Ever sat alone in a film theatre?

Nice old thread....
Yeah, Hotel Rwanda is a movie not to be seen alone.


When I was a teenager, a group of us would always visit a tiny movie theater in an artsy part of town (Munich) and every night at 11 pm the theater showed old Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin movies.

Only a few people who were Jerry & Dean lovers would go there at this time and slowly we all got to know each other and enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

Sounds like a good time.

Once as a youngster I spent new year's eve alone at home watching the drug classic 'Blow', tried a bottle of asti, and wasted it by tossing it in the street, I guess I didn't like the taste at the time.

I've been in a near empty theatre, with one or two others before, it's very nice, so long as you're no on some terribly bad idea of a date. Once saw mona lisa smile with a very awkward date I didn't know, on her birthday, empty theatre. Worst movie experience ever.

It is nice to see this again.

Having been involved with a man with restless leg syndrome and with another who liked mass market movies, I love being alone in the theatre and I hate watching movies at home.

Was not exactly on my own, nor was the theatre really empty, but....

When my son was small I did shift work in a city where many people worked flexible hours and there were a lot of broken marriages. My parents lived with me, but if I was home during the day I liked to take my son 'out' so we could spend time together. I was pretty broke, so our activities were limited by cost. We discovered a small cinema that had a special session on Tuesday mornings where adults were only charged children's prices, so we checked that out. It turned out that this catered for (mainly) separated dads who had their children for the day, enabling them to take in a movie, have lunch, do a bit of shopping or generally hang out, and then have the kids home by six. It was ideal. The theatre was never very full, usually only half a dozen men and their kids. After a while, some of the faces became familiar and though we were spread out in the theatre - this never changed - comments on the film would be called back and forth. We would laugh at each other's jokes and compare movies, actors, etc.

I will never forget seeing 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' for the first time. We whooped and hollered along with the kids - and that brilliant scene where Indie pulled out his pistol and shot the Arab swordsman really created pandemonium, we all jumped to our feet, clapped and cheered and we all turned to each other with enormous grins on our faces.

(I think all the kids were embarrassed by our behaviour.)

Tuesdays, when I didn't have to work, were a special day to me. I never actually met any one of those men, nor did any of us ever talk to each other once the session was finished. (Maybe we all realised that would destroy the magic.)

I've gone to movie theaters alone - but re nimh's question, I don't think I've ever been the only one in the theater. I do remember being, say, two of us with four or five others. The old FoxVenice, in, natch, Venice, showed two movies a day, every day for years, changing them all the time. Sometimes the audience was spare, which was too bad for the theater revenue (and it eventually folded) but pleasant for the rest of us. We tended, for a while, to see six movies a week.

On the other hand, I liked being in that theater when some oldie or somewhat exotic to us films were shown, and a large audience as a whole really got into the movie. So many good films, so little time. The audience wasn't usually loud, this was in the seventies, but you could apprehend total attention happening. Well, we were loud with the San Francisco Mime Troup, but that was theater.

Once, a friend and I were the only people in the theater. We rather liked the idea of having our own private screening.

I like going to the movies alone, particularly on a hot summer afternoon, although I've done it a lot less often since cable TV has been offering so many movies. And, when by myself, I've been in theaters with only a handful of people scattered among the seats. I love those mostly empty theaters! I hate the talking, paper rustling, munching, and other distractions that go along with having more people seated in the theater. I like getting absorbed in the movie, and, for me, that requires almost complete silence.