# Who goes to the movies alone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 5, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017 "2003-08-05T00:37:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/21 "2003-08-05T05:01:38Z")
I prefer going alone for many of the same reasons already stated. I get to see what I want, when I want. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/22 "2003-08-05T07:35:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \* > \*\*Although i miss making sarcastic comments to my friends if the movie sucks. \*\* I forgot that advantage. When I’m on my own, if the movie sucks I just walk. No need for the sotto voce “Are you enjoying this?”, just bye bye. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/23 "2003-08-05T07:38:46Z")
Movies I’m _really_ interested in, I make a point of seeing alone. (At least the first time.) No distractions. ---
**Author:** ![RealTronic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@RealTronic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealTronic)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/24 "2003-08-05T08:03:07Z")
I’m also baffled by the general public’s opinion that movie-going is a **group activity** - I mean you sit there in the dark absolutely quiet… Great fun 😉 Yes, it can be fun afterwards discussing the movie and so on… But I think that going as a group (or as a couple) is nothing more than a way to hide the fact that you want to see the movie, and that you still have a “life” so you go with friends. Really, the friend(s) don’t add anything to the experience of seeing the movie - it just is some kind of general view (in SOME places in the world. not everywhere) that you don’t go to the movie-theater alone… Make sense? I enjoy going to the movies alone, but I have nothing against going with other people either - as long as they shut up until the movie is over 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/25 "2003-08-05T11:42:36Z")
I absolutely, utterly _loathe_ talking about the movie after it’s over. That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy going alone, I think. Of course, I don’t mind going with other people, but it splits 50/50 maybe. I think it’s a question of the movie being an excuse to be with your friends vs. being with your friends being an excuse for seeing a movie. ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/26 "2003-08-05T12:02:03Z")
i go alone about 75% of the time. i appear to live on a different time schedule to most of my friends and the now ex mrs berserker wouldnt watch sci fi, cartoons or anything where something other than a human talked in it, so that ruled out about 90% of what i want to see at the flicks with her. nothing wrong with it. i turn up on my own schedule, hardly anyone there, get a good seat and chill out. plus, most people i know rely on me to give them a good gen on whats worth it and whats not. ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/27 "2003-08-05T12:06:05Z")
Heh. I do it all the time now. I don’t give two tosses about anyone else in the theater, and they don’t give a toss about me. If I want to see a damn movie, I’ll see it. If I were 17 I’d maybe get all hysterical about the horror of seeing a movie alone, but I got hysterical about a lot of things at that age. Anyway, I love going to movie outings with friends, and I love seeing movies alone. Either way works for me. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/28 "2003-08-05T12:34:08Z")
I go alone more often than I go with others, and I’ve never understood the mindset that makes people not go to the movies unless they’re escorted by others. I have noticed that at the multiplex, I’m usually in the minority, but at the art house, there seem to be a lot more people who go alone. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/29 "2003-08-05T14:27:35Z")
I used to go to the movies alone all the time, when I was single. Since I got married, 3 and and half years ago, I’ve only done it twice. The pluses of married life greatly outweight the minuses, but one of the advantages of being single was that I could go to any movie I wanted, any time I wanted- even on the spur of the moment, if the whim struck me. Now, I see far fewer movies, and I have to play the least-common-denominator game (“What’s playing that both of us can stand?”). I mean, there WAS a time, when I was a single geek, that I might’ve gone to see, say, “The Two Towers” several times. As it is, Mrs. Astorian and I saw it once, and I paid for that dearly (I had to see “Two Weeks Notice” and “Maid in Manhattan” as payback)! ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/30 "2003-08-05T18:46:46Z")
I prefer to have at least a friend or a family member with me when at the movies. I like to talk about it afterwards, and if it’s a movie I would think someone else would like, I’d rather that he/she see it with me so we can both share the experience in its freshness, that s, neither of us has already seen it so we’re both treated to the same amount of suspense and don’t know what to expect. If I had gone alone before I would be tempted to spoil some of the things that I saw in it for the other person. Usually when I go to a movie with friends and family we’ll also go someplace to eat afterwards, and usually the places we go are places I would likely not eat in if I were alone. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/31 "2003-08-05T18:54:58Z")
I did it once and it was so depressing I almost leaped off the roof of the theater. I was pretty young, just broke up with the ex, and the movie was that Meryl Streep/Dustin Hoffman child custody flick (recipe for disaster). I haven’t tried it since. Maybe I should… ---
**Author:** ![eveanyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@eveanyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eveanyn)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/32 "2003-08-05T19:49:10Z")
I too saw T3 last week all by myself. My friend was unable to join me as planned, so I had a small dinner alone and proceeded to go to the movie anyway. I’d never been to a movie alone before and found it quite liberating! ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/33 "2003-08-05T20:02:36Z")
I see a minimum of a hundred movies a year in the cinema. Of these, I see maybe twenty of them with one or more companions. I don’t understand the stigma at all. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/34 "2003-08-05T20:16:24Z")
I do it all the time. For some reason most of my friends are biased against matinee showings…and those are generally better for me because a) they’re in a dead spot when I wouldn’t be doing much of anything anyway, b) they’re less crowded and c) they’re cheaper. So I wind up going alone a lot. I see the movie. Don’t get to make snarky comments during the slow parts, but you gotta make sacrifices somehow. ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/35 "2003-08-05T22:15:15Z")
Since I got Netflix, I don’t go out to the movies as much, but probably about 80% of the movies I’ve seen in the theaters in the last 15 years were by myself. I don’t consider movie-going a social event, and I don’t generally like discussing the movie afterwards - if I do, I usually talk to my sister on the phone, who usually sees most of the same movies I do. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/36 "2003-08-05T23:46:25Z")
My wife does, once in a while, because I think most all movies are shite and won’t pay to see them. (but guess who pays for the wife?) It gives her a break from the kid and gives me time to spend with him rough-housing. If I live on the Isle of Man, I’d go ride the mountain course with my free time! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Selkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/37 "2003-08-06T00:14:51Z")
I love having someone to share snarky comments with, and discuss the movie afterwards. Alas, for many of the same reasons mentioned by others (living on a different schedule, friends uninterested in indie fare), I see most of the 50+ films I see in the theater a year by myself. Don’t consider it a big deal, though many of my friends are appalled. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/38 "2003-08-06T01:06:16Z")
I go alone a lot, though I prefer to see movies with my husband. But if it’s a movie he wouldn’t enjoy (_Chicago, Legally Blonde 2_, etc) I just catch a matinee while he’s working. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/39 "2003-08-06T05:21:03Z")
Go to the movies alone? Who you going to talk with during the show? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017/40 "2003-08-06T05:25:21Z")
Ah. The joy of not having to field whispered questions from my sister in a theater. Half the price; twice the fun… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-goes-to-the-movies-alone/193017.md?page=3)