There’s nothing quite like a packed movie theater. Everybody scrunches in as tight as possible, only leaving those awkward single seats between different friend groups open for those who got to the theater late. You might find yourself next to an obese Dumbledore at a midnight premiere of a Harry Potter film or beside a middle-aged mom who had the unfortunate luck of being the parent to take Billy and his friends to see the new Star Wars. With either case, you get a good glimpse of the people that make up a fandom and, unless you make it to Comic-Con each year or have friends that are really (obsessively) into cosplay, there are few instances in film series’ life spans when you get a look at the people that share your love for a franchise.
Usually, the only times I’ve ever seen full theaters are at midnight and evening showings of new movies. That’s when you see lines spilling out of the Boston Common AMC Theater or down the street from my local Big Newport 6. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve miscalculated how long the line would be hours before the evening or midnight showing of a new movie. Then I’d have to drive around trying to find parking (there was none) while gearing up for the knot I’d have in my neck the next day from staring up at the screen for two and a half hours. Sometimes, though, my calculations were on point and my friends and I laid out our folding chairs 30 or so people into the line, just where you still get a good seat, but don’t come off as an obsessive fan of what you’re about to see. We’d crack a few sodas open, watch the uber-fans in their Batman cowls nerd out, and talk to a few friendly faces that had gathered to see whatever was playing that night.
This is how midnight premieres had operated for me for the better part of my life. It wasn’t until this last December, when The Force Awakens was released, that I had this notion of the “midnight movie experience” turned on its head.
Tickets for The Force Awakens went on sale around mid-October, about two months before the release of the actual movie. Needless to say, I was prepped to buy my friends and myself tickets the second they went on sale. When the floodgates opened, Fandango’s servers crashed within minutes. I did manage, however, to secure six tickets at a Braintree theater. These weren’t just normal tickets, however. These were reserved seats.
We scrambled to get out to Braintree that night. It’s a long way out from Boston College as it is and traffic was horrendous that night. About an hour and a half after we left, and only a couple minutes before the movie (not the previews) started, we arrived at the theater, waltzed in with our tickets, grabbed popcorn, and found ourselves in our retractable seats in, what I consider, unthinkable time.
The same thing happened last weekend with a midnight showing of Batman Vs. Superman (a terrible movie, by the way). Most everyone there had his or her tickets hours beforehand and, since there was no competition for seating and no need to wait in line, people just came to the theater and went to their seats a few minutes before the show started. There wasn’t any of the jubilance you’d see after a line trickling down the street was finally allowed in the theater. There wasn’t anyone dressed up as Batman, fighting injustice in the line. It was just another day at the movies.
I’m not saying that I don’t like reserved seating at theaters. It’s convenient to be able to arrive at a movie minutes before it starts and have a good seat waiting for you, but it’s notable that a big part of the “midnight movie experience” has been lost to this new and popular theater format. Sure, I curled up in a big ball with my popcorn at The Force Awakens, snuggling into the corner of my huge, retractable seat, but part of me wishes that I’d been tightly squeezed in between a buddy of mine and some dude dressed as Leia. There was more excitement in the air back when we were packed into theaters tighter than sardines in a can.
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