What was your worst moviegoing/theater experience?

[Diabeetus]

Movie theaters are annoying. They can be fun to go to, but they can be very, very annoying. Tell us your story of your worst, most irritating experience while you were trying to watch a film.

I'll start things off with something that happened just yesterday.

I volunteer at a theater. It's a great way to kill some time, I get to talk to cool people, and I get to see movies for free. It's nice, yanno? So, this theater's doing an event with Studio Ghibli films. For two to three weeks, they'll be playing all the Studio Ghibli films, a couple per day. So for example, on Saturday, they'll play My Neighbor Totoro, The Wind Rises, Howl's Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke consecutively, but on Sunday, they'll play Spirited Away, Ponyo, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke. It's not in order, there are repeats, doesn't matter.

So after my shift, I go and watch Princess Mononoke. I've never seen it, seems pretty cool. It's Miyazaki, his track record is famously solid, it's probably going to be good.

Because I'm human, sometimes I tap my foot and crack my finger joints. It's a bad habit, but it's quiet. For the same reason (i.e: I'm human), I laugh at things in the movie that not everyone else laughs at. I chuckled at the Deer God's face when it was first revealed.

Spoiler: The Deer God's face

I thought it was funny, so I laughed. Of course I didn't laugh loudly, but generally, I laugh at things that I think are funny. Sue me.

So, I make some quiet noises. Common shit that most people do. If you're focused on the movie, they're too insignificant to notice.

There was this guy sitting in the row behind me. He was bald, he looked middle-aged, he was wearing socks with sandals. The sound of me cracking my finger joints was enough to completely take him out of the movie, so in the middle of the movie, he yelled at me for "not being able to stop making noise". He called me out, because "there are other people around me". He told me all this while yelling. Audibly, aggressively yelling to the point where the rest of the theater could hear him, obviously not practicing what he preaches.

I'm thinking about rewatching Princess Mononoke at home, because that shit bugged me for the rest of the movie. He must've been a hardcore weeb, because no one that I know that watches anime freaks out over quiet noises.

 

[LofaSofa]

The only thing that really irks me when moivegoing is when people clap at movies.

Like what exactly are you clapping at? It isn't a fucking live performance.

 

[Diabeetus]

The only thing that really irks me when moivegoing is when people clap at movies.

Like what exactly are you clapping at? It isn't a fucking live performance.

It's fine if it's at the end of the movie. Any other moment? Nah.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

Went to see that movie "Contagion". Ironically the theatre smelled like piss. That was bad enough, but then this couple a row or two behind us started fooling around, and weren't being quiet about it.

Not quite sure what they find erotic about the rancid smell of piss, but after 20 minutes, I'd had enough. I tossed my drink cup right at them (mostly full of ice by that point anyway) and then went to an usher to complain about the smell.

We sat through the rest of the movie, and then were given a refund because of the smell. Could have been worse, I guess.

 

[nanny911]

The other day I went to go see Solo. Earlier that day, something got in my eye and scratched it up pretty good, I didn't know it but I had an ocular abrasion, so I went thinking it would heal itself. Anyways, the movie sucked, and on top of that, I had this excruciating pain in my eye the whole time.

 

[Tootsie Bear]

When I was a kid my friends and I were allowed to go to movie theater alone and the movie we saw was Dr. Dolittle 2. Before the movie we purchased whatever junk food we could get our hands on like pop corn and candy. So after seeing chocolate milk on a menu I wanted it. Unfortunately I was given hot chocolate, which I remember spitting out instantly then throwing away.

The movie itself was okay. I've always enjoyed watching comedy movies with other people. Even if the movie sucks on its own, at least there are more than one person laughing which always make the movie more enjoyable.

I don't recall what movie we watched, probably Star Wars: Episode 1, but I remember someone had passed out in one of those comfy movie theater chairs and their buddies trying to wake them up because the movie was over. The first I ever seen someone who fell asleep during a movie.

 

[Fandom Trash]

I hate it when people talk about what's going on the movie while the movie is happening.

Like for coco, when we learned about who Ernesto really was, a mom was speaking put loud to her child, "OMG he's not the--"

Or the Last jedi, when a group of middle age man sitting behind me were loudly complaining about the movie. Even called Rose a bitch for rescuing Finn.


Like I dont mind when people talk in the theater, but your voice should not be louder than the voices on the screen.

