I love being the only person in the theatre, or if not, then far enough away from the only other 2-3 people there that me talking will not disturb them. Heckling movies is so much fun!
We did this for most of Red Planet. Baaaaaaaaad movie, but we had free passes and I’d already seen The Grinch.
as much as i like movies without the distractions, i think that a funny shouldn’t be viewed alone. I don’t know why, but its just a lot more funny when there are other people laughing.
I was watching Matrix Reloaded in a mostly empty movie, when 5 minutes into the movie some weirdo stumbled in and sat next to me. There were hundreds of seats he could have chosen that were near absolutely nobody. I called him a weirdo and moved. 30 minutes later, he moved to a different seat a few rows up ( after leaving his spilled popcorn where he was sitting), and 30 minutes after that he got up and left, making a loud bang as he went through the door. He probably missed the door.
He’s probably the type of person who comes and pees in the middle of three urinals when you’re already standing in one to the far right or left, and both others are free.
I once went to see Heavy Metal in a theater (many years after it came out, not sure why it was playing there) and I was the only one in the theater.
Toward the end of the film, a group of workers came in and started poking around at some of the seats. One quite loudly noticed that I was the only one there. They then sat down and talked through the rest of the movie.
It’s sad when you’re the only one in the theater and other people still ruin the movie.
Saw Best in Show in an empty theatre with my wife. There were actually two problems with this. First, a “sorta-funny” movie tends to be funnier when you can feed off of some of the gestalt laughter from the crowd, and 2nd, the volume was too low for us to hear for the first 15 minutes or so and we could not find any one to go turn it up.
OTOH not having cell phone trogs and kiddie conversations going on around was a nice treat.
My wife and I saw Life is Beautiful on a very snowy evening at a theatre that was too cheap to list its showtimes in the paper. We were the only people in that theater.
Many years earlier, I went to see Nightfall, which was based on the famous Isaac Asimov short story. I went by myself on a Sunday afternoon, and for a while there was only one other person in the theater, and after about 20 minutes that other person left, leaving me as the only viewer. I should have left, too - the movie sucked.
I used to have a break between classes and would go catch afternoon showings. Pretty much everytime I was the only one in the theater. It was always weird watching a horror movie alone, then walking out into the daylight…it felt like you were still watching the movie.
I also caught one of the last showings of The Ring at a local theater and I think there were only two other people there. That was a bit creepy.
In high school I dated a guy whose brother was one of the main workers at our little four-screen theatre (they’ve since added on - there’s now six). The last shows always began around 9:00, so by midnight, the place was usually empty. That’s when the workers would have their own private screenings, and the current boyfriend and I would be allowed to come. Thinking back, though, I would have preferred to see most of those movies in a regular setting, mostly due to the fact that our friends Smirnoff and Jim Beam were present. It was like drunken redneck MST3K.
I remember seeing Fight Club, Gone in 60 Seconds, and The Mummy, but there were others that have slipped my mind.
Occasionally I’ll wander off and see a movie at a really late showing or really early on a strange day, like Sunday. Once or twice I was completely alone. I always feel a little pathetic. Particularly since the movies turn out to be…not so good. The Quest and The Medallion both come to mind.
I saw the Ladies Man in an empty theater. I sprawled myself across one row, and my friend was in another row. I liked it, it made me feel like I was renting out the theater to myself. I also saw Empire Strikes Back in an empty theater because Return of the Jedi had just been re-released. I liked that too.