[Aqwis]

> If you have pre-allocated seating, the cinema may have to employ people to ensure people are sitting in the right place (at least, people will want someone to complain to if someone else stole their seat).

Is this really a problem? All cinemas in Norway (that I know of) have pre-allocated seating, but there is never anybody who ensures that people sit in the right place. If you find that someone is sitting in your seat, you simply tell them to move. I've never heard of anyone refusing to move.

[randallsquared]

> All cinemas in Norway (that I know of) have pre-allocated seating

I've watched movies in cinemas all over North America, and the only one that ever had numbered seating was a dinner-and-a-movie place where your seat was used to keep track of your order.

[uxp]

Nearly all the "stadium" seating theaters around me in Utah use numbered seating for every movie for at least it's first opening week, but they're largely all owned by one guy (well, his corporation, as he personally passed away a few years ago). It's more of a courtesy so larger families and groups can manage to pick up seats together, but it's still enforced if it needs to be.

[barrkel]

Probably a big-city problem.