Taking yourself to see a film in a movie theater is entertainment guaranteed. And it’s not because the film turns out to be top notch—oftentimes it’s quite the contrary—but rather because when you get 200 random people staring at a big screen, things can go from funny to hysterically comical in a sec. You see, just because people are not on the comfort of their couch doesn’t mean they don’t have a thing or two to comment.
So when a guy named Mike Ginn tweeted “the thing I miss most about movie theaters is overhearing someone say the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard before the previews start,” it surely rang a bell to many. People started sharing the funny things they overheard in cinema theaters and the Twitter thread soon went viral with 341.4k likes and 33.7k retweets.
Because there are few things more amusing than sitting through ¾ of Benjamin Button only to overhear someone saying “oh, he’s getting younger!”
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Since the start of the pandemic, the film industry has been in free fall. The Guardian reported that around 120,000 people are out of work in Hollywood, while in the UK, it is estimated that 50,000 freelancers will lose their jobs. Crowded movie theaters are now viewed as notorious petri dishes for the virus to spread and the entertainment industry has been forced to shut its doors to the public for the unforeseeable future.
As a result, two movie industries have collided. With theaters closing down, streaming services are booming, with more and more people crashing sites for their Netflix fix. And this is not just a metaphor. Netflix, which has been laying the grounds for a direct-to-streaming world since 2015, has added a whopping 10.1 million subscribers since March.
Many movie theater owners are now worrying that studios will be shifting away from the theatrical model to the in-house movie market. This is what happened with Tom Hanks' new film Greyhound, which steered its US$50 million budget directly to port on Apple TV+.
The prognosis for the movie theater business remains gloomy. “This was going to be the worst year in movie theater history before the coronavirus hit,” says Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at LightShed partners. “This is like pouring lighter fluid on the fire.”
TIME reported that movie theaters fared better the weekend after September 11 than they are faring now. As if that wasn’t enough, the box office hit a 20-year low, down 60% from a year ago. Meanwhile, the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) has been asking for help from the federal government. It requested a bailout to support the 150,000 people who work at and for movie theaters during the pandemic.
Hahaha the same happened to me, some dude says it and everyone laught
My cousin, 4 or 5 years old, asked my grandmother where she lived when dinosaurs were alive.
To be fair, I'm not sure the graphic designers on the film knew what a rhino looks like
When I saw Fellowship of the Ring, it didn't start on time. Not even close, like 10 minutes had gone by. I was in the back row and stood up, arms outstretched and announced "A film is never late, nor early; It arrives precisely when it is meant to!" I got laughs and applause. It's the only time in my entire 37 years I've been awesome
I'm sure at least 1 friend, 1 person on family thing that you are awesome + myself and yourself. See ? 4 persons find you awesome.
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My neighbor went to see it with her husband. She wasn't familiar with the books and complained about the movie ending that way. I tried explaining that all three movies were already finished, but she wasn't having it. It was dumb because it just ENDED. It took a long time to process how not smart she was. After all, she was my friend.
WOW. She'd probably be shocked to learn they were based on actual BOOKS!
I remember when it first came out, many people went in having no idea what Lord of the Rings was. Lots of my friends said stuff like "Yeah, it was a good movie, but the ending was kind of weird. Just ended out of nowhere with no closure." Trilogies that weren't each a contained story weren't really a thing back then.
Fairytales are really messed up, I own the complete grimm's brother and Hans Christian Anderson Set
Same except it was Rocketman and the woman kept calling John Reid Eltons "Friend" 😣
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A friend of mine went to see Titanic. She was laughing telling me that a woman sitting down next to her with he boyfriend and dead seriously says I hope this isn’t one of these movies where a lot of people die. 🙄
I went to see Titanic too, and the impressing ship was screened and I said "What a shame that such a beauty sunk". My friend held her hands on her ears and started shouting "lalalalalala , please, I didn't see the movie. No spoilers...". :D I felt bad in many ways ;)
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1: About a 1/3 of the way in Kubo the monkey is letting the boy hitch a ride on her back. My wife exclaimed "that monkey has a human on it's back" and the people around us couldn't stop laughing. 2: In the movie Click with Adam Sandler, one of his secretaries is actually a well know porn star. I knew this, my wife knew this and I'm sure 90% of all the other men knew this. A guy behind us exclaimed "I've never seen her fully clothed thus long". Next thing we hear is a smack. My wife and I laughed.
