[caymanjim]

Do enough people buy tickets in advance now that this really indicates anything of value? I'm old and have never pre-purchased a movie ticket in my life. I assume a lot of people do, but the few times I've been to the movies lately, it seems people are buying tickets at the theater.

[kelnos]

I'm "old" (mid-40s) and cannot remember the last time I didn't pre-purchase a movie ticket. The movie theater I go to the most (Alamo Drafthouse in San Francisco) rarely has anyone in line at the box office when I walk through there. That box office is usually only staffed by one person, which should tell us something about how many people need in-person service.

[m463]

I'm finding that more and more, when I impulsively go to the theater and try to buy tickets at the door... I always find the only tickets available are horrible, like in the front row to the side. You want like F-6 and F-7 and get A-2 and B-2.

And if I even accept this, the people in the choice seats invariably show up right when all the trailers are wrapping up.

so - people buy tickets ahead of time, and it might be the only way to watch it from a reasonable seat.

This probably doesn't apply to off-hours like tuesday afternoon or whatever.

[sbrother]

wait... I don't think I've ever experienced assigned seats in a movie theatre. Is that a thing?

[linsomniac]

Yes, it's been a thing for at least a decade, I imagine it helps with pre-sales online, though it may just be offered as a convenience. It really does help keep the movie from unexpectedly being a lousy experience; if you're stuck in a crappy seat, or your family can't sit together, it's because you picked those seats. As someone else mentioned, it also allows them to bring you dinner and provide that upsell as well.

Even our small independent theater in town has reserved seats, some of which are couches.

[sbrother]

That actually sounds... really nice. Like they've borrowed some of the things from traditional theatre that make the experience not awful.

My reference point for movie theatres is the late 90s/early 2000s so maybe I'll have to give them another try.

[bombcar]

The oldest theaters might still be the way they always were, but most have gone to offering direct ticketing (to cut Fandango and friends out) and they need something to offer you to make you buy ahead - being able to select the seat is the carrot.

[LordDragonfang]

> it's been a thing for at least a decade

Maybe in fancy theaters, but in most places it started during covid (and just never stopped)

[bsimpson]

When I was in college in the 00s, there was a Hollywood theater that was renowned for having assigned seats and charging close to $20 per ticket.

Neither of those is remarkable now, but they were both unheard-of then.

[Lindby]

I've never been to a theater without assigned seats. Maybe it's a regional difference?

[voidfunc]

Regional where...? Never seen this in the Northeast.

[jb1991]

Outside North America just about every country I’ve ever lived in or visited had assigned movie ticket seats.

[pjmlp]

As European, I can tell that it depends on the kind of cinema, and country.

My experience, being discussed in another thread, is that only big commercial multiplex do it, many small cinemas with more alternative content, usually don't do assigned seats, only ticket reservations.

[nottorp]

And in some places there are so few movie theaters that, at least on weekends, you have to buy days in advance or you might as well stay home.

[disillusioned]

It's shifted a lot in the past few years: AMC has assigned seating in most (all?) theaters, for instance. Our regional theater, Harkins, same.

Personally, I like being able to select the exact seats and pre-order popcorn and soda and just have it show up to me right as the trailers end.

[k4rli]

I'm also in the northeast (Europe). It is quite normal to have assigned seats.

[Jailbird]

Adding on and being specific: AMC in the GSP mall in Paramus, NJ. Assigned seating for sure.

[ravenstine]

When I grew up in LA 20+ years ago, seating was way more casual. Now everywhere seems to want assigned seating. I think this is in part because so many theater chains now offer a "premium" dining experience. It's yet another reason I rarely go to theaters anymore, on top of most of the film offerings being crap.

[jb1991]

It’s the only way I’ve ever seen movie tickets sold outside of North America anywhere.

[vasco]

You can find both kinds, in europe especially the cut is very clear, commercial cinemas ALWAYS have assigned sitting. The kind you see at malls and have the Hollywood rotation of marvel shit movies.

Then you have smaller cinemas with indie movies, european movie festival rotation, etc, and many of those in at least 4 or 5 countries in Europe I can confirm do NOT have assigned sitting.

[tdeