Movie theater seating etiquette
I love watching films and for the most part I love experiencing them on the big screen. Like most people, there is one particular spot in a theater that I prefer to sit. That spot is of course dead center of the screen and dead center of the side mounted speakers. This is why I always arrive early for a movie to ensure I can get this choice spot. Now if this spot is taken, I obviously have to choose an alternate seat. The question is, where do I sit? Astonishingly, most people apparently don’t know that there is an unwritten rule that establishes an etiquette for theater seating.
Last night I went with a friend to the theater to see Valkyrie. At first, she and I were the only two people in the entire theater. A few moments later a small family (a father, mother, and two kids) walked in. Even though they had hundreds of seats available to them, the family chose to take the four seats directly behind where we were seated. This my friends, is not good theater seating etiquette.
You see, the unwritten rules of theater seating are a lot like the unwritten rules of urinal usage in a men’s public bathroom.
1) You never take the space adjacent to an occupied urinal unless there are no more spaces available to you.
2) You never split the difference between two occupied urinals if there is an open one on the outer extremity of the grouping.
These rules are universal and whether or not people have openly talked about them, they always seem to obey them. Why do people not see that this is exactly how it should work when choosing your seat at the theater? Unless it is absolutely a packed house, you should always leave a buffer of at least one row between another party and your chosen seat if you insist on sitting in the same vertical plane as them. Likewise, if the theater is starting to fill up and you have to share the same row with another party, you should really leave at least two to three seats open between them and your seat. It’s not really that difficult.
posted by Christopher Schnese
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Amen! Seriously, I agree that it's really not that hard to follow these implicit rules…and the unnecessary aggravation you cause someone by violating the rules means ruining their movie experience and wasting there $10. Not to mention when those people behind us put their feet up on the seats next to us, you could still feel the reverberation. Really, people, it's common sense just like not talking on your cell phone in a library and not hitting little kids…but then people still do those things!
What's worse than going right behind you, is directly in front. I think horizontal placement is very important. For instance, when I saw the Wrestler a few nights ago, the theatre was crowded enough that I and my two roommates were forced to sit in the lower level, front-ish seats. One entire row was free, and behind it, were about 8 people sitting dead center. Did we sit in the center? No, we sat to the side, so everyone could see. That's etiquette.
See, the world (of film viewers) needs more people like you. You made the right move, even at the cost of crappy seats. But that's the way it should be done.
Theater sitting should be played like the game Lights Out. You pick one seat and it occupies all the adjacent seats. That way, when the film starts the arrangement would look more like a Checkers board.
I never really thought of it quite like that. But, it does make a load of sense.
I agree I have seat like these in my home theater and I don't let my family sit next to me either
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I agree I have seat like these in my home theater and I don’t let my family sit next to me eitherrnhttp://www.htmarket.com/home-theater-furniture-home-theater-seating-berkline-quick-ship-seating.html