I just got back from seeing Troy. This is a movie that has had a generally negative publicity - tonight it was playing to a full house and at a second run theatre. It garnered a wave of applause from the audience at the end. Prior to tonight, the last movie I experienced this at was Jack Black’s School of Rock.
How many others have experienced the clapping audience phenomenon? How often would you say it occurs? What was the last movie you were at to see this happen? Why does it occur? I find this to a be very interesting movie-going event and would like to hear some doper discussion on this topic. I’d be interested also to hear your opinion on applause vs. movie goodness. I haven’t had enough applause incidents (I can only remember these two times I’ve mentioned, ever) to extrapolate any kind of correlation.
I liked Troy for the visual effects and for Eric Bana (mrrreeeooowww!). I did clap at the end of the movie. More because I was impressed with the overall look of the film, rather than the acting (I thought Brad Pitt sucked ASS…he phoned in his performance).
We clapped at Shrek 2 and the little kids joined in - but we LOVED that movie:D. We both crack up each time we even mention the Puss-in-Boots face (I do a pretty good impression of it, actually;)). I happily started clapping at the credits without delay.
And there was clapping at the end of Harry Potter, but I figured it would happen with how much anticipation there was for the film. Since I wasn’t all that impressed with the last one (storywise, not acting or visually), it was basically a Pavlov’s dog response for me - movie ends, audience claps, I join in.
It’s very rare that I’ll start applause. But I think for a lot of people, it’s for highly-anticipated movies and that clapping is just a sort of release as in “Hey, the movie’s finally here, I saw it, yay!”. It was a combination of that and “This movie rocks!” for Shrek 2.
It’s happened a number of times but the only one that really stands out in my mind is Apollo 13. Actually, we were applauding as soon as it became clear that the astronauts had survived the dangerous re-entry.
It’s one thing if you’re at a premier and the Director is in the audience or something. Other than that, I always thought it was a stupid thing to do. Of course it’s totally harmless so I have no grounds to complain.
A friend of mine is a movie clapper. She said that the group in the theater does it because they just went through an experience together. It’s hard to imagine anything more impersonal than sitting in a dark room watching the same thing and not interacting at all but that was her explanation.
I know I have applauded at the movies before, but I can’t for the life of me think of when or what movie.
Strangely enough, there have been quite a few times in which I felt odd walking away from a great movie without applauding. Kind of like I wasn’t giving it ‘it’s due’.
I always surprised at how many people are surprised by people clapping at the end of a movie. I’d say it happens at about 75% of the movies I see in a crowded theater. I never saw anything wierd or unusual about it.
I don’t believe I’ve ever been in a movie theater when the audience broke out into spontaneous clapping after the film… and I go to a lot of movies. Maybe it’s a regional thing?
The last time I saw a movie where people applauded was the opening night of The Return of the King. And the applause was in multiple places – during the battle scene, especially Eowyn’s scene, and then at the (final) ending before the credits.
The funniest I’ve seen was at the opening night of Star Wars: Episode I. The audience was applauding like mad at the beginning, even cheering for the Lucasfilm logo. By the end, everyone just seemed kind of sad.
It’s a bit weird because there’s no-one to appreciate it. But if the audience wants to show its appreciation anyway, why not? I’ve clapped about twice, and wanted to but no-one else did about twice (UK).
At the beginning of ROTK the ~40 people I went with stood up and faced west* for a moment of silence.
Well, faced one direction. We had a big argument later about if we’d got it right.
Thats precisely why I found it weird the one time I saw it happened. I always saw clapping as a communication to the performers that their work was enjoyed. Unless it’s to congratulate the person in the projector booth for successfully changing reels, it’s kind of pointless.
