What Makes A Good Movie Going Experience?

One of my best movie going experiences was at a new theater in Moraga California. This theater company was highlighted by customer service guru Tom Peters for going the extra mile to add "pixie dust" to the movie going experience. I wanted to see it for myself and was thrilled.

The movie being shown was one of the original Star Wars movies. The theater workers were all dressed in alien costumes, eery space music and blinking white mini-lights added to the atmosphere. Going to that theater was just as much of an experience as watching the movie. The seats were plush, the theater arena huge and the sound effects vibrated through the floor and seats.

Comfortable seats certainly help. We have a new cinema chain here with fabulous seats - and many of the non art-house chains are following suit, however, one of our best cinemas has awful seats - and I have to really want to see the film to go.

Surround sound and big screens and such are good for action and special effects films, but only clear sound and good projection is needed, I think, for more inward films. Bigger makes little difference to me.

A film where there is an audience that is really involved is a lovely experience - you can feel it, even when there is little obvious reaction - and mass laughter or mass thrill is a fabulous experience. I will never forget seeing films like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Star Wars" when they first came out - very early in their runs, before word got out - and the mass audience reaction was incredibly warm and exhilarating.

I like to have a group of friends to discuss it with afterwards - that is great fun, though very recently I have discovered the pleasures of going to a film alone, occasionally - a very concentrated experience.

Food and such? Nah - I want to CONCENTRATE and be swept away with a film - though it is delicious to see a film with a lover, too!

My farourite movie going experience happened in Quebec city, when I was 18.
I was an exchange student at L'Universite Laval - french immersion. I could barely understand high school french and I missed english terribly. One night, my friends invited my to a movie, Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads. The crowd broke out wine and canapes and danced in the aisles. It was the most fun I've ever had in at a movie aside from drive-ins, if ya get me meaning
Ceili

Nothing beats the good old drive-in movies :-D

This is true! I saw the movie Woodstock at a drive-in movie theater when it first came out. What a thrill to have everyone in the lot cranking up their speakers as loud as possible and dancing and singing in the aisles...

#1: The company
#2: The film
#3: The venue

As for #3, I can brag to have seen:

"Sutjeska", the biography of Marshall Tito with Richard Burton, at Tito's house, with Tito as the host and another "character" of the film as simultaneous translator.

"The Magic Flute" by Bergman, from the balcony of an XVIII Century opera house.

"The Gospel According to St. Matthew", by Pasolini, in a little Parrocchial movie room in Italy.

"Los Olvidados" by Buñuel: the third time I saw this movie, the film was shown against a white wall of a house, in a slum in Culiacán, northern Mexico.

I gave an answer to your other question that somewhat covers this one. Hollywood and the international filmmakers have relied on wide screen since the early fifties to draw an audience. Of course, digital sound is the latest techonology but it's actually better on a good home system than in the theater! I think they've put off filming in high resolution much too long although the last "Star Wars" film was shown in some theaters in a digital version. However, it wasn't a high definition digital image, at least not to the standard of a big screen. They need a kick-in-the-pants with an up-dated technology that has the impact that CinemaScope and Stereo sound had in the early fifties. They are experimenting with restoring some films to the IMAX technology but with conventional resolution. I understand that "2001: A Space Odyssey" will be digitally enhanced for high definition and shown on IMAX screens within a year. The anmated feature which didn't demand the high defintion (although it would obviously help) of "Beauty and the Beast" in IMAX did a good amount of box office but didn't prove that would be the ticket (sic). If anyone has been to a stadium seating theater with the larger ratio screens, you have seen the future. High defintion projection is not far off.

Incidentally, USHIO Corp. of America where I buy all my halogen lamps also manufactures the projection equipment for theaters. They already have the technology and the projectors for use in these theaters.

I enjoy the IMax, however, their choice in films are limited. They did have a great 3D about revisiting the shipwrecked Titanic. But the most important aspect of the viewing experience are the seats. Comfort is a must!

