Movie Theater Habits and Rituals

We have not done a get-to-know-you article about me in a longtime (we used to do this occasionally on Fridays, but have sort of fallen off the wagon a bit with them), so I figured now was as good of time as any to give it another go.  If you like this series and want to continue learning a bit more about the man behind the curtain, share that sentiment in the comments.  If you don't like them, let me know and I'll return to having film reviews principally in the afternoons.  I am nothing if not accommodating.

We've discussed my movie theater pet peeves a while back, but I figured that I haven't really talked about my ritual of actually going to the movies on this site.  There is nothing better, in my opinion, than going to a movie theater and enjoying a film with a bunch of strangers in the dark.  Whenever people go on and on about the advantages of watching a movie at-home, I listen, and occasionally agree (it is highly convenient, frequently cheaper, and you can do it at your leisure and multiple times), but there's something just...complete about experiencing a film in a theater (even if it's a bad movie).  This is why I go to the movies so frequently.  As a result of this, though, I have developed some opinions and habits surrounding attending a movie theater, and since I spend most of my time on this blog discussing the actual movies I see, I figured that you might want to know about this process.

Selecting the Movie

I usually start planning out my movie schedule a few months in advance.  I'm a budgeter (Suze Orman has taught me well), and so I will look through the IMDB and Wikipedia pages of upcoming films and plan out meticulously what movies I'm planning on seeing.  Since I am not a Rockefeller (there's a reason that I am budgeting), I usually look for one of the following four things when seeing a film: it has a star or director I love involved, it's part of a franchise I love, it has OVP written all over it, and then there's just the general intrigue factor.  As you may have gleaned from the constant Oscar-writing on this blog (the Oscar Viewing Project is easily the most popular tag), the Oscar-watching is the most set-in-stone of the viewing.  If it is likely to compete at the Oscars, I'm all over it.  The rest I'm a little hedged on, particularly general intrigue (you can't always tell months in advance that you'll want to see a film, particularly if it's success is a bit out-of-the-blue), but I usually leave one free space just in case a surprise hit pops up.

For franchises, I almost always see the film if I liked the previous one, though if the reviews are terrible I'm more apt to throw a film on my Netflix queue (honestly, I rarely decide totally against seeing a movie that I initially wanted to see, but the Netflix queue is for films that aren't worth the $10 bet I'm placing on them).  Stars and directors vary, but generally if one of the following names is attached I'm probably going to be shelling out some money: Meryl Streep, Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Steven Spielberg, Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, David Fincher, Pixar, Woody Allen, Ryan Gosling, and increasingly Adam Driver.  There are other actors that can almost certainly make the cut, but those are the only people/directors/studios where if I see their name on the marquee I'm 99% certain to be in the actual audience.

Best Times for the Movie

I've discussed how I have a specific seat I like at the movies in the previous article, but there's also a method to the madness on the timing of a film.  Some movies are more fun with a large audience (comedies, blockbusters), while others you don't want a particularly robust crowd.  Generally my movie-watching patterns fall into three batches: weekend morning matinee, Thursday night movie, and occasionally the Saturday-night picture.

Friday and Saturday nights (when most people hit the movies) are not my thing generally for a couple of reasons.  For starters, I like to attend the movies by myself (we'll get to that in a second), and this is really a couples/group sort of time to hit the movies.  Plus, even when its a Transformers film I still want to hear what's actually going on, and there's the risk with more people that you get the mob mentality of "it's okay to talk," and that's a major problem for me (for the record-the moment to stop talking in the movies is when the trailers begin, but you can have until the trailers are done to shut down your cell phone).  Still, though, there's an energy from a packed theater that is impossible to replicate, and some of my favorite movie-watching moments came from a packed house (I find this is particularly true for a packed art house: Brokeback Mountain, Milk, and Precious all come to mind).

The reason I love weekend morning matinees is the way that they start your day.  There's nothing better than getting up, grabbing breakfast, and then saying "I'm going to go to the movies."  It's also a proper deterrent to not eat popcorn at the theater, since that's not the greatest way to start your day, and it's frequently the cheapest time to see a film.

However, if I had to pick a specific favorite time without regard to expense, it would be Thursday evening.  It's the perfect way to start your weekend-you do it on a Thursday afternoon, it feels like a jump-start to your weekend, and you get die-hard movie fans on a Thursday evening because most people are frantically trying to prep for their final day of the work week.  The theater is nice and quiet, filled but not too much so which allows for a strong choice of seats, and it's the perfect way to head into your weekend with something crossed off the To Do list (seeing the movie everyone else saw last weekend!). :)

The Concessions

Is there anything more key to the movie-going experience than spending an inordinately large amount of money on ridiculously bad-for-you concessions?  No, there's probably not, is the answer, and while I try with all of my might to pass them by, I frequently have a moment where I think "I need popcorn."  There's something so decadent about sitting in public, gorging on food in the dark, and I just can't turn that down.

For me, I am very much a creature of medium popcorn/large bottled water.  That's my go-to at the theater-medium popcorns tend to vary in size dramatically (I have one theater where their medium would be a small at another, and another theater where a small is the size of some larges), so it takes some guess work if you're not used to the theater, but as a rule I stick to the medium.  Other concessions depend on the time of day (if it's a morning movie, popcorn at most is fine), but I do on occasion go with the candy (never the soda-that is way too much soda for one person to consume in a sitting).  I don't get people who like Junior Mints in a theater, though-they get too mushy and messy.  Sour Patch Kids and M&M's are far more my speed (particularly the latter).  The rest of the menu I usually leave alone as it's too complicated to try and maneuver unless you're at a theater where you get a table with your seat (in which case, go for the chicken fingers and the glass of wine).

Movies-Better Solo?

As a general rule, I like going to the movies by myself best.  I think this is partially because I am a massive introvert, and partially because (as you can clearly tell by this being my second article about going to the movies without any overlap), I'm a bit persnickety about this experience.  People who come with sometimes talk during the movie, tend to be late (it is against John's rule of ethics to miss the trailers, or, heaven forbid, the movie, and yes, I will abandon you if you are late), or don't want to psycho-analyze the movie afterwards.

Still, though, it is fun if you find the right movie partner (this, for the record, is a "dealbreaker" in dating for me-if you cannot pass the movie test you probably aren't going to make it much further on the dating timeline), so with my friends/relatives who don't talk during the movie and know the value of punctuality, I love going with them, and since I see so many movies, I usually try and pick ones they will like as a result of learning their movie tastes.

I know the "Better Solo?" question was initially meant to apply to attending the movies solo, but it could be taken another way, and so we'll close with that: the double feature.  I know most people haven't done this before, but when it comes to particularly busy times of the year (read: Oscar season), I do find that I'm going to the movies back-to-back a couple of times during the rush season (the damn studios should stagger more!).  My rules for the double feature are pretty clear: no more than an hour waiting around the theater afterwards (I always pray there's a bookstore nearby to browse in-between, but sadly that's not the case for most of my theaters anymore), try to find two pretty different movies (so that they don't start overlapping in your head when you want to write a review for both), and always put the better-looking movie second, as that way you don't get a half hour in and realize you're tired and don't want to sit there for another ninety minutes.

Those are my rituals and habits at the movies, now it's time for you to share?  What do you always love to do at the movies?  Put your thoughts in the comments!