Plus the people might spoil something and people will get piss.


Another thing is when people bring their kids and the kids keep crying or making loud noises. Its not fun watching a film and then hear a kid complain to his mom that he wants to go home or wants more food.

And the last one is when people are on their phone during the movie and the brightness is so bright that it distracts you from watching the movie. Like most people mute their phones but nobody lowers their brightness level. Plus are your notifications really that important for you to check? During the movie?

 

[Malodorous Merkin]

I saw The Big Lebowski way back when. There was a group of about 8 black people in the theater(yeah, uh oh), and The Big Lebowski is a movie that is defiantly what you would classify as a "white people comedy". The humor in the movie was completely lost on the blacks, and it sailed about 6 feet over their heads. The black people became offended that the white people in the theater were in hysterics when there was clearly nothing funny happening on the screen, so the blacks concluded that the laughter was in mockery of them.

I swear, this did happen.

The blacks actually got angry and started yelling like "How that spoda be funny? Karl Hungus? Ain't nothin' funny about that."

People were shushing them, but that only got the black people more belligerent and disruptive. The black people eventually got up and walked out, but one of them yelled "This movie fuckin' stoopit!" on the way out.

And then everyone went back to watching the Dude abide.

 

[Francis E. Dec Esc.]

I missed the ending of The Green Mile because the projectionist fucked up and burned the film in the middle of Old Tom Hanks' ending monologue.

 

[IV 445]

If youre in the inner city, bring garbage bags. Place the garbage bags over the seats so you dont catch fleas and bedbugs. Thank me later.

 

[neverendingmidi]

There's a theater near me that was bought out by a different brand. It had been good up to that point, so I went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 there the Thursday it opened. The sound sucked ass. All muffled and faint. Plus, despite the fact that this was an opening movie, it was in one of the smallest theaters they had, the ones usually used for movies right before they're kicked out to the dollar theaters.

Never went back. The other theater near me has the reserved seating with recliners in all of the theaters anyway.

 

[OJ 473]

You do sound like someone that would annoy me when watching a movie, Diabeetus-chan. Not going to lie.

I went to see Kizumonogatari in theaters and part 1 and 2 were probably the worst experiences I had. The only saving grace was that at each premier there were less people each time. Part 3 had the least people so it was relatively peaceful. For part 1, the place was packed. People were laughing hysterically at dramatic moments which killed the mood. The movie is a dark comedy but the audience always laughed at the completely wrong times. People shouted out comments in attempts to be funny. Any time there was a perverted joke, all the autists giggled like 12 year olds hearing a naughty joke for the first time. I complained on /a/ after and was told by another person from the same theater that the audience was "fine." This solidifies the idea in my head that the posts I read on 4chan are written by those same obese, immature retards I sat near.

The second part was arguably worse. The projectionist or whoever forgot to run the movie for 30 minutes so the audience just sat there waiting. (Some part of me believes this was done intentionally out of spite for weebs). When the movie did start I had the same experience as above, in addition to having to listen to the girl next to me make comments on everything. I assume she was a normal person that her nerd boyfriend took with him to see the movie. There is a certain scene where the main character harasses a girl to prep himself before a battle, if you have seen the movie I am sure you know which scene I am talking about. If not, then:

Spoiler: SekuHara

Up until that point, all of the autists were giggling hysterically. When this scene played, the theater was so silent you could hear a pin drop with a few nervous chuckles mixed in. The scene is pretty awkward and goes on for too long, but they were laughing so hysterically at sexy scenes before but there was only silence at that point.

Long story short, don't see anime movies in theaters.

 

[AnOminous]

I think I and a group of people I was with once were responsible for a whole theater full of people's worst moviegoing experience. One of our mob stole a bottle of Stolichnaya from a liquor store (not my fault but whatever I drank it) and we openly smoked cigarettes and joints throughout the entirety of Terminator 2. Once in the middle of it someone kicked over the empty bottle accidentally and it rolled extremely loudly all the way down to the front of the theater.

I have no excuse we were just a bunch of absolute fucking dicks for no goddamn reason at all and for some reason nobody ratted us out to the management. But there were some good old boys there who were obviously going to kick our asses in the parking lot when it was all over so we ran away real fast at the end.

