I hear its like center, 2/3s the way near the back? That the best seats?
Idk… I’ve literally never been to a movie theater…
(Like can anyone circle the best seats in your opinion?)
Also the IMAX… its says imax standard but I don’t think its technically a “real IMAX” theater. Ticket prices are the exact same as the supposedly “standard” theaters so yea I think its its either false advertising or the “non imax” got upcharged to the same price… weird but okay…
See that cluster of already taken seats? That’s the choice spot.
I just wrote 3 paragraphs for nothing omg.
Relevant name hahahaha
Hey, I still appreciate your effort, if it’s any consolation.
:(
Sad…
Maybe I should just choose a later day…
How many seats do you need? Without knowing that, I’d say anything here would be just fine
Go to a midday matinee during the week if you can. Like a 12pm showing. There’s usually only a few people at those and you get the whole room to yourself.
Just saw Project Hail Mary at a 1230pm Friday showing. There was only 6 people in the whole room. At that point you go sit wherever you want.
I’m more like a 3pm type of person
12pm I could probably oversleep it since my sleep schedule is so fucked up lmao
Going at a more popular time is a different experience and can be better in its own way. More different from watching alone at home. Individual audience members can be annoying but a good audience enhances your enjoyment as they react to the same moments with you.
You could take one of the five available seats in the middle of that cluster.
You could if you’re really keen on the very very best seat. That said it looks like there are plenty of perfectly good seats left. I personally would snag the one 7 rows up from the bottom, 8 seats in from the left.
it depends on where in the world you are and what type of theater you’re going to. in many theaters the front row is the best row. in an American shit chain theater, the front row might be way too close, because they just want to get as many people in there as possible. you need to know the place
- Closer to the center is always best.
- Moving back is preferable to moving forward.
- Front row is the worst, because you’ll be straining your neck to look up.
- Far sides are kind of bad because you end up viewing the movie from an angle.
- Back row is hit or miss depending on the theater, if the seats are right up against the wall you may not be able to recline them.
- In my opinion, sound quality can be hit or miss depending on the theater and what you’re seeing. Video quality is pretty consistent.
- While it’s nice to have snacks and drinks during a movie, they are often a big rip off (like $8 soda and $20 popcorn kind of ripoff!), so just know that if you plan on getting snacks it’ll cost a lot more than you think. A lot of people sneak stuff into the theater. Whether it’s worth it to you is your call.
- People these days seemingly don’t know how to watch a movie without being annoying. If someone nearby is bothering you, I suggest just moving seats to an open seat. Don’t let it ruin your movie.
- I think as TVs get bigger and better, the movie theater experience is much less impressive today than it used to feel when I was a kid in the 90s! It’s hard for me to want to go to the theater when I compare it to the experience of just watching a movie on my home theater system. It’s probably still worth the experience though!
Also worth nothing that while consession prices seem insane and definitely are very high - stupidly high - on the other hand, most theatres are barely scraping by, so I view it as part of the ticket cost keeping them alive.
I also rarely see movies in theatres.
Saw Kiki’s Delivery Service a week or two ago - tix were around $20 each, and we spent $15 on a soda and popcorn to share. So instead of $40 on tickets, I think of it as $55 on tickets (wife and me), and that’s not something I can do often, but I don’t mind the extra money supporting the business. I know not everyone would agree.
I keep a look out for showings of classic movies at my preferred theater. It’s like 5 bucks and they only show during the afternoons so low audience. I always buy popcorn, soda, whatever the spouse wants to support. They’re showing the matrix and the dark night right now.
Buying a good TV and installing speakers is a bigger hassle imo.
Also you have to wait 6 months…
Also its not sound proof so its gonna leak next door and they might not be happy
Also lighting issues
home theater system
How big is your house? Do you have a mansion and a dedicated room lol? Or is it just a living room “theater”?
I mean, I have a dedicated listening setup in my basement but no TV. Its not that big.
Our theater (we are lucky) is a 10 dollar each movie ticket and 5 dollar popcorn. Roughly the cost of 2 drinks at a bar. Love it.
Then we have another theater that is the restored original one, with reclining seats and an amazing sound system. Also 10 dollars. That one serves beer too.
Never in my life had anyone being loud or on their phone during a movie, and ive been to hundreds. Guess we are just respectful up north. Little Kids have been loud at times but it happens.
I hate large TVs in my house and I don’t have a TV in the living room for this purpose. Sick of them being the centerpiece of houses, IMO. I have a smaller side room for TVs and video games. I also just hate large TVs in my house so yeah ha.
I used to tune the speakers in movie theaters.
If it’s a Dolby certified theater there will be a chair that has a placard on it, that’s where the mic was placed to tune the theater. It will always be center, about 2/3rds of the way back. Most other certifications mirror this in some way.
