Cinema Seats?

33 comments

1. It used to be that every theater let you just walk in and pick your seats, but more and more theaters are switching to a reserved seating version. Personally, I prefer just walking in and sitting down without assigned seats.

2. That was normal up until about 5 years ago. Now most have reserved seating.

3. Some theaters don’t have assigned seats. Up until probably 10 – 15 years ago, most places didn’t assign you a seat. You just got there early enough to make sure you weren’t stuck in the front row or sitting separately from your friends.

4. Traditionally you bought a ticket, went in and chose seats on a first come first served basis.

   More and more theaters are switching to assigned seats that you can book in advance.

   The independent theater near me does this but the big national chain near me still has first come first served seating but apparently they are changing over to reserved seats.

5. Depends on the theater and format. Things like IMAX or a dining theater will be reservation. General Admission in a typical movie is usually first come first served for seating.

6. I don’t think I’ve ever bought an assigned seat at a movie theater.

7. Assigned seats are relatively new. I remember theaters back around the early 2000s advertising assigned seating as a new feature. Now it’s pretty ubiquitous, but that’s a pretty recent thing.

   I’d guess that it’s the same in your country as well – I doubt Austrian movie theaters had assigned seats in 1998.

8. I honestly haven’t gone to a movie theater in years. But I do remember certain theaters you could pick your seats. It always seemed like if they had a self checkout kiosk available you could pick your own seats. Or if you went to the dinner theater. We have a fork and screen maybe an hour away. And you select your seats

9. Where I live the big cinemas (AMC/Cinemark) have you select your seats when you buy the tickets. At my local movie houses you still get your ticket and sit where you want/wherever is available when you get there. I’ve never been to a theater that assigned your seat to you automatically.

10. I’m fairly young and assigned seats have been a thing for a good part of my life, but not at all theaters. When I was a kid they were pretty much all first-come-first-serve. Then the more popular theaters switched to assigned seating and the cheaper/less popular/older places kept the old way. I’m not sure if they’ve since switched over though.

    Re-reading your post, it says you get them assigned to you? Like you don’t pick your seat? That seems weird to me tbh.

11. First come first serve was always the law of the land. I hate going to theaters that have reserved seating, but then again I hate theaters in general.

12. My movie theater has these big comfortable chairs with footrests that look more like they belong in a living room. You have to pick out your seat before you go

13. After reading all the comments, I am surprised to learn that this is no longer the case. It was like that in almost all of them the last time I went to a movie theater, but that was a little over a decade ago.

14. As someone who worked at a circuit of theaters during this transition, it was annoying succeeding my conning on it, especially covariance just how frequently there would be mistakes. While us staff did occasionally gooc, SO many people fucked up with the website and often bought tickets for the wrong day and then got mad when they thought someone was in their seats.

    I’ve since left the business, but just a week ago at my local theater a 19-year-old killed a 53-year-old man over a seat dispute – the kind of mix-up we would encounter 10-12 times a week back in the day. It seems some people just don’t bother trying to problem solve any more.

15. The last movie I ever had to show up early for to make sure I had a good seat was The Force Awakens. It’s all reserved seating for me now.

16. The movie theater we go to has assigned seats. It’s also one that has food delivered to the seats, so not exactly typical.

17. I remember as a teen in the late 90s/early 2000s the anxiety I would feel if I got to a movie late and wasn’t sure what seat I would have. I love having an assigned seat now.

18. What movies and shows have people going to the movies and picking out seats?

19. That was normal up until 5-8 years ago. Most theaters have assigned seats now with online ticket purchase. Before that it was common to “camp” out several hours in advance of a popular release to get the best seats in the house. Last time I did this was to a Star Wars Force Awakens showing at the Omnimax theater in the St Louis science center.

20. The movie theaters in my area do not have assigned seating.

21. In my experience, about half the cinemas pre assign seats and half have open seating.

22. Up until about 10 years ago, all theater seats were first come first serve. When theaters started getting their own apps, you then would buy specific seat tickets. As of right now, all seats in a theater are priced the same but apparently AMC and Regal are thinking of changing that.

    The big theater chains you have assigned seats. These would be AMC, Regal, and Cinemark. Assuming the theater isn’t sold out and you aren’t sitting in someone’s else’s seat, no one really cares where you sit in the theater.

    Independents owned theaters typically still have first come first serve seating. I’m actually heading to one today to see Airplane(1980).

23. It was pretty normal and at local theaters it’s still a thing. But bigger chains tend to do reserved seating now

24. Reserved seats is kind of a new thing and not all theaters have it. Even with a reserved seat you can sit where you want 90% of the time.

25. I went to see one of the marvel movies with a friend in the middle of the day. Midweek. They had reserved seating and I just picked in the middle of the theater center seats about 14-15 rows back.

    We get there and are literally the only people in the theater.

    So we head to the center of the theater and take two seats.

    About 3 min. before the lights go down a guy comes in, looks at his ticket, and heads our way. He gets to us and says “that’s my seat”. I thought he was joking but he insisted. Ok…. We got up and went to the next row, right behind him but a bit to the side.

    Since we were alone just the three of us I asked why he cared about that seat? He said it was his third time seeing the movie and wanted to experience it from this particular seat for viewing and sound reasons. A true connoisseur.

    A man knows what he wants.

26. It used to be normally and I kind of preferred it.

    Now, movie theaters typically have assigned seating with luxury seats, etc. that can be booked ahead of time. IMO, this takes away from the magic of opening night.

27. I never recall assigned seating at a movie theater until after COVID. Now all of the theaters near.me has assigned seating.

28. Sometimes. Some have reserved seats you pick when you buy, others (or just slow days) you just buy a ticket and sit wherever.

29. Seats aren’t assigned to you. You choose your seat when you buy tickets then that seat is reserved for you

30. My local theater sells assigned seats when you buy your ticket but then when you get there they just tell you to sit wherever you want.

31. In my experience, most movie theaters don’t have assigned seats, but there are definitely ones that do. Assigned seats seem to be more common in bigger cities.

32. The fancier the cinema the more likely you are to get assigned seats.

33. I love it! Saving seats was such a stressful situation!