (always to go to the cinema) and a third strike would’ve meant four strikes across my outstretched hand. I half expected my year head to be waiting for me outside the cinema, but I got away with it. In hindsight, the teacher buying a ticket and sitting next to us would’ve been pretty funny in a Terry-Thomas in I’m All Right Jack kind of way.