Does any else HATE movie theaters?

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Can't stand movie theaters. Too dark, too loud, and I have to sit there for 2 hours straight. At home, I can have lights on, keep the volume low, and get up and walk around when I need to.

there are lots of things that trouble me about movie theaters. they are way way too loud, i hate sitting next to people i don't know, i'll move if someone next to me is wearing perfume etc .. also hate walking in looking for a seat amongst strangers as someone mentioned (and walking out after), and (like planes) they always keep the theater way colder than i am comfortable. if i don't bring extra clothes i am miserable from start till end. it's mostly the entrances and exits that bother me (also like planes).

i'm not bothered by the sounds of people eating or drinking, but i am bothered by the inevitable makeout couple, anyone who takes out a cell phone somewhere i can see its screen, loud children, anyone talking, people yelling at people talking (even worse than the talking), and my eyes hurt if i have to sit close to the screen. and a lot of smaller theaters smell like mold or paint.

no closed captioning either in a movie theater either so i miss a lot of the dialogue. i get overwhelmed and have even more trouble than usual following the plot. if i can't stop a movie at my leisure, i will get lost. when i watch at someone else's house, the same thing. but much worse on a big screen. especially if there is a lot of action. i give up following the plot and just take it as a sensory experience. something that is shot digitally, when people start moving around quickly i get a strobe effect that is difficult to watch. i often emerge from a movie having little idea what happened in it.

despite all this, i sometimes really like seeing something on the big screen and will put up with it happily if the movie is really good. what i don't care to put up with is the ads before movies. i feel imprisoned against my will (and manipulated) when i have to watch ads. i will avoid going anywhere that shows commercials instead of trailers.

Interesting point about the closed captioning. I always put subtitles on any dvd I watch at home.

It's about 50/50 for me. My cinema has a lot of history to it. Built somewhere around the 1930's and has gone through a lot of renovations but still have the old statues my sister and I used to say were our teachers. It provides a lot of visual distraction. It's still loud and cluttered and I get the usual sensory distress. The new 3D video/sound of films means I have to wear earplugs which I get made fun of. I have to always sit on the right, four seats up from the front row, on the edge so I can just about be directly in the middle of the room. I ask people to not talk to me and my earplug keeps all the chewing, giggling and all other distractions out. I always have the same routine of checking the movie guide and taking the A5 sized advertisements. I used to stick them on my wall. Now I just keep them in a box but that's one routine that has never died. Funny, I'm remembering all these cinema related routines I've done for years that I've never noticed before.
I still find it hard to go to the cinema on my own. But I'm a die hard film fan and there's a kind of nostalgia seeing a movie at the old cinema. I don't normally download films and I do rent films a lot or get them on satellite TV but there's a good experience from going to the cinema or the 'big pictures' as I used to call it as a child.

I love movie theaters! I love the big screens and the dark room and the way the chairs feel. I love how sound effects in the movie are accompanied by bass that rumbles your eardrums and takes your breath away. I wish I were rich so that I could have my own private theater at home.

However, I didn't always love movie theaters. For my 9th birthday, I was taken to see Pokemon: The First Movie in theaters. The theater was so packed with other kids that I felt claustrophobic. It got to be so bad that it made me physically nauseous. I had to leave early. I was dizzy and panicky when I walked out of the theater. It took many years before I could be convinced to watch another movie in theaters again, which was in 2004 when my family took me to see Shrek 2.

yes, me too. I understand the movie a lot better that way. I feel I get more out of the dialog by reading it and listening to it. I miss some of the dialog otherwise. When I'm watching alone, I will also rewind parts of the movie to make sure I didn't miss any details. I keep thinking there are small details in a scene I am missing, usually there aren't but I think it. The ability to "control" the flow of the movie for me is important.

When I was younger, I used to go to the cinema at least twice a month or more. In recent years though, I have become more reluctant to go. M, literally has to drag me there. Sometimes I only go because I feel guilty not doing something he still enjoys. The last movie we went to was Harry Potter and that was after Christmas. When we do go, I need to have a seat by the aisle so that no one sits next to me other than M. Otherwise I feel that others may not like it to have to sit next to me. I don't like going to the Gold Class cinemas because I feel like a fake getting extra service and I definitely don't like going to the cinema in the Winter months, especially if the movie is suitable for the entire family like Toy Story.