We did THX certification and that was a little bit more broad, we wanted the “sweet spot” to be an area, not a single seat. This is why a THX certified room will look different than most other theater rooms, because it’s designed for maximum coverage. This also means we are sacrificing sound quality for sound consistency, making sure every seat sounds the same. With that being said we completely ignored the margins, they were called quarter margins and anything within 25% of the edge was disqualified from primary readings. We would take secondary readings from the edge, but that was just to verify that there were no glaring problems, not for actual certifications.
In short… central-ish is good for any movie theater.
This guy knows what’s up.
Question if you’ve been recently: is it just me or have they made movies really damn loud? Not in the sense that they’re trying to get a broader dynamic range, but the whole thing is just tinnitus-inducing the whole way through. Is the mix just bad, the tuning bad, or are the volumes just cranked?
They changed how they measured loudness a few years back on both the mixing side and the playback side. Back in the 00’s the measurements were based on peak volumes, so brick wall limiting was used to get the most volume that you were allowed to have in playback. This caused the dynamics to be essentially non existent. Filmmakers hated this, movie goers hated it, the only people who liked it were the lawyers because it meant lawsuits didn’t happen.
Laws were changed in the early 10’s that changed how loudness was measured. Now it’s measured as exposure over time. This has had many benefits in the production of both films and music, however the laws, at least in the USA and Canada, were written very broadly, and consider movie theaters and concert halls to both be performance venues. This means movie theaters have the same restrictions as concert halls.
Because the law measures exposure over time it allows the loud areas to be loud as long as there’s quiet areas to offset it. This means when you have someone who doesn’t understand yet how the new laws affect the audio mix, the dialogue will get buried to make the explosions more “impactful”. It has started to get better since the laws have been around for a while and people have gotten used to them.
As dumb as all this sounds the calculations themselves, are very well calculated and you are way less likely to get hearing damage these days from a concert or movie theater than you used to. Your ears get damaged from long term exposure easier than peak volumes, and with measurement stick now measuring long term exposure as opposed to peak volumes, you end up better protected. Because of the regulations you are more likely to get hearing damage from headphones than you are a concert or a movie theater.
Best seat is beginning of last third in the middle. Like when you have 12 rows you take row 9 and choose the middle seats. They are the best and this is where they sit when they test things and watch the premiere.
Centermost is always the best viewing angle. If that’s taken, move back, not closer. The back doesn’t give great pictures quality but front rows are basically unwatchable
IMAX has better resolution than standard. With standard films, they can look low-res to some (especially gamers who might be used to higher resolutions).
As a wheelchair user, what a shitty theatre setup. The first few rows are always too close and you have to lean back to see the center of the screen. Although that is a small theatre, so… I’d say 4th row is probably good as a guess.
I’d never go all the way back to the wall in a larger theatre, but that one I might. And I highly prefer center.
Idk… I’ve literally never been to a movie theater…
Each one varies, but generally, movies theaters are descending down stairs. Meaning, you go in at the top, and the next row is a step down or two, and the the next row are more steps down. Then, at the bottom, there’s flat ground, and there are more seats on the flat ground closer to the screen. The very front row is ironically the worst seats in the house, because you have to crane your neck up.
The best row is generally the last row of the steps, closest to the screen. There is typically a bar in front of it (so you don’t fall off the step). The reason it’s the best row is that it’s the closest you can get with nobody in front of you- the most direct view-. Nobody is in front of you because you’re a little higher than the seats at the bottom.
You kind of infer where the bar is based on the layout of the map. You can see on the map, the center row where it goes from wide to narrow? That’s where I would bet the end of the steps are. You can see that’s where a bunch of people have purchased tickets already, towards the center. That’s because it’s the best place to sit.
Once you’re in the theater, you’ll have a better idea of the layout of that theater, and you’ll be able to exactly pinpoint where you should sit next time. Just based off the layout, I would feel comfortable with either the 5th or 6th from the back row, and I would try to be towards the center but not exactly next to someone else.
For me 3 or 4 rows from the front is ideal. I don’t ever feel it strains my neck personally and it makes it easier to appreciate the detail of the film.
Is that a rousing game of space invaders?
Center isle, center seat.
With IMAX more than regular theaters, you prefer to sit further back from the screen. Unless you like craning your neck.
When I was younger and went almost weekly it was always front row, as close to the middle as possible. Now I still prefer kind of close but not front row close. Still try and get centered.
Further to the back to me feels more like watching tv, but I’ll sit back there if my friends prefer it and be fine.
If I were to pick from your map it’d be directly behind the center handicap seats.
Important question: what movie are you gonna go see?
Based on the timing I would guess Project Hail Mary. I heard it’s worth seeing in IMAX.
