• ✅ Technical and creative solutions for your film.
    ✅ Screenplay formatting help, plot and story guidance.
    ✅ A respectful community of professionals and newbies.
    ✅ Network with composers, editors, cast, crew, and more!
    🎬 IndieTalk - Filmmaking and Screenwriting help site and community.
    By filmmakers, for filmmakers since 2003

movies Name the last movie you saw in the THEATER!

indietalk

IndieTalk Founder
Staff Member
Admin
What was it?
When?
What did you think of the experience, and why did you choose the theater instead of streaming? (Self-explanatory if a festival or not streaming.)

abandoned movie theater.jpg
 
I still see a lot of movies in a theater - six to eight a month.

Because the theater is still the best way to experience a movie.
Despite some of the negatives I enjoy sharing a movie with other
people. Even not being in control is important to me - I can't just
pause whenever I want. And I'm such a movie lover even seeing
a bad movie is part of the appeal.

Living in Hollywood I do have choices far beyond most people. Five
theaters in my area show current movies on 35mm and older movies
on 35mm, 70mm, and even nitrate and some rare films only still found
on 16mm. But I go see "regular" movies at my local AMC and the
Chinese Theater.

Saw Naked Gun yesterday - didn't like it. Am seeing Weapons in an
IMAX theater today. I saw GhostBusters on 70mm a couple of days
ago, "The Whole Bloody Affair" on 35mm last Friday and a 35mm print
of The Last Starfighter tomorrow.
 
LOTR: Return of the King re-released in theaters.
Even though I have a 88" TV at home, I felt that LOTR is one of those special films that benefits from an even bigger screen.

the lord of the rings GIF


The battle of gondor had some amazing scale, especially the scene with Grond and the trolls.
My back and bladder are much more comfortable at home, laying in bed, with a pause button for bathroom breaks.
 
Last edited:
I think I watched almost all the movies from last year in a theater, inside a VR headset. It's virtually the same experience, except I'm the only one in the theater, I can pause the movie, and it costs nothing. You can play any movie you own, or even made, on your schedule. You can invite friends from 6 countries to sit in the same theater together, watch a movie, and then talk loudly about it afterwards because everyone in the theater knows each other. The sodas cost 50c, and popcorn also costs 50c. I used to love going to the physical theater, but the costs have skyrocketed due to hollywood's accounting, no one else wants to go anymore, the quality and selection of films has dramatically decreased, and time from theater exclusivity to home viewing at a fraction of the cost has gone down from 6-9 months to 3.

I do miss going to the theater, but in so many ways it just doesn't make sense anymore. I'm also anti monopoly, so I feel like now that only films made by large investment cartels ever reach the theater, I'm just contributing to the problem. There is a small town theater nearby, independently owned by nice people, and I would go, but they now show almost exclusively children's films. That's great for the local kids, and they somehow keep prices down so a family of 4 can go see the latest pixar film for 50 bucks, but I'm too old to spend 3 hours finding out whether a dog and a beach ball could be best friends. lol.

In case anyone is interested in learning a bit about virtual theaters, which feel less real than the real thing, but more real than you'd expect, this guy does a great job walking you through the options. Also I'd note that when I used to go to theaters, not every person had a 70 inch tv in their room, and it was a much bigger contrast to go to a theater when everyone was on a 19 inch tv all the time. The last time I went, the theater sound system was way worse sound quality that the Sennheiser momentum 4's I use at home, maybe 1/3 as good.

 
LOTR: Return of the King re-released in theaters.
Even though I have a 88" TV at home, I felt that LOTR is one of those special films that benefits from an even bigger screen.

the lord of the rings GIF


The battle of gondor had some amazing scale, especially the scene with Grond and the trolls.
My back and bladder are much more comfortable at home, laying in bed, with a pause button for bathroom breaks.
Yeah, my prior response felt a bit one sided. There are still movies, once in a great while, that I'd want to see on the actual big screen. It's just been a while since something like the LOTR trilogy came out. Most of these new marvel films, I won't even get first day streaming, since most of them are pretty bad, and I can watch them for 4 bucks within a few months.
 
I still see a lot of movies in a theater - six to eight a month.

Because the theater is still the best way to experience a movie.
Despite some of the negatives I enjoy sharing a movie with other
people. Even not being in control is important to me - I can't just
pause whenever I want. And I'm such a movie lover even seeing
a bad movie is part of the appeal.

Living in Hollywood I do have choices far beyond most people. Five
theaters in my area show current movies on 35mm and older movies
on 35mm, 70mm, and even nitrate and some rare films only still found
on 16mm. But I go see "regular" movies at my local AMC and the
Chinese Theater.

Saw Naked Gun yesterday - didn't like it. Am seeing Weapons in an
IMAX theater today. I saw GhostBusters on 70mm a couple of days
ago, "The Whole Bloody Affair" on 35mm last Friday and a 35mm print
of The Last Starfighter tomorrow.
Now if a theater around here showed a 35mm print of The Last Starfighter, I'd go see that live.
 
Also shout out to one of the great theatrical experiences of all time. Going to see "The Matrix" in the theater. The film was amazing, but the whole experience people had surrounding it was one of a kind. I've had conversations with dozens of people over the years, and we all somehow had kind of the same thing happen.

The ad campaign was vague, interesting, but it didn't tell you what you were about to see. Myself, and almost everyone I talked to about it, came to the theater that day, way back in 1999, looking for a movie to watch, and The Matrix had the coolest poster. Nothing else that week seemed too interesting. So each of us picked the Matrix and watched it. Then, after the movie was over, you'd walk out into the parking lot, and everyone leaving was just in a daze, thinking about what they just experienced. It left you feeling like anything was going to be possible, and that the future of movies was virtually unlimited. Most of us went back and saw it several more times.
 
I still see a lot of movies in a theater - six to eight a month.

Because the theater is still the best way to experience a movie.
Despite some of the negatives I enjoy sharing a movie with other
people.
👍 👍

Agreed. I saw NAKED GUN on Tuesday, and the horror movie, TOGETHER, on Monday. Next up is WEAPONS. Looking forward to it! What did you think about it, Rik?

Recently, I've been catching some movies in D-Box and XD (eXtreme Digital, ie bigger screen). The seat vibrates and shakes when something is happening. While that was good for SUPERMAN and JURASSIC PARK Afterb...., I mean REBIRTH, it really helped seeing the movie, WARFARE, in D-Box. An average movie, story-wise, but the gunshots and explosions in D-Box were simply amazing, especially as it was one of the best movie sound mixes I have ever heard. I will never forget the experience, and I could not have gotten that at home.
 
Back
Top