 

[PantsFreeZone]

I went to see the 1st Deadpool and I had a group of 7 youths sitting behind me who would not stop talking and dicking around on their phones until I turned around and threatened to cut them into pieces and eat the parts I didn't fuck.

 

[John Titor]

You do sound like someone that would annoy me when watching a movie, Diabeetus-chan. Not going to lie.

I went to see Kizumonogatari in theaters and part 1 and 2 were probably the worst experiences I had. The only saving grace was that at each premier there were less people each time. Part 3 had the least people so it was relatively peaceful. For part 1, the place was packed. People were laughing hysterically at dramatic moments which killed the mood. The movie is a dark comedy but the audience always laughed at the completely wrong times. People shouted out comments in attempts to be funny. Any time there was a perverted joke, all the autists giggled like 12 year olds hearing a naughty joke for the first time. I complained on /a/ after and was told by another person from the same theater that the audience was "fine." This solidifies the idea in my head that the posts I read on 4chan are written by those same obese, immature exceptional individuals I sat near.

The second part was arguably worse. The projectionist or whoever forgot to run the movie for 30 minutes so the audience just sat there waiting. (Some part of me believes this was done intentionally out of spite for weebs). When the movie did start I had the same experience as above, in addition to having to listen to the girl next to me make comments on everything. I assume she was a normal person that her nerd boyfriend took with him to see the movie. There is a certain scene where the main character harasses a girl to prep himself before a battle, if you have seen the movie I am sure you know which scene I am talking about. If not, then:

Spoiler: SekuHara

Up until that point, all of the autists were giggling hysterically. When this scene played, the theater was so silent you could hear a pin drop with a few nervous chuckles mixed in. The scene is pretty awkward and goes on for too long, but they were laughing so hysterically at sexy scenes before but there was only silence at that point.

Long story short, don't see anime movies in theaters.

Had a similar experience at an anime viewing where a group of friends were spouting memes at the screen. Technically not a movie theater so the atmosphere is a little more casual so I'm a little more tolerant of it but the people in front of them were visibly annoyed. And if you're going to crack jokes, at least make funny ones.

 

[Reynard]

When I was a kid and the live action Alvin and the Chipmunks movie came out, I saw it in theaters. I was a kid, so I could't tell that it sucked. Probably too old for it, but my family and I would end up watching various movies that didn't end up making it big in theaters because they just wanted to get us out of the house. I was also too young to realize how annoying the people in front of us were, what with them constantly going "aw" really loud whenever something they thought was cute happened. Which means consistently throughout the whole movie. I feel if I was old enough to know I shouldn't see such a movie in theaters but for some reason did, I'd be incredibly annoyed at those people.

 

[Bread Fetishist]

I recently went to see Isle of Dogs, and it took forever for the movie to get started. It was supposed to start at 2:30, but I had to wait over 20 minutes before it started playing. It's a good thing they skipped over all the trailers and commercials when it finally began, though.

 

[Maiden-TieJuan]

I remember that every New Years Day the local theater ran older movies at a reduced price. There was a triple feature playing and my parents took my younger sister and I to see it. ( one of the movies was Cocoon , that should tell you how long ago it was!) So were are sitting there, semienjoying it, when we heard some dude in the back puke. Seems that the local homeless bought tickets to the triple feature to have a place to nap safely, and one of them had celebrated a bit too hard the night before. Since he was sitting directly behind my mom, and back a few rows, she had to pull her feet up when the vomit rolled down the floor to the lowest point. Dude kept emptying his stomach, and more and more vomit started rolling down. Mom got sick and SHE started puking too, onto the floor. People in front of us either started leaving or vomiting onto the floor as well. They had to clear everyone out and hose down the cement floor of the theater (It was a really old cheap theater) and I heard some of the workers getting sick while cleaning it. We left soon after that.

 

[Bassomatic]

Mine's posted in the worst date thread.

tl;dr

I got caught drinking on a first date on a movie I didn't like and she was a teetoller.

 

[Commander X]

Went to see Casino Royale and I and a few others nearby were somewhat put off by a middle-aged couple two rows down from me who were grab-assing like teenagers and making out during an action scene, every time they kissed it somehow sounded like two raw steaks being slapped together - asking them to be quiet resulting in the man getting surly and saying since he bought the tickets he could do whatever he wanted in the theater. Then after some complaints an usher came in and he and his scraggly-witch-haired ladyfriend became screechy and indignant about being asked to tone it down.