What was your worst moviegoing/theater experience?

[Dolphin Lundgren]

When I saw The Ring in the theater I had the unfortunate opportunity to be in a crowd of people where parents brought their children. They thought it was a good idea to bring a toddler and a baby to see a horror film that had a lot of screeching sounds in it. (Who sees an ad for The Ring and goes "this is the perfect film to bring a young child to?") During most of the movie the baby kept crying. Most likely because of the loud sounds. Instead of leaving the theater one of the parents would take the crying baby and stand just outside the entrance where we could still hear it crying. They should have left because it's stupid to bring babies to a horror movie, but no. They stayed during the whole film and we had to keep hearing the loud crying.
The toddler who wasn't far away from me kept telling their mom that they didn't like the movie (You think?) and they wanted to go home. Of course the mom stayed. At one point I remember thinking to myself "I hope your damn kid ends up freaking out because it's afraid of the television and I hope it annoys you."

I saw Ghost Ship because MTV covered the movie and made it look cool. The film wasn't good. After the opening I watched multiple people get up and leave. Instead of walking out I kept thinking "maybe it'll get good" but it never did. At one point I saw a very large group of people walk out of the film at once. It's the only time I've seen that many people bail out on a film.

 

[Doctor of Autism]

A bit of crossposting from the Personal Lolcows thread, but this is about someone who is a close friend of my best friend:

The worst thing he did is when me and my friends went to see Blade Runner 2049, he kept yelling in the line for the concession stand, and was play fighting with people, and when the guy in front of us got annoyed he yelled at everyone but him. Furthermore, when we got in the movie theater, we were sitting in the back row, and all he did was run around the theater screaming in people's ears. This was enough to kick us out of the theater before the third act of the movie started, and immediately afterwards this guy threw packets of mayonnaise at people.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

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.

Did you get a refund?

Something similar happen during a showing of "The King's Speech" where a fire alarm went off and we had to leave the theatre. We were able to start the movie up after the theater was clear, but it fucked with the flow of the movie, so we asked for and got a refund.

 

[Francis E. Dec Esc.]

Did you get a refund?

Something similar happen during a showing of "The King's Speech" where a fire alarm went off and we had to leave the theatre. We were able to start the movie up after the theater was clear, but it fucked with the flow of the movie, so we asked for and got a refund.

I think I got a $25 gift card. I used it to see The Fellowship of the Ring the next year.

 

[The Cunting Death]

It's far from the worst but it's the only one I can remember where I wanted to tear my hair out.

I went to see MFKZ (Mutafukaz/or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods) And apparently the father had no idea that it was going to be an R rated movie, so he brought his 10 year old daughter with him. Although I had a good time, she also couldn't shut the fuck up. (But she loved the movie, so I guess that's a plus)

 

[Looney Troons]

Movie theaters now have bars, at least a lot of them do. Their bartenders are just as inept as any of the other employees. You’ll always be made a drink that consists 80% of mix or juice, or you’ll ask for a jagerbomb and the dumbfuck will pour you a pint glass full of Jägermeister and give you a spritz of an energy drink.

I sperg our hard for movies set in space, especially if there’s the foreboding theme of isolation and despair. I went to go see Gravity at midnight on its opening day. To be expected, there were only a handful of people in the theater. I had chosen the prime spot to sit, smack dab in the middle of the theater. Soon after I took my seat, these two gentlemen had followed, leaving a seat in between them and me. During the previews, these lads were talking quite loudly, and it became pretty obvious that the one nearest me was piss up. No problem, let’s enjoy the movie.

Both of them were actually courteous during the film and didn’t make so much of a peep other than to take drink orders or lightly cough. The dude nearest me appeared to have never stopped drinking. Anyway, when shit starts to get real spinny, this guy starts gagging - that awful sound when you try to swallow vomit just as quickly as it’s trying to escape. As soon as I turn to him, he projectiles /all/ over my lap. It was as if he actually trying to aim at the open seat, but fucked it.

I stand up, I’m cursing loudly, drunk vomit man is incapacitated and his friend is trying to damage control. Everyone in the theater is basically yelling and screaming at us to shut the fuck up, and soon the inept staff comes down to get their noses into the situation. One of them asked me if I had intended on pressing charges, lmao. Once the police are mentioned, the friend digs into his wallet and pulls out something like 140 dollars - don’t recall, it was quite a few 20 dollar bills.

I just ended up taking the friend’s money, and before leaving, I got a napkin and flung all of residual vomit onto the friend. Upon leaving the theater itself, noticed that police officers were entering. I’m assuming that it was because drunk vomit man was incapacitated, and definitely not because I called them.

Tl;dr - went to go see Gravity and got puked on by a drunk guy. Got 150 dollars to not call police, but they showed up anyway. Still haven’t finished the movie.

