I got over my problems with watching a movie alone when I worked at a movie theatre and realized nobody cares.
Like others have said, travelling quickly helps you get over the fear of dining alone. Although I rarely eat by myself at restaraunts when not travelling; if I’m not meeting someone for socializing, I’d usually rather just get take-out and eat at my desk or at home.
I would feel much more pity for someone who would stay home alone worrying about what people would think if they went out alone. I have done all of them alone plus travelled, too and had a very good time. The world is not filled with couples; there’s always going to be somebody else to talk to if you badly need company.
As for restaurants, you don’t need to haul out reading material. You can sit by the window and look outside or people-watch or take out some postcards or a notebook and make notes about what you need to do next week or whatever. Or even write letters to your friends about the lovely meal you’re having.
If you think about it, it’s terribly egotistical to think that other people are watching you and thinking about you. They have their own lives and their own concerns and you don’t matter to them. So live your life and quit worrying about what anybody thinks.
I eat out alone on a regular basis, since the lunchroom at work is rather crowded and I much prefer reading the newspaper as I eat to idle workplace gossip. As far as going to the movies alone, I haven’t done that since I was single, except for the time Mr. Lucky and I had an argument and I stormed out of the house, ending up at a screening of Shall We Dance? (the US remake, not the vastly superior Japanese original). I might go see the next Harry Potter movie by myself, since Mr. Lucky’s not a fan. I don’t give a damn what anybody thinks of me going out as A Woman Alone. 
Why wouldn’t I want to go see a movie alone? I’m there to watch the film not gab at whomever is sitting next to me.
I travel for business and have no problems eating alone. My girlfriend, however, feels “pity” when she sees someone dining alone. I don’t know where the heck that came from but she must have learned it somewhere.
I prefer watching movies with someone so that we can talk about it afterwards in Siskel and Ebert fashion.
It never would have occurred to me that people would think it strange to eat alone. I also didn’t realize people think it’s strange to read a book in some place fancier than Burger King. Guess people think I’m strange.
Ditto. I travel all the time, and often eat alone. I have not problem reading - I think it is a lot stranger to be staring into space while waiting for your food.
Though I can’t do it here in Egypt, I LOVE to eat out alone.
I hope the US has changed since then, but when I used to do a lot of business travel in the US in the mid-1980s, I would not infrequently run into wait staff who were reduced to whimpering incompetence by the sight of a lone female wishing to dine (not that they were probably all that competent to begin with, I suspect). I will always remember in particular one pimply-faced young man who was paralyzed by the decision of where to seat me. Finally I chose a table at random, marched up to it, and said “I’ll sit HERE, thank you.” Had I not, I’m pretty certain we’d still be standing there while he dithered.
Ordering a glass of wine while you are dining alone, though – for some reason, that strikes me as more difficult. It shouldn’t, of course.
I have never thought anything of dining alone or going to a movie alone. I really don’t think anybody around here would notice or care.
I started watching movies alone when I went to college. In high school I couldn’t watch a movie alone even if I wanted to because there was always a classmate in the theater who wanted to roll over and chat it up. Once I hit college though, my schedule almost never lines up with my friends who are interested in going to the movies so I will go alone without even thinking twice.
As far as eating alone goes, I am the only one in my group of friends who always eats breakfast so I always eat at least one meal a day alone. This never bothers me though because I am not big on talking while I am eating. Usually I spend mealtime reading the paper.
I do it all the time- walk into the Village for some Italian, go watch a movie my wife won’t like.
Not even us on the boards? 
I can do either alone, to be honest eating with someone else is a bit of a pain as you have to talk and make conversation, I prefer to sit down and enjoy the food 
Yeah to both, all the time. I actually prefer to watch movies alone, but I would rather eat with someone if someone was available and wanted to eat with me. It’s just that usually there is no such person. Ah well.
I don’t really have anything to say except that if I see a movie alone, often it’s really late at night. It’s neat sometimes to go in and have a whole big theater to myself; I guess the same might apply if you’re going with someone else and they can go at that time. It was a little weird though when I saw Basic Instinct 2 in a really small theater (they call it a “digital screening room” and they didn’t warn me when I bought the ticket) and there was exactly one other guy in the theater.
Apparently, when I was younger it made me look like an attractive young woman dining or going to the movies alone. Meaning, I got hit on a few times and actually went on a couple dates with guys I’d met at the movies.
I met several other “loners” at concerts; we were people whose musical tastes were different from those of our peers, so we went alone. Of course once we’d met we didn’t go alone any more, we’d call each other to pass the word on an upcoming concert and those who’d been able to go would hang out together. But it was the only time we got together… for any other activities, we had other friends.
Often I assume they’re businesspeople on location, specially if they’re dressed “too formally.”
Yeah, I suppose you’re right.
I don’t go out to movies all that often (although when I did, it was usually alone, since my wife didn’t care about Matrix or LOTR), but I used to go to restaurants all the time by myself. When my wife and I were both working, we’d get home at different and unpredictable times, so cooking for each other was often impractical. During the week, most of the other restaurant patrons were also by themselves (looking to be in the same boat as me), so there didn’t seem to be any stigma to it. Besides, as a foreigner, if you go to the same place twice the staff recognizes you pretty quickly.
I have noticed somethiing interesting lately, though. My sister and I have a ritual of scheduling our platelet donations at the same time, then going to eat afterwards. This is our borther-sister catch-up time. Lately she’s been deferred for low hematocrit levels, so I’ve been going about it all on my own. It’s still nice to have some alone time to decompress.
So what I’ve noticed: When I sit at a table at the restaurant (which was nice enough that it had a bar) by myself, no one bats an eye. I just peruse the weekly newspaper and people watch (they have great windows). It’s a pretty nice place, so I’d feel weird with a book, but a newspapers seems okay.
However, a couple of times, I wasn’t very hungry, so I opted to sit at the bar… That was a totally different. Sitting at the bar, I had joined the ranks of the Single People. Suddenly everyone assumed I was on the prowl. So if I got out of the donation center late enough, closer to the post-dinner cocktail time sometimes girls would come over and chat me up in hopes that I’d buy them a drink. OR alternatively, groups of young women would actively avoid me as “one of the creeps at the bar”. Other soloists sitting at the bar would chat with me like we were teammates or something.
But if I sat back down at a table, then I was Joe Average. No one even really noticed me. And certainly no one cared.
I see nothing wrong with it if you want to go alone. I went to the movies alone once and I hated it. I’ve eaten alone once or twice and hated that as well. But if I were in a position to do it regularly, if I traveled on business, for instance, I suppose I’d get used to it.
For most movies, I PREFER going alone. I go alone to the movies all the time, and I’m married.
I don’t usually go to restaurants alone, but I’ll go eat at a bar alone.
Dining is typically a social thing. But, when there’s a movie I really want to see, I want to sit where I want, spread my arms and legs, not worry if the other person is enjoying it. I’m much more easily absorbed into the movie when I go alone and that’s the experience I go for.
However, I can fully understand that people feel that same way about dining that I do about movies. I like trying each other’s food, though. Talking about the choices, discussing the food, the wine, etc.