The only place I’ve ever been to an assigned-seat movie was in England in 1997 (we were on vacation). It was quite a new experience for us. I’m not sure whether I’d be in favor of it now–on the one hand, it would be nice to have our favorite seats ready and waiting for us, but on the other hand, our favorites are probably a lot of other people’s favorites too, which means either buying seats very early to ensure we get them, or learning to live with less-than-optimal seats. As it is, we generally get to the theater early enough that we can get the seats we like, and we don’t really mind getting there early.
I used to like to go to big “event” movies on the first night (things like some of the Harry Potter films) but I’ve outgrown that now. It’s much more pleasant to wait a week–there’s still a good crowd (“event” movies are the only ones I prefer to see with a big crowd) but the two-hour lines aren’t there. I’m not sure there’s a movie around that would get me to stand in line in the cold for two hours anymore.
Movies occupy an awkward middle ground in our culture. At plays or classical music concerts, one can generally rely on the persons seated nearby to be quiet while the performance is in progress. At sporting events or rock concerts, it’s hardly a problem if your neighbors make noise.
At movie theatres, talkative neighbors can be a major annoyance during a movie, just like with plays. But unlike with plays, there’s a nontrivial chance that you’ll be seated in front of a group of chatterboxes. I want the freedom to move away from them, since the alternatives are (a) to put up with them, or (b) to miss 10 minutes of the movie trying to find a manager to come in and tell them to STFU.
That’s a really good idea–the only problem I see with it is logistics. Are they going to go through all the trouble of numbering the seats and putting the infrastructure in place to sell assigned tickets if they’re only going to use it some of the time?
Although in these days of multiplexes it might work–just implement it for the big first-run auditoriums (even if a film stays in there for two or three weeks due to popularity) and just have first come first served seating in the smaller auditoriums where the less popular or been-running-for-awhile films end up.
I buy the tickets at the theater, not ahead of time.
If “my” seats aren’t available, now I’m still left guessing what seats are second-best, all while people are waiting in line behind me. Far, far easier to do this while in the theater itself, not looking at a graphical representation of the theater*.
There’s now a situation where the line to purchase tickets takes longer as people have to determine where they are sitting while standing in front of the ticket agent.
For the establishment in question, yes, I now know where the seats are in theater 10. However, the seating arrangements for the other screens will differ, depending upon the size of the theater.
Personally, we like getting to the theater early and mocking all the commercials.
*And to answer other questions…
Yes, the seats are individually numbered, by row. So you have G1, G2, G3… G25 on the back of the seats.
However, to do this accurately, you need to make sure the graphic on the screen matches the actual theater. There were a # of people who were assigned, say, G6, G7, and G8, only to find that those seats are not in existence because of a handrail. Oops!
Then again, I’ve never bought my tickets from an actual human in a long time. Theatre not likely to be crowded? Buy from machine at theatre. Theatre going to be busy? Buy online! If they added assigned seating it would be super awesome!
Waiting outside in line for 2 hours for the LotR movies* was probably pleasant for people down south, but in Canada? Yeah, I loved standing outside in my parka freezing my ass off.
*Okay, we got a theatre with an indoor waiting area for the last movie.
Yeah, I can imagine. When we went to one of the LotR movies we stood outside in our parkas freezing our asses off, and this was December in relatively mild-weathered California (it might possibly have been close to freezing, but definitely not below). I can only imagine what it must have been like in Canada in December. Eek!
It’s all assigned seating here in South Africa. And that includes if you buy tickets online, or from the vending machines at the theatre too. I’d hate, hate, hate any other system. Our way lets me skip most of the ads and still be assured of the seat I wanted.
Well, nothing would change here in an assigned seating theater - if there are free seats available, just go ahead and move. Conversely, if you’re in a regular American theater and it’s (almost) full, where are you going to go?
Gah…I can’t believe they did that to that theater. It used to be THE art-house/indie theater in New Orleans. I haven’t lived there in almost a decade but back then me and my friends used to see all sorts of great smaller release films there. Now it looks like it is nothing but regular big time Hollywood releases. BOOOOOOOOOO!!! I’d be really pissed off about that if I still lived there. I’d rather have an old school version of Canal Place Theatres than some B.S. upscale assigned seating place with supposedly gourmet food, which I’m certain is overpriced.
