Worst Movie Theater Experience

Randy Butternubs

Registered User
Mar 15, 2008
29,777
21,310
Morningside
Last summer during Avengers End Game this large group, I'm assuming a family, arrived just a few minutes before the previews started. There wasn't assigned seating so they had to scatter themselves around the theater. I was at the end of the top row with my girlfriend and a few of them ended up in the row and seats right in front of me. Others were in the front row of the stadium seating and the remainder were scattered about the non-stadium seating (what's this section called?). There was also only access to the stadium seating on the one side via stairs, meaning someone sitting in seat 12 of 12 had to walk by seats 1 through 11 to get to their seat.

Apparently the grandmother is the one who brought in all their snacks and she was in the middle of the theater. And apparently they didn't distribute the snacks before they got in the theater. All throughout the movie this large group keeps walking to their grandmother to get snacks and drinks while obstructing peoples' views. They were also talking loudly to each other during the entire movie and laughing at inappropriate times. One lady finally spoke up about it and then one of the younger ones in the group threatened to beat up her child.

Definitely my worst experience by far.



On the flip side, when I was in high school The Omen re-make was released. A bunch of my friends and I went to see it and ran into another group of our friends. We didn't find the movie scary at all and instead found it funny. Unfortunately for other movie goers, our laughter definitely ruined their experience. Especially the one dude who yelled at us.
 

HisIceness

This is Hurricanes Hockey
Sep 16, 2010
40,111
70,035
Charlotte
During a showing of Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith (2005), the lady sitting next to me let her 3 kids who couldn't have been older than 9, play with her phone and of course the phone had ringtones that the kids just had to play with and let the whole theater hear every one of them. Best part was the other moviegoers were looking at me like I was the one responsible for the bad behavior, I guess maybe because I was sitting next to them they expected me to do something about it? Eventually they stopped, I'm guessing the phones battery died.

Then the kids had to go use the bathroom and/or get more drinks or popcorn every 5 minutes for the rest of the film. I've never had to get up out of my seat so many times. At the end of the film while walking out I had at least two people ask me why I didn't do anything about the phone and the getting up every so often. I had no clue what to do, I was 16, they weren't my kids. No one seemed to think it was the fault of the mom, but my fault somehow.
 

angusyoung

The life of..The Party
Aug 17, 2014
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Heirendaar
A long,long time ago, when me and a friend being small kids,went to see the first Star Wars.It was packed by the time the movie started. We got there early to choose our seats and as the movie was about to begin,the seats in front of us were still available when 2 huge guys came and sat down right in front of us,and they had huge Afros of the time. It was my first eclipse,saw SFA!
 

discostu

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Nov 12, 2002
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Nomadville
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This is the opposite of what this thread is probably looking for, but it's probably a worst experience for somebody.

I was either in university or recently graduated, and saw a movie with a group of friends. I think it was Cruel Intentions, but I also can't recall why I'd go to that, so not sure.

There was a large group of high school kids in the row ahead of us. Mixed group of boys and girls, and the boys were directly in front of me. They were very talkative, so early int the film, I thought I'd politely, but firmly, ask them to not speak during the film. I probably wasn't as polite as I thought, and they shut up pretty quickly. Every once in a while, one would start talking, and the girls they were with yelled at them in shushed tones, saying that "that guy" (me) was going to get mad again.

I don't recall a thing about the movie, but enjoyed the power that my one comment seemed to have.
 
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Hammettf2b

oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg
Jul 9, 2012
22,489
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So California
I can't remember what the movie was, but there was a time where I was sitting next to 2 kids (probably like 6-8 years old) and their mother. The two kids were closer to me and the mother was 3 seats down. The kids kept talking throughout the movie with the mom doing nothing. I think I only had to talk to them once, but I just said in a nice way, "Guys, can you please keep it down". The kids shut up right away and looked like embarrassed for talking, but I heard the mom say, "Did he really just say that?" Like nothing escalated from it, but I was in complete disbelief at the complete lack of awareness by the mom, the kids were great.

I also had a really memorable experience when I was probably 8 or so myself. My brother and I were seeing a movie with our parents (can't remember what) and these teenagers (I think so anyways, everyone always seems so old when you're at that age) behind us were talking really loudly like constantly. My dad turned around to talk to them pretty nicely at first, but it reached a point the next time where he legitimately stood up and shouted at the top of his lungs something like, "BE QUIET! I'VE HAD ENOUGH! WE'RE TRYING TO WATCH THE MOVIE!" It was like straight out of Seinfeld with George that one time. I heard one of the guys in the group say something like "What the ****?" but they stopped talking after that lol. My brother and I were just slinking down in our seats petrified to turn around and see what the teenagers were doing lmao. My dad's a super nice person but is very no nonsense when it comes to stuff like that. It's just funny to look back on.

