With a lot of talk in the last recent days on here about movies and seats, I’m wondering how many people have ever sat in the front row at a theater before.
I’m not talking about the third row or second row, I mean the very first one in line.
I’m not counting IMAX movies/theatres, either.
If you have, what movie was it and why did you choose to sit there?
I have once.
It was at a showing of I Know What You Did Last Summer (which had just opened that day). A friend and I got there at a night showing and it was packed. In fact, I think her and I quite possibly got the last two seats in the whole room. They obviously weren’t together, so she took one that was about in the middle row and I took the last seat I could find, which was in the first row, dead center.
It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, although I’ve never sat in the front row again since.
In multiplex-type theatres where the front row is ten inches from the screen, I don’t like it. But in old-timey theatres where there’s some room between the front row and the screen, I like sitting in the front row – the screen covers my whole field of vision (no distractions of people messing with cell phones or running out to buy popcorn) and the leg room is terrific! I’ve seen Star Wars and Apocalypse Now sitting in the front row and they were great.
First row in an old theater not by choice. The movie was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford’s complexion sucks). The place was packed. I hated it. We had to sit with our heads tilted back the whole time. And the seats weren’t high backs like they are nowadays. Never again.
Now that I’m an old fart my seat of choice is in the last row. I don’t like people sitting behind me.
When I was a kid, several centuries ago, the front row was the bestest place ever! We raced to claim the front row. Every Saturday our parental units dropped us off at the shopping plaza at 9 am with .50 each to wait in line for the the double matinee that started at 11. .25 to get in $.25 for popcorn and candy, lots’o’candy! With newsreels, cartoons, previews, shorts, yo-yo competitions, magicians, organ players and not one but two movies we were there for at least 6 hours. Cheapest babysitting ever.
A couple of times, and it always stinks. My wife and I and another couple got stuck in the front row in a small multiplex once. My wife said never again. Then when she and I and our daughter were trying to see The Dark Knight, the place (a larger theatre, natch) was packed and the only available seats were up front. My wife just left, but my daughter and I stuck it out in the front row. It was difficult to even keep track of what was going on. We actually had to go back and watch it again (from better seats) a few days later.
Once, last seats available… I thought it was awful. Anything closer than the middle of the theater is too close for me. I try get in the theater early enough to have my choice of seats and prefer to sit in the last three rows if possible.
Many times.
I like how immersive it is. Haven’t tried it for a 3D movie though.
Although your neck can get tired from having your head at that angle for so long.
I like to sit in a seat close to the center, left/right wise.
I’d rather sit in the center front row then off to the side in a low row.
And if it happens that you’re going to have to sit in the bottom three rows you may as well take the front row. It has more leg room. You might want to be really sprawled out because of the neck thing.
I did once, at the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie. No choice, it was all that was available. After the opening credits I muttered, “Jeez, I’m blind…” The guy in back of me said, “She’s blind; I’m deaf!”
My cousin and I decided that front row, center, was the best seat for seeing the original Star Wars, so we sat there for several showings. The POV shot from an X-Wing diving into the Death Star’s trench felt like a roller-coaster. Then again, we were 12 at the time.
I saw crouching tiger in the front row because the theatre was packed. It sucked. You read the lines look up read the lines look up. That’s what we were doing.