The seats at the new Krikorian are ergonomic and quite comfortable but a lot of people miss that there are pull down arms to hold soft drinks and rest one's arm. But going on Monday matinees, don't have much problem with someone coping both armrests!

What I was explaining was that the high resolution digital imaging is meant for the large screen theaters in existance now. Of course, it would be more effective on the largest stadium seating screens where now if one doesn't sit about two-thirds up, the resolution is not that good on 35MM and passably good on 70MM. There are two different systems that have been developed -- one similar to IMAX where the film goes through the projector sideways and one that is a digital and projected by three lenses just like a rear projection TV.

Since I've been poor a long time, I've been seeing movies mainly at second run theatres which here in suburban Boston include the Somerville Theatre, the Arlington Capital and a sort of second run, the Lexington Flick. I also like foreign films and indies so I also go to the art houses, but usually the West Newton Cinema, which is an art house-first run hybrid, and the Coolidge Corner and that lovely old repertory house in Harvard Square, the Brattle.

My god! My menopausal memory didn't fail me and I got through the list with all those names!

I like these theatres because they're old, worn and funky. The popcorn is better than standard movie pop corn and they sell water or lemonaide or ice cream. The Coolidge Corner even sells coffee and water-and-powder-mix hot chocolate.

My 18 year old son took me to see Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on Christmas Day as a present. It was the first time I went to a mass release type theatre in years. Loved the movie but hated the experience. The auditorium was too large and characterless. An old movie palace at least has character: this place looked like an airport waiting area. The popcorn was too salty and cold. they showed forty-seven previews for movies I would never want to see and commercials as well. We were there for seven hours, when you included all of the previews. I exaggerate but not much.

Movies out to serve wine. I once took some red wine in a stainless steel thermos to a movie. That was nice. HaHa to those who think I'm just a little old lady!

Was going to say that there is an art house near MIT that I hate. They make you enter the parking garage -- a nightmare in itself -- and park your car before getting to the box office where you usually discover the movie you want to see is sold out.

In these days, they could have an electronic marquee at the parking garage entrance that tells you which showings are sold out. Totally an alienating experience.

Jay Carr, formerly movie critic in Detroit who moved to Boston, says he doesn't like multi-plexes because they make him feel like he's being processed. He likes the Arlington Capital as much as I do.

I first got to third base with Debby Zdicham at the Highland Theratre in Akron Ohio at a Saturday matinee in maybe 1960 or so.....now that made for a memorable, enjoyable and life enriching experience.

Godbless the debbies of this world.

The Krikorian keeps the previews down to four and shows no commercials. This has crossed the local Regal theaters who also thrust commercials in your face for several minutes before the film. Also their screens and sound are out-of-date at the closest theaters. I could easily drive down to the Newport Center screens -- the "Big Newport" screen is about 140 ft. I believe the largest on the West Coast.

For me noon time is the ultimate cinema experience, the cinema is empty but for me (and ½ dozen others) so no drunken idiots, no sounds of people rustling crisp packets, no sound of people crunching popcorn, no sound of idiots saying "oh I've seen this before this is where he......."

In short, avoid cinemas like the plague, unless you are a popcorn/potato chip cruncher.

Thank the lord for the gift of video.

I've seen both the "Lord of the Rings" in a full theater as well as "Chicago" and there is something to the theory that audience reaction has some bearing on the appreciation of a film. In "Chicago," the audience applauded several scenes and it got a lot of people standing and applauding after the final frames into the credits.

I'd have to say seeing "Titanic" at Big Newport was almost essential. I felt like I was going down with the ship!

I'm going to report on our last movie experience. My wife and I went to see "Master and Commander." It was a great movie, because 1) we learned about the personality of the commander (we got to know him so well, we were able to almost predict what he would do), 2) it had scenes of the Galapagos Islands (I was at the Galapagos this past May, and was at the very spot, Bartholomew Island), where they shot the movie, and 3) it shows a commander who is intelligent while showing his humanity, and his brilliance for the strategy of sea warfare against a formidable adversary.