 

[Neon_Noodle]

I went to see Scream 4 and people kept using their cell phones as flashlights and twice I had to lift my feet up to let two girls leave to so they could get through and use the bathroom.

 

[Nekromantik]

The last two times I went to a theater as made me think I'll just wait for movies to come to TV from now on.

We went to go see the first Deadpool movie. I sit down and stretch my leg out in front of me a bit because I have a messed up knee and sitting this way keeps it from hurting. The row in front of us in empty and this one guy sits right in front of me and leans his chair back right in to my knee. To his credit he said sorry and leaned forward, for a bit. Through out the movie every so often he would lean back and hit my knee no matter where I moved it. And by the time the movie started I couldn't move to another seat. My knee hurt for about a week after that.

We went to go see Jurassic World 2 (That's bad enough). So got good seats, good leg room, I'm happy. Then a family of yokels that must have been out on their monthly visit to the city sit in the front row. There's four of them, Ma, Pa, sister and brother. They have all sorts of food that they immediately start to eat loudly. Though out the movie the daughter would whisper scream at her father, "WHAT'S HAPPENING PA!? I DON'T KNOW PUMPKIN!" And then the mother would scream "SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! BE QUIET!! I'M WATCHING THA MOVIE!!" And she would go back to playing facebook games on her phone, that would shine right in my eye.

This happened 3 or 4 times of hearing WHAT'S HAPPENING PA?! and SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! And than they left all of their garbage on the theater seats for the poor workers to pick up. I hope that family has a cow fall on them.

 

[King Buzzo]

Karma can be kind and yet cruel. Back when the third Star Wars movie was coming out to my local theater, I was a very young closeted spergy fan of Star Wars. After I found my seat with my friend and his mom, I started sperging out when the lights started going dim. The dude behind me had to endure my rabid movements in front of his view that he told me to sit down after five minutes into the trailers.

A decade later, I ran into a similar situation. Except this kid was verbal. Must have been a mediocre movie because I barely remember more what the kid was saying than the movie itself. wow x 100db about every 10 minutes and some babbling now and then. He must have pulled an all-nighter because he crashed midway through the film. After that point, I left because I didn't want to bother trying to figure out what I missed. Sorry if I don't have any other details from this, pretty sure I tried to forget this as another average theater experience.

 

[frozenrunner]

Watched Jurassic Park in a theater packed full of people, mostly black. A small child seated in front of me (around 5 or 6) was unfazed by the violence, climbing on his seat and loudly imitating the T-Rex over and over again. His fatass father (easily over 300 pounds) apparently thought it was the funniest thing he had ever experienced because he laughed loudly every single time his kid did it. Nobody in the audience took the movie seriously, and the entire group erupted in laughter when the lawyer got eaten on the toilet.

Good thing I had already seen it before.

 

[Inkling Boy]

I've generally had pretty good experiences seeing movies but this last year I easily had my worst experiences.

The first two times were when my friends and I went to go see Hellfest and Suspiria (201. Both times we had people sit directly behind us (despite there being plenty of other places to sit) and both times the people behind us would talk incessantly. Both times my friend had to turn around and tell the people behind us to shut the fuck up.

The last time was seeing Aquaman. I went with my roommates and the theater had two families in it: one sitting behind us and one sitting in front of us. The dad in front of us kept talking to his kids during the movie. The family behind us came in late (about 20 minutes into the movie) and were not quiet about finding their seats. At one point, one of the sons turned on the flashlight on his phone to try to find seats and one of my roommates had to tell him to turn it off before he did.

 

[Midlife Sperglord]

Watching Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo and Juliet movie, and wanting to walk out five minutes into it, but sticking around since it was family movie day, and watching the movie get progressively worse as it went on and on for what seemed like an eternity.

 

[StarkRavingMad]

Over the Summer, I had a free weekday (and I still had MoviePass at the time, LOL), so I decided to go in to use up my pass to see Infinity War again.

I thought I was going to be the only one in the theater, when, right at the beginning when Thanos is on Thor's ship, a family walks in-- Five adults and one child. They are extremely loud and annoying the entire time EXCEPT for the only child in the group, who was quietly paying attention to the entire film like a normal person should.

These adults were so bad to the point where some were answering their cell phones and holding a conversation right in the theater. And several times, one of the adults would belch LOUDLY. Now, if this family had been the only people in the theater, that's one thing ... But they 100% SAW ME as they walked in (I know this, because one of the women of the group literally pointed at me and asked if we were in the right movie, lol). These assholes knew there was at least one other person in the movie theater.

I would have said something, but ... Nah. I was alone, and completely outnumbered if a conflict were to arise. I'm just glad it wasn't my first time seeing the movie, because I would have been so pissed.

