I just saw Endgame at a theater by myself. LITERALLY by myself

Just, holy crap!!!

Brand new theater just opened up a few weeks ago so most the town doesn't even know yet. Huge electric reclining chairs with electric leg rests, tables that fold out for your seat, brand spanking new, the seats smell like new car, and feel like it too. Really nice.

3pm matinee on a Wednesday, for ten bucks. Figured after three weeks or whatever it should be a good chance to avoid crowds.

Uh, yeah, I'm the ONLY PERSON in the place! I've seen movies in theaters before with as few as maybe 15 people in the place, but for a record smashing tentpole feature 3 weeks into release???

I couldn't believe what that did for the sound. I mean in several ways too - the first and most obvious being the level of immersion that comes with absolutely ZERO sound other than the movie itself and whatever sound YOU made. I didn't expect it, but zero ambient sound really made a difference compared to even a near empty theater with respectfully quiet people.

During quiet scenes I heard my own breath. I heard details that would certainly be missed with even a 20% full theater.

Then the dynamic range - without that "baseline ambient noise" of even a quiet crowd I just got deeper and deeper into the quiet parts, then when the loud parts would hit they just seemed to hit harder...

Then (in audio terms) the air itself. The venue itself obviously has plenty of draping to prevent echoes/reverberation, but without all the extra fabric of people's clothing absorbing sound it just made the theater sound bigger. Again, not because of any actual echo/reverberation, just so much less damping...

Oh, I probably spent 15 minutes of that 3 hours not only standing to stretch my legs (not that that was all that necessary with those seats!), but even walking around trying out other seats!

I can't believe my luck - I hardly ever go to theaters in the first place, and today was one of the most epic movies ever in the most epic circumstances possible! It almost felt like I was at some billionaires place for a private viewing! Better than having an airline flight to yourself!

Sounds fun Zamzow. I had a similar experience once. I treated myself to a movie in the middle of the week, a Thursday I think. Either I had the day off or I went after work and it was middle afternoon around 2-3p.m I think. I went to go see Oblivion and there was no one else in the theater with me the whole time. It was a fun experience being along with my own huge screen and choice of any seat. However I remember there being some weird sound issues from time to time during that viewing. At least it sounded like broken speaker kind of sounds when the action and volume got crazy. If I'm not mistaken, I do remember though the surround sound being more noticeable.

I also saw Apollo 17 in a theater with only about a half-dozen people. Its always cool and kind of a neat feeling when you're alone at the movies.

This made me recall a story of a friend who paid 800 something dollars to get some "pre-admission" to a Van Halen concert with maybe 50 other people (in a stadium) and get to listen to the band rehearsing and doing sound checks, right up against the stage.

He'd marveled at how much clearer the sound was without all the crowd noise.

I got a small dose of something like that today for sure...

I reckon this happens quite a bit with afternoon performances. My brother and I once watched Deathrace (Jason Statham) all to ourselves. Mind you,after watching it I'm not surprised we were alone...

What's the population of the city/town where you live Zamzow?

The only way I'll ever see a movie at a movie theater totally by myself where I live is if there's some kind of nuclear or zombie apocalypse that occurs.

Or as big Shoe Sale.
We know how those Miami Women are about shoes!

This is why the revenue sharing between movie companies and theaters is set up the way it is - the first weekend is usually an 80/20 split, the second 60/40, and by the eighth week the theater is on the upside of a 10/90 split.*

The money that keeps a movie theater in business is at the concession stand.

When we went to see Endgame last week it was a matinee during the week (and during school hours) - there were maybe six people besides us there. And still some dips--t had his phone start ringing halfway through.

He had a great way of covering for himself though, answering it and saying "Wait, what? Your water broke? That's two weeks early! I'm on my way!" Even though he made a big show of grabbing his stuff and hurrying out, clearly he knew I wasn't buying it and decided not to come back into the theater for the rest of the movie.

* At least that's how revenue sharing with the studios worked a really long time ago when I knew something about it.

The exact percentages may have changed a bit but you are absolutely right on the ratios. The studios get the lion's share of the revenue for the opening weekend and a couple more of the early release weekends but as time goes on that share shrinks for the studio and increases for the movie theater chains.


This is EXACTLY why movie theater chains absolutely love it when a movie as a very long staying power at the box office. Movies like "Titanic" and "Avatar" were gold mines for them.

About 1.5 million.

Theater just opened up a couple weeks ago - I don't think what I experienced (at least at or around this particular date) would have happened anywhere else in this county.

one cool thing to do is to watch movies with a VR headset like the rift, similar experience if you have the sound system for it