I Don't Think I Like the Movie Theatre

Group spaces are interesting things. They often require specific rules in order to function and yet at the same time those rules a re usually readily followed without much need for enforcement. And yet when those rules are broken, they often lead to a much worse experience for everyone involved. Last Saturday I went to see Superman (2025). It was a very good movie and if you like superheroes you should watch it. That will be the only part of this where I speak about Superman so don’t worry about spoilers. What I want to talk about is a feeling I had during watching the movie. I don’t think I like going to the movie theatre for that type of movie. I have started going to the movie theatre more often after randomly deciding to do Barbenheimer the weekend those movies came out. I think there is a type of movie that the movie theatre works for me for me, namely dramas such as Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer. The audience the pull to the theatre feels more willing to follow the rules required to make the movie theatre an experience unruined by other goers. This is contrast by a movie like Superman, which featured more people talking and taking me out of the experience. Lastly, we will discuss live rock music concerts, where the dynamic is flipped and people talking and being rowdy brings an energy to the event that makes them much more exciting.

To me, movies are about immersion. They feel like portals to another world where I can experience a compelling story, I could not get anywhere else. They manage to break away from the serial fiction I usually watch and tell a complete story without breaks and the need to let the audience know when something is bending brought back up because they watched it a month ago and forgot about it. They force me to take in an entire story in one sitting without the distractions of my life. The movie theatre should be extremely compelling to me then, and in some cases it is. It features significantly larger screens at a better resolution than I own, the highest resolution screen I have is a 1440p monitor. The sound systems are significantly more complex and powerful than my creative Pebble Pro PC speakers as well. In addition, the rules of the theatre force me to be completely free of distractions from things such as my phone. Going to the movies is an event. It features fun things like significantly better popcorn than I can make at home, even if it is very expensive, in Alberta it is even possible to order a drink with your movie in theatres with a liquor license. All these things come together to make for the possibility of a fantastic afternoon or night out. For some movies it works great. The audiences for Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, and even the Mobile Suit Gundam trilogy it was a great time where I was successfully transported to the world of the films. They created an environment that could not have been replicated at home. It was truly magical. A big reason for this was that the audience was not distracting. Other people were well behaved, and it allowed me to be transported without a problem. For the Gundam films, this was in part due to the showings being very poorly attended, I was one of few people in the theatre and we all sat far away from each other and let the films wash over us. For films such as Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer, I think it is due to the people they cultivated as an audience. These were not the type of movie where one cheers at big events. They are more gripping than exciting. They compel one to think and feel but in ways that require no real external outburst of emotion. This means that one is functionally solitary in their watching of the film. You gain nothing really by watching it in a theatre with other people save for the technical things such as a large screen and excellent sound system. This is contrasted with movies such as Superman (2025).

There are movies that are designed to be watched with others. They rely on the laughter of the fellow audience to make jokes land better, hype moments that get people cheering and the children saying things such as “aura farming”. These films are, or at least should, be better in a setting such as a theatre. Yet, I think those outward displays of emotion that are encouraged by the making of the film and enhance it have a downside. I feel as though they make people feel more comfortable doing things such as talking to each other during the film and doing the incredibly annoying act of explaining what is happening aloud for all the hear like we are not also watching the same movie. These provide immense distractions and instead of other people enhancing the viewing experience, they damage it. This is compounded by the fact that there is not good way to remedy the situation. Movie theatre attempts to curtail the issues using things such as public service announcements before the showing of the movie are insufficient and often don’t work. During my showing of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX the Beginning, it went straight from that don’t talk during the movie announcement to some guy explaining why the first 30 minutes of that film was happening the way it does to his companion. The only options are either to leave the theatre and tell staff that someone is talking like you are a child in grade school, missing part of the film for the possibility that the staff will be able to do something, or confront the person yourself and hope it does to turn into a big thing. Or One can do as I do and sit in silence annoyed. This has led me to the conclusion that there are some movies it is simply not worth going to the theatre to see as waiting for a streaming release will often lead to a better experience overall despite the advantages the theatre provides. What I do find odd is the very same type of person I hate watching movies with, I want to go to concerts with every time.

 In February I went to the Our Lady Peace 30^th anniversary concert in Calgary with my sister. It was a transformative experience compared to the two previous times I had seen them. It was the first time I had done so as a woman on estrogen and songs such as Clumsy and Not Enough filled me such a well of emotion I ended up ugly crying on the drive home the next day. A key part of what made the night so special was the audience, we were all singing every song and the parts where the lead singer stops and listens to the crowd sing in slow parts were vastly better than the smaller venues, I had seen the band in before. Crucially, the two ladies standing beside my sister were having the time of their life, dancing and singing with wild abandon. It was infectious, the only reason we did not join them was I am a naturally clumsy person, and my eyesight is terrible, and I did not want to fall into the row in front of me as I had little foot room to dance. Thus, I simply danced in my chair and sang. These two women’s antithesis were sitting beside me a few empty chairs down. It was a middle-aged man sitting dourly looking at the concert, he did not sing, he did not danced, just scowled the entire time. I would have called it a downer but luckily every time I could just look at the women and be filled with joy again. Unlike a movie theatre, I think a good raucous crowd can only enhance the concert experience. Even if cases where the crowd was not totally into such as with the opening acts of the April Lavigne concert I went to, it was still a blast.

Going to the movies seems to be a very hit or miss thing depending on the crowd you get and what movie you go to. For serious dramas such as Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer, it seems to be a safe bet you will be a good crowd to watch with. Those movies are made in a way that outbursts of emotion are rare besides perhaps silent crying. Big event action movies such as Superman and Gundam GQuuuuuuX seem to be a different story as they permit and encourage laughing and cheering and that appears to encourage an audience to break the rules of the theatre. This dynamic is encouraged and enhances concerts, however. Rules are contextual things; they can make or break a group setting when people must act in a way to ensure the entire group is having a good time. Yet those rules change depending on what your doing, even if the activity is similar to another different activity such as watching a movie or going to a concert. Even different movies can have different rules that can lead to different experiences.