 

[Jinmen]

Worst: I accidentally pulled a fire alarm when I was leaving a showing of a batman movie and that sucked a lot. Was very embarrassing explaining to the people up front what happened after the fire department had been called.

Best experience was when I went to see Scream 2 and this drunk old black man sat next to me. He stunk of liquor and brute cologne. Guy vanished halfway through the movie and I thought security had got him but 10 minutes later he CRAWLS OUT FROM UNDER THE SEATS with a small bag of popcorn. Asked me if I wanted some and I said no thanks. I think this would be filled under "worst experience" for thinking back I laugh but also wonder to this day over how/why he crawled under the seats without spilling his popcorn.

 

[UnKillFill]

Don't go to a "black" movie theater in general (unless you happen to be watching a "black" movie, in which case don't go anywhere else.) You're gonna have a bad time.

 

[hambeerlyingnreed]

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.

Was it on the first day of opening? Especially if it's a big theatre, the people watching it might have been involved with the production. I went to see 9 on Sept 9th and it seemed the entire theatre clapped (or maybe it was the acid) when the credits rolled.

 

[Foltest]

My worst was watching Silver linings playbook. The vents were broken and the air was godawful. I feelt like shit and at the halfway point, I told the girl I was with that I would pass out if I didn't leave. Se we left. Have never seen the ending of the film. Got a giftcard.

 

[Chewy Suarez]

Me and some friends went to see Finding Dory opening weekend, so keep in mind there’s a bunch of kids and families coming to see the movie. Before the movie starts, four little shits who I assumed were like 10 or 12 strut to the back and plop themselves onto the seats but not before of of them screamed “Anal!” like three times causing all his little friends to shit themselves laughing. I think a couple parents turned back to look at them in anger but they just mocked them. Halfway through the movie and these snots have been chattering almost the entire time however if there was one think I could give them good boy points on, it was for being quiet enough that it wasn’t distracting until one of them pulls out their phone at full fucking brightness and almost yells “Who’s winning the NBA Finals right now?” and when they hear it’s the Lakers or whatever they begin to chatter to themselves almost as loud. After that I think they went back to quietly chattering before seemingly shutting the fuck up at the near end. I was honestly shocked they didn’t scream the entire time.

Not my story but related, when my boyfriend went to see Crazy Rich Asians with family, he said three whole families left the damn theater and his almost followed suit. It was just that damn boring for them.

 

[Roast Chicken]

Went to Watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith with a friend for her Birthday when I was younger. I nearly crawled up the walls with boredom.

I was also subjected to watching Attack of The Clones and the one where Anakin goes over to the Dark Side. I consumed most fantasy/sci-fi media quite happily as a kid but Star Wars is the one franchise I never bothered with. I remember watching the original in my R.E class and being completely unengaged.

 

[ShittyRecolor]

Probably either Transformers: Dark of The Moon or The Amazing Spider-Man 2, just on the grounds of how annoyingly bad and boring they were. We also had to watch Al Gore's yawn inducing documentary film in an artsy theater, though while it was unspeakably boring, I had such a nice nap throughout the entire thing I just can't find it in myself to call it an overall bad experience.

Scratch that, some idiot in one of the other classes thought it'd be a good idea to watch an incredibly shitty teen comedy movie from the time titled "Apám beájulna" (roughly "My dad would totes freak out") in the same artsy-fartsy place. It featured an incredibly bland coming-of-age plot, horribly forced attempts at being hip, edgy and funny as well as some of the most slutty, shallow, uninteresting and unlikable female protagonists you can imagine. I was equal parts underwhelmed, bored and infuriated at the same time.

There's also one moviegoing experience that easily could've become the worst of them all, but we've managed to turn it around. By the time me and my best friend have gotten around watching The Avengers the movie was already almost out of theaters, so there were quite a few empty seats where we had went to watch it. Enter these three 14-or-so year old little shits (me and my friend were in our mid-20s at the time) who sat down right behind us, and kept constantly talking about the most inane shit and even kicked out seats every now and then. After turning around the fourth time to tell them to knock it off to no avail, I noticed that the entire row behind them was completely empty. With a grin on my face that even the Grinch would find excessive, I've told my friend that we should sit a bit further back, so we got all our stuff and sit RIGHT BEHIND the little Darwinian dead ends.

The little ingrates got immediately silenced, but since we didn't do anything at first, they soon have ound themselves engulfed in a false sense of security. As soon as one of them yacked off again, though, they were either rewarded with us kicking their seats or tossing our leftower popcorn or nachos at them. Basically every time they weren't behaving they got paid back for their previous transgressions in spades. Thanks to our Pavlivian effort, by the time the endgame was coming up we have managed to do what the punks' parents have failed an taught them how to behave like actual human beings.

Sigh, child abuse can sometimes be a wonderful, hilarious thing.