I went to see "Constantine" when it first came out. There were six elderly ladies sitting near me. After the film, they chatted about that nice young man Keanu Reeves. They all enjoyed the film as well.
Went to see Skyfall with hubby and MIL. Opening sequence happens. Then the opening credits. Can hear crying. MIL is sobbing that "they killed James Bond". Yes, she genuinely thought they killed the title character before Adele could finish singing. #facepalm
We went to see Sean Connery in First Knight, the king was shot with several bolts from crossbows. The next scene, we saw a ship with the kings body on it as a hail of flaming arrows sets the ship on fire. A lady if the front says, "Oh my God! Sean Connery's dead." I said out loud, "Well if he wasn't, he is now."
I have had both stupid and funny incidents in movie theaters. The stupid was when I went to see "Bruce Almighty" and the guy in the ticket line behind me called Morgan Freeman Samuel L. Jackson. The funny was when I went to see "Law Abiding Citizen." Jamie Foxx was threatening Gerard Butler's character. He said, If you ever come near my family..." and the lady behind me said, "What you gonna do?"
My husband during Sense & Sensibility, with Emma Thompson et al. He blurts out near the end, "Oh, hey! This was a book, wasn't it!"..... He was an English major in college. *sigh*
We former English teachers absolve you of any future sins. -Rev Dr M
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In defense of the theaters, they no longer make ANY movie off the films they show. This started with Star Wars. ALL ticket sales belong to the company that made the movie. The theaters make money off the concessions.
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One time I had a cold and my family took us all to go see a play. And I tried not to cough and sneeze and stuff. I let out a couple coughs here and there. When the play was finally over, the people in front of us said "I feel like I'm sick!" When she was perfectly fine.
During a Star Wars marathon, I was seated near a man and his young daughter. We chatted for a while, being proud of papa for passing it on the the next generation. They start yelling "fake" , "so fake" , "can tell that's a fake rock" Um ... yeah, so original 1977 Star Wars was filmed inside a studio, and the characters were Him Henson creations - sorry to alert you that t he y aren't real and it wasn't filmed in another planet in the universe
My sister during The return of the King.. she was in her 20 and hadn't read yet the book .. During the scene where aragon is pulled down the cliff by a warg, she asked to her (now ex ) boyfriend "but..he's dead?" He answered dead serious "..hem..actually, yes.." i don't know why but I've never laughed so much in my life...
Several of these seem to be people who ended up in the wrong theatre/room (whatsitcalled).
My favorite movie story is when we went to see The Right Stuff. John Glenn is orbiting the earth and might be in trouble with re-entry. The woman next to me turns to her friend and says, “I hope he doesn’t die!” He was running for President at the time.
Went to see Hannibal and I made a rather annoying person leave the theater by waiting until the scene where he disembowels a guy and going "MMMMM, SPAGHETTI." To be fair, the person was looking for an excuse to leave, they kept complaining loudly to the person they were there with that they didn't like the movie, they didn't like the actors, they didn't like this and that...I just gave them a nudge. (The loudmouth left, the other person stayed and enjoyed the movie.)
Enjoyed? Hannibal? Is that really the word? Interested, maybe. Compelling, I hope not, but "enjoy" a movie about a monster?
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Heard in the opening moments of Prince Caspian: “But Mummy, where’s Hermione?”
I went to see Avengers: Endgame with a friend of mine and we were near the back. When Thanos' first scene was showing, a little girls from a few rows down said, 'Mommy, wasn't the Hulk green in the last movie?'
We were watching Armageddon and the scene where Billy Bob Thorton, who is playing a scientists, says "Just a small piece of this asteroid [or whatever] is going to hit Asia and over 40 million people are going to die." And a guy in the row in front of us says "And the bad part of this is......?" And a lot of people heard him and couldn't stop laughing.
That was before the Chinese guy 2 rows back got up and smacked him.
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Me, grown woman, 1970, always seen the Wizard of Oz every year on our family black-n-white TV. Went to the midnight movie, when Dorothy opened the farmhouse door to Oz, I stood up and yelled "WOW!" because I never knew that movie was in color.
This wasn’t in theaters, but I got the detective pikachu movie for my birthday and I watched it with my dad and I was pointing out every Pokémon I knew.