All this type of crap is why I stopped going to the movies and just wait for the DVD release or for it to come on one of the movie channels. It’s too damn expensive to go to out to see a film these days and there is almost always some annoying aspect of it, such as noisy kids, people who don’t turn off the cell phones, long lines, etc, etc, etc. It just isn’t worth it now that I have a nice HD TV with a surround sound system.
All the theaters I’ve ever been to in Japan have assigned seating. I saw one or two movies in the US on visits and realized that I really dislike general seating. I like being able to choose ahead of time. If I can’t get something I like at one show time, I can choose a later showing and at least get seats far enough back that it won’t make my neck hurt and give me blurry vision trying to follow the action on a screen that’s only several yards away.
Someone buying the assigned seat right next to me and thus totally destroying my buffer zone. That possibility alone would turn me off assigned seating.
Yeah other stuff (plays, sporting events, whatever) has assigned seating, well, I don’t go to things that do have assigned seating much, and when I do I don’t like being jammed in there sharing an armrest with some total stranger.
We have assigned seating at the Imax and at a few other cinemas in London, but not all. It’s very handy if you’re taking a large group of people, especially if you’re taking kids or have a disability that means you need to avoid stairs (there is disabled seating, of course, but usually only a couple of seats). We tend to book our seats way in advance to get the good seats.
That sounds like the cinema assigns the seating. The assigned seating the others are talking about is where you get to choose where to sit.
Most people also prefer not to have anyone sitting next to or in front of them at the cinema, so they probably wouldn’t select a seat next to you unless all the other seats were full or they really really preferred that seat; if that were the case, then they’d sit next to you without assigned seating too.
Not really. It’s one thing to say “I want that seat there, rowX seatY” when you’re asking for a ticket at the front window and quite another to walk in, see someone in rowX seatY±1, and still sit in seatY. Very different psychologically.
Yes, it’s a different case if the entire theater is filled up, then you don’t have a choice, but that’s happened to me exactly once in the last decade, at the first non-midnight showing of the first day for Star Wars ep 3. And in that case I was the one coming in as most seats were already filled just looking for an empty seat to sit in :D. On the bright side, I spent about a grand total of 30 seconds in line and only saw the movie a few hours later than people who’d stood in line for hours, so I can put up with loss of buffer for an extreme case like that.
I do not like this new trend of having to pick my seat prior to entering the theatre. My boyfriend and I went to see a movie last weekend and after purchasing our tickets we were required to pick our seats prior to entering, this is a very bad idea. We picked our seats and of course, someone else was already sitting there, to avoid confrontation, we decided to sit somewhere else which runs the risk of us taking someone else’s seat-this makes the whole process redundant. What is the point of picking a seat when we may have to change anyway?
I like the ability to pick where I am going to sit when I actually see the layout in person as oppose to a screen which leaves uncertainty as the distance from the screen. Also I like the flexibility to move if there are obnoxious people “assigned” to sit next to me, (loud talking, cell phones, etc.) This is not the first time, the last three times we’ve gone to the movies it has been different locations and we’ve had to pick our seats prior. Hopefully there will be enough complaints regarding this procedure that the movie theatre will have to change back to the “old” way. I made a complaint after the movie and was told we should have gotten an employee to aid in rectifying the issue, I can foresee many issues as not many people will want to search for an employee and confront the movie goer that took the seats - its just not worth it. First come, first serve.
In Russia, cinemas sell assigned seats. Back in the '90s, an American-style cinema opened at the Radisson in Moscow, and chaos ensued! The Russians were at a complete loss and bitched about having to find a seat (or seats together) once they got in.
I haven’t been to the Radisson in years, so I don’t know if they’ve dropped the American-style system or not. But it sure was fun to watch when they had it!
This is exactly what they do at one of the theatres in my town. There is one screen that has slightly more comfortable seats, a larger screen, better sound system, and assigned seats. The big new release of every week gets put in that theatre and the tickets are an extra buck or two. Anytime there is a big release that I want to see in the theatre during opening week that is where I will go.