I also remember early in high school there was a girl who liked me and a massive group of her friends kind of "set up" a movie date with us. A bunch of guys and girls went. It wasn't technically a date, but unbelievably obvious that they were trying to get me and her together. I was super shy and uncomfortable in front of that many people where the attention was kind of put on me, and probably said like 2 words to her the entire night (I mean it's a movie though, so WTF?). I just remember her storming off ahead with one of her friends when we left the theater. So awkward lol.
lol these are great
 

x Tame Impala

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Aug 24, 2011
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Generally not a big fan of seeing movies the weekend they come out. One of the most annoying things on the planet to me is when someone is doing something distracting during a movie (talking, on their phone, kids running around etc...).

I might just have bad luck but whenever I see blockbuster movies on opening weekend there's almost always something annoying going on somewhere in the theater and it totally takes me out of it. So I usually go see an 11am show on whatever Monday/Tuesday I can.

I think I saw Endgame at like 8am monday morning and it was still a totally packed theater lol
 

HabsCowboysOwn

Wak Prescott the 40M/yr fraud, here we gooo!
Feb 28, 2008
2,552
4,661
Montréal
About 10 years ago, I made the mistake of going to the movies on a Tuesday nigh (half-priced tickets) during spring break. Result: Large groups of teenagers talking, yelling, throwing pop-corn/soda everywhere and eventually fighting and pushing each other down the stairs. My girlfriend and I were literally the only people in the room trying to watch the movie but they were so loud we couldn't hear anything. Security had to come in at least 5 times in the span of 45 minutes and multiple individuals were escorted out of the room. They even had the manager come in to announce that he was about to call the cops.

At around the 1 hour mark we had enough of this nonsense and decided to quit. They gave us our money back at least but hands down the worst movie theater experience I've ever had. Movie was a very forgettable horror-flick we ended up renting a couple of months later, don't even remember the title lol.
 

Section88

Kaner? I hardly know her
Jul 11, 2017
5,573
4,795
Worked at a movie theater for 3 years so im loaded with stories. Worst might be when i was waiting for one last couple to leave the theater during a busy day, so there isnt much time between shows, and you have to clean the entire theater quick before people there for the next show start showing up. So i politely ask them well after the credits are over if they can leave and got called a cracker lol.

The other one was cleaning a sold out theater of over 100 seats for incredibles 2 by myself. Kids shows are always filthy, but that was something else.
 

PALE PWNR

Registered User
Jul 10, 2010
13,124
3,285
Sewell NJ
Went to see Avengers Infinity War, 2 seconds into the movie Loki is on the screen. "he diessss" from the little kid behind me. Mind you this was opening weekend. Like a Sunday after it came out on Thursday. The theater was packed.

Gave a nasty look assumed it would be done with. Mother starts asking question after question in the middle of the movie. Aside from that I haven't had a whole lot of bad experiences.

My local theater recently went to assigned seating a couple years ago. I go fairly often usually on my own in the middle of the day when normal people are working so the theaters are mostly empty when I do. But I've had a couple times where I went bought a seat in an empty row only to find that some people bought seats directly next to me in an empty movie theater and find that mildly unnerving, but definitely weird as f***. Not only do you buy tickets next to a random person in a single seat in the middle of an empty movie theater without giving a 1 seat buffer but you ALSO come sit down right next to me in an empty movie theater. Like people its empty, I know theres assigned seats but you don't have to sit on my lap thanks. I guess I'll go move.


My dad took my brother and I to Rocky V, which was our hype movie of the year...and in the middle of the street fight, the projector bulb pops. Fifteen minutes later, it restarts...and pops again. And again. So we’re just ragged from anticipating Rocky kicking Tommy Machine Gun Morrison’s ass, and we get free tickets to...The Nutcracker. Had to wait until VHS for the end of Rocky V.

You were saved. That was awful.
 

kingsholygrail

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Dec 21, 2006
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I'm having a hard time remembering which movie it was, but they put the wrong movie on for the screen. It was this big cock up. This was in the 90s.
 

Kcb12345

Registered User
Jun 6, 2017
28,952
22,181
Well, this past weekend I had the power go out on my girlfriend and I in the theater right when Knives Out was starting to pick up the pace on solving the murder...had to come back 3 days later to finish the movie :laugh:

Nothing worse though than someone with their brightness all the way up right in front of you and acting like they don't care what anyone behind them thinks or someone kicking your seat non-stop.
 

Deen

Registered User
Feb 19, 2010
12,571
4,905
I got ripped on mushrooms and went to the theatre to watch Lord of the Rings. I'm sure me and my friends were no treat. I had the best time though,
 

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