I saw Eight Below in theaters - that movie about the team of sled dogs that gets left behind in Antarctica for some reason I’ve forgotten. At one point the dogs encounter an orca that’s trapped on ice, and this old lady goes “It’s a cow!”
One of the times I saw "Frozen" in theatres, I heard a kid say "Scary" during the opening scene where we see a knife cut through the ice. To be fair, I was kinda wondering if I ended up in the wrong theatre myself..
I made the comment Ot wasnt a stupid one but snarky and meant only for my husband. Back in 2001 we and about 6 of our friends all got fired from the nightclub we worked at. To make ourselves feel better we all went to see The Mummy Returns. During the scene where The Rock is wandering the desert at the beginning I leaned over to my husband and said "Can you smell the Rock cooking?" He busted out laughing and the comment made it's way down the whole row of seats including a couple of strangers. All of a sudden you hear this building crescendo of laughter from the middle of the packed theater.
My husband & I love animated movies, so when "Kung Fu Panda" came out we headed to the theater that Saturday afternoon. Laughing, high fiving & BEST MOVIE EVERing each other on our way to the car. This couple stops us and the guy asks which movie we had just seen. In my best surfer-dude voice I said, "Kung Fu Panda, bruh". Seeing no children anywhere near us, they just kind of backed away.
Went to see Batman Begins when it was originally released with my brothers and sister. Late evening showing and not too many people there. A group of teenage boys were sat across the aisle from us. They were quiet until the very end. When the characters kiss one of them shouted "yeahhhh" and there was a small titter of laughter from the fellow cinema-goers. Then another boy from the group mockingly yelled "get off my leg!". Much laughter was had by all.....I guess you had to be there. But we still yell "get off my leg" to this day.
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A friend of mine went to see Titanic. She was laughing telling me that a woman sitting down next to her with he boyfriend and dead seriously says I hope this isn’t one of these movies where a lot of people die. 🙄
I went to see Titanic too, and the impressing ship was screened and I said "What a shame that such a beauty sunk". My friend held her hands on her ears and started shouting "lalalalalala , please, I didn't see the movie. No spoilers...". :D I felt bad in many ways ;)
Load More Replies... 1: About a 1/3 of the way in Kubo the monkey is letting the boy hitch a ride on her back. My wife exclaimed "that monkey has a human on it's back" and the people around us couldn't stop laughing. 2: In the movie Click with Adam Sandler, one of his secretaries is actually a well know porn star. I knew this, my wife knew this and I'm sure 90% of all the other men knew this. A guy behind us exclaimed "I've never seen her fully clothed thus long". Next thing we hear is a smack. My wife and I laughed.
I went to see "Constantine" when it first came out. There were six elderly ladies sitting near me. After the film, they chatted about that nice young man Keanu Reeves. They all enjoyed the film as well.
Went to see Skyfall with hubby and MIL. Opening sequence happens. Then the opening credits. Can hear crying. MIL is sobbing that "they killed James Bond". Yes, she genuinely thought they killed the title character before Adele could finish singing. #facepalm
We went to see Sean Connery in First Knight, the king was shot with several bolts from crossbows. The next scene, we saw a ship with the kings body on it as a hail of flaming arrows sets the ship on fire. A lady if the front says, "Oh my God! Sean Connery's dead." I said out loud, "Well if he wasn't, he is now."
I have had both stupid and funny incidents in movie theaters. The stupid was when I went to see "Bruce Almighty" and the guy in the ticket line behind me called Morgan Freeman Samuel L. Jackson. The funny was when I went to see "Law Abiding Citizen." Jamie Foxx was threatening Gerard Butler's character. He said, If you ever come near my family..." and the lady behind me said, "What you gonna do?"
My husband during Sense & Sensibility, with Emma Thompson et al. He blurts out near the end, "Oh, hey! This was a book, wasn't it!"..... He was an English major in college. *sigh*
We former English teachers absolve you of any future sins. -Rev Dr M
Load More Replies... In defense of the theaters, they no longer make ANY movie off the films they show. This started with Star Wars. ALL ticket sales belong to the company that made the movie. The theaters make money off the concessions.
Load More Replies... One time I had a cold and my family took us all to go see a play. And I tried not to cough and sneeze and stuff. I let out a couple coughs here and there. When the play was finally over, the people in front of us said "I feel like I'm sick!" When she was perfectly fine.
