Where do you sit?

[indietalk]

Where do you sit in the movie theater? I usually sit front and center, around the third row. If you sit all the way in the back, the screen appears about as big as your TV screen, so why bother? Seriously, I mean hold your fingers up and measure the screen.

 

[Loud Orange Cat]

I sit halfway between the center and rear rows, dead center.

The seats are high enough here to get an excellent view of the audience and I'm in popcorn-throwing range of the majority of troublemakers.

 

[VPTurner]

Fourth or fifth row center is usually the perfect view and is nicely situated to get the full surround sound experience. I'll get to the theater as much as an hour or two early to make sure I get a good seat.

My Home Theater setup is better than me having to sit off center, too close or too far back in a movie theater. I'd sooner watch it at home.

 

[John@Bophe]

My kids like the back row in line with the stairs. I end up sitting there a lot for the kid movies. Given my own choice -- dead center.

 

[Will Vincent]

I shoot for dead center.. if a theater had a sweet spot, that would be it.

But I seem to get the best of everything in the middle. Sound is good, picture is huge, but not so much that I can't take in the whole screen.

 

[NicklausLouis]

Sound and picture are aimed at the center seat in about the fifth or sixth row up in a stadium house (I was manager at a theater and this is what the tech told me), but now they have these stadium houses where you enter halfway up, and I have no idea where they aim it in those houses.

I used to sit in the center, but after I got married, we migrated down to the second row behind the area designated for folks in wheelchairs. My wife tends to fall asleep in every film, and she likes to put her feet up on the rails. If it's a movie that I know will be an experience (i.e. "Transformers") she usually lets me sit dead center.

I love being married.

 

[VPTurner]

Sound and picture are aimed at the center seat in about the fifth or sixth row up in a stadium house (I was manager at a theater and this is what the tech told me), but now they have these stadium houses where you enter halfway up, and I have no idea where they aim it in those houses.

I used to sit in the center, but after I got married, we migrated down to the second row behind the area designated for folks in wheelchairs. My wife tends to fall asleep in every film, and she likes to put her feet up on the rails. If it's a movie that I know will be an experience (i.e. "Transformers") she usually lets me sit dead center.

I love being married.

I have this same problem. Fortunately, my wife doesn't like movies like "Transformers" or "Spider Man" or any of the big budget blockbusters that must be seen on the big screen to be fully appreciated. Those I get to attend alone or with like-minded friends.

I knew there was a reason I always liked the fifth row.

 

[knightly]

hehe...wives...My wife loves "Commando"...I liked "Legends of the Fall" Totally different tastes (not that "Commando" was bad by any stretch, I do like a good action flick). But we hit all the Summer blockbusters we can in the theater center middle. Wife has to have some outside frame to not throw up from the motion on the screen. We'll probably go see Transformers in the theater next...but with my home theater and netflix...it's much more cost effective to just wait a month for it to come out on DVD. I'd go to more theater films if they'd push the DVD releases back to where they were 4-5 years ago. Now I just wait for the DVD as it's much cheaper for me.

 

[NicklausLouis]

I love the cinema. Big, small, or medium -- arthouse, multiplex, hybrid -- I don't care. I just love the experience.

And I have to have my wife with me. It is just more enjoyable for me that way.

 

[directorik]

I'm a front row seater myself. Or if the front row is too close - as they are in too many of the mulit-plexes - then third row is my choice. My favorite seats in the world are third row on the center isle at the Chinese in Hollywood and seat AA22, dead center, first row of the Cinerama Dome. When in NYC I love the Ziegfeld - third row there.

 

[Jijenji]

Where do you sit in the movie theater? I usually sit front and center, around the third row. If you sit all the way in the back, the screen appears about as big as your TV screen, so why bother? Seriously, I mean hold your fingers up and measure the screen.

I usually gauge the halfway point of the theater, then the back of the theater, and sit halfway in between the two. In the middle if possible.

The girl that I've been dating and I were at the movies a couple of weeks ago and nobody else was there when the previews started, so we went down to the front row to check it out. We found it was actually easier to see if you sit on the sides than if you sit in the middle front, where we couldn't see anything.

Of course, one can use calculus to actually determine the optimal viewing position. If you have the viewing room measurements, a little math can go a long way as there is exactly one point in the theater that is better than all of the others.

 

[Spatula]

I hang from the ceiling. No really.

Actually, I like aisle seats halfway back, on the side... I got long legs, and I HATE it when my knees are touching the plastic backs of the cinema chairs.
At the Bloor Cinema (our local arthouse) I love 2nd row on the balcony.... makes me feel like Abe Lincoln. I also enjoy the center, the back... everything but the front. I have problems looking "up". Not physical problems or anything, I just don't like looking in that direction.