Where Do You Sit in the Movie Theater?

It seems everyone has a different sitting preference at the movies. I want the ultimate experience: the screen completely filling my vision, like I’m in the movie. Usually the third or fourth row. My wife complains we’re too close. Then I see people way in the back and it must be like watching TV the screen is so small. I don’t understand that at all. So, Lemmy, where do you sit with your popcorn and why?

Bonus question: best movie food / candy, and how do you sneak it in?

paganini,

I prefer to sit on the chair.

rob_t_firefly,
@rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world avatar

I prefer to sit on my butt.

Echolot,

Gross.

mpolden,

I’ve been going to the same theater for the past 15 years, the largest/best equipped one in my city. I always sit about half way back from the screen (row 6 of 13), in the center of the room. Rows 5 and 7 work too, but 5 is slightly too close and 7 too far. My SO still thinks I’m weird for having a favorite row and seat, and I keep trying to explain why it’s important.

Will be seeing Oppenheimer in my favorite seat today!

AlecSadler,

Wherever is easiest to get up and out and go pee because I snuck in beer and I have a small bladder.

WeDoTheWeirdStuff,

The entire theater is designed around the center seat. Anything else is objectively wrong.

Sequentialsilence,

As an acoustic engineer who would tune movie theaters, 2/3 of the way back in the center of the room. If it is a Dolby certified theater there will be a chair with a small plaque that is where the measurements are taken and the room is tuned to that seat.

Asudox,
@Asudox@lemmy.world avatar

High up in a corner where people mostly never sit. Though I don’t go to theaters and movies by myself. Never. So I just suggest it to the person going with me.

Chickens,

Right behind the crossing lane and the never-used handicapped section so I can put my feet up. It’s six rows from the front. Only downside is every yahoo with a tiny bladder that insists on parking on the far side of the theater from the exit has to parade back and forth constantly in the movie, breaking the emersion.

Bonus: a couple of airplane bottles to add to my coke and some raisinettes from the drug store where they cost 1/5 as much. Just carry them in my bag. No one working in the theater gives a crap if you bring in your own food.

PlanetOfOrd,

Between the sticky Coke spill and the teen giving TikTok movie updates, and right behind the dystopian row of popcorn shrapnel.

Tilgare,

As a kid and most of the way through my 20s, I pretty much always wanted to be in the back row of a stadium seating theater (although the long, sloped plane theaters 🤮 I definitely didn’t sit at the back because you were a mile away from the screen).

But over the last few years I’ve reevaluated my “always in the back” stance, and found that I, like OP, am happiest when the screen completely fills my view. Both of our theaters have leather recliners. At one of our premium/large format screens, I’ll sit in about the 4th row of 30 because the recline is so substantial that I can sit so close without craning my neck to see the screen. In any of the other standard screens at that theater, I’ll sit in the front half for sure.

We’ve also got a theater with two IMAX screens - one of them is so enormous and the seats are so vertically stacked that I’ve been pushing further and further back in the theater, almost to the back row. Because the screen is almost 80 feet tall, it positions you basically in the center of the screen and the recline in the chairs is very limited, so sitting too close means you are craning your neck.

Tilgare,

I want to add - I think a LOT about this topic, and I’m pretty sure my wife couldn’t care less. But if I’m spending almost $30/pp to see a movie in the massive IMAX theater, I want to make sure it’s the best possible experience for both of us.

lemming007,

We’ve also got a theater with two IMAX screens

Which theater is that? I’ve been looking for one but there isn’t one near my location, apparently there are only 30 of them? EDIT: Clarification, only 30 in the entire world that project 70mm. I was looking for one to watch Oppenheimer in.

Solemn,

There are only 30 theaters that project 70mm IMAX film. There’s plenty of others that do digital IMAX.

Tilgare,

Unfortunately, both of my IMAX screens are digital projection - I did look into it and saw that I had a 70mm IMAX screen around 4 hours away, but never could make it work with my work schedule. But my premium format IMAX screen was incredible all the same, no regrets!

soulifix,

Always in the back. I get a better view that way. I’ve tried sitting in the front before, but I always had to have my head tilted up. I’ve tried sitting in the middle before and my eyes had to zoom around the screen still to try and catch everything.

So, the back it is for me.

Chickens,

I’ve tried the back and hate it due to you get a view of the entire audience and all the yahoos who refuse to not light up their phones mid movie. We live in a society of entitled twats. Getting this confirmation a half dozen times during the movie I paid for just makes my BP go up.

counselwolf,

Probably middle middle as well, maybe a bit higher than middle depending on the theater.

I don’t have perfect vision so I can’t seat super far back

Silviecat44,

Middle back third

emptyother,
@emptyother@lemmy.world avatar

My agoraphobia says “not between people”. So first or last seat in a row. Distance to the screen is irrelevant.

icepuncher69,

All the way to the back since i had had bad experiences with people kicking my seat in the back even after you ask them multiple times to stop. In more than 2 movies btw. So i rather avoid it and go all the way to the back. Its kindda annoying since every time some ashole takes their digiclock or phone out i get my face blasted with their brightness. But it has been becoming better as time passes, since when cinemas where reopened just after the pandemic, people where real jerks by talking loudly, having their phones out constantly be it for recording parts and posting them or whatever else, having their hellspawn (children) playing with their phone/tablet all movie long with the sound on, and some asholes even goin as far as taking selfies of their own fugly faces with multiflash on. But as i said its been getting better ever since, theres still some asholes but way less now.

Cameli_Hostis,

Regular theater: in the center, about 1/3 back from the screen.

IMAX: in the center, very back row against the wall.

counselwolf,

why very back in IMAX? wouldn’t that be too far?

Cameli_Hostis,

The screen is giant. Giant isn’t even the right word for it. And with stadium seating, you don’t have to worry about people sitting in front of you.

It reminds me of how the movie screen seemed to me when I was 5. If I’m too close, my field-of-view won’t include the edges of the screen.

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