During a Star Wars marathon, I was seated near a man and his young daughter. We chatted for a while, being proud of papa for passing it on the the next generation. They start yelling "fake" , "so fake" , "can tell that's a fake rock" Um ... yeah, so original 1977 Star Wars was filmed inside a studio, and the characters were Him Henson creations - sorry to alert you that t he y aren't real and it wasn't filmed in another planet in the universe
My sister during The return of the King.. she was in her 20 and hadn't read yet the book .. During the scene where aragon is pulled down the cliff by a warg, she asked to her (now ex ) boyfriend "but..he's dead?" He answered dead serious "..hem..actually, yes.." i don't know why but I've never laughed so much in my life...
Several of these seem to be people who ended up in the wrong theatre/room (whatsitcalled).
My favorite movie story is when we went to see The Right Stuff. John Glenn is orbiting the earth and might be in trouble with re-entry. The woman next to me turns to her friend and says, “I hope he doesn’t die!” He was running for President at the time.
Went to see Hannibal and I made a rather annoying person leave the theater by waiting until the scene where he disembowels a guy and going "MMMMM, SPAGHETTI." To be fair, the person was looking for an excuse to leave, they kept complaining loudly to the person they were there with that they didn't like the movie, they didn't like the actors, they didn't like this and that...I just gave them a nudge. (The loudmouth left, the other person stayed and enjoyed the movie.)
Enjoyed? Hannibal? Is that really the word? Interested, maybe. Compelling, I hope not, but "enjoy" a movie about a monster?
Load More Replies... Heard in the opening moments of Prince Caspian: “But Mummy, where’s Hermione?”
I went to see Avengers: Endgame with a friend of mine and we were near the back. When Thanos' first scene was showing, a little girls from a few rows down said, 'Mommy, wasn't the Hulk green in the last movie?'
We were watching Armageddon and the scene where Billy Bob Thorton, who is playing a scientists, says "Just a small piece of this asteroid [or whatever] is going to hit Asia and over 40 million people are going to die." And a guy in the row in front of us says "And the bad part of this is......?" And a lot of people heard him and couldn't stop laughing.
That was before the Chinese guy 2 rows back got up and smacked him.
Load More Replies... Me, grown woman, 1970, always seen the Wizard of Oz every year on our family black-n-white TV. Went to the midnight movie, when Dorothy opened the farmhouse door to Oz, I stood up and yelled "WOW!" because I never knew that movie was in color.
This wasn’t in theaters, but I got the detective pikachu movie for my birthday and I watched it with my dad and I was pointing out every Pokémon I knew.
I saw Eight Below in theaters - that movie about the team of sled dogs that gets left behind in Antarctica for some reason I’ve forgotten. At one point the dogs encounter an orca that’s trapped on ice, and this old lady goes “It’s a cow!”
One of the times I saw "Frozen" in theatres, I heard a kid say "Scary" during the opening scene where we see a knife cut through the ice. To be fair, I was kinda wondering if I ended up in the wrong theatre myself..
I made the comment Ot wasnt a stupid one but snarky and meant only for my husband. Back in 2001 we and about 6 of our friends all got fired from the nightclub we worked at. To make ourselves feel better we all went to see The Mummy Returns. During the scene where The Rock is wandering the desert at the beginning I leaned over to my husband and said "Can you smell the Rock cooking?" He busted out laughing and the comment made it's way down the whole row of seats including a couple of strangers. All of a sudden you hear this building crescendo of laughter from the middle of the packed theater.
My husband & I love animated movies, so when "Kung Fu Panda" came out we headed to the theater that Saturday afternoon. Laughing, high fiving & BEST MOVIE EVERing each other on our way to the car. This couple stops us and the guy asks which movie we had just seen. In my best surfer-dude voice I said, "Kung Fu Panda, bruh". Seeing no children anywhere near us, they just kind of backed away.
Went to see Batman Begins when it was originally released with my brothers and sister. Late evening showing and not too many people there. A group of teenage boys were sat across the aisle from us. They were quiet until the very end. When the characters kiss one of them shouted "yeahhhh" and there was a small titter of laughter from the fellow cinema-goers. Then another boy from the group mockingly yelled "get off my leg!". Much laughter was had by all.....I guess you had to be there. But we still yell "get off my leg" to this day.
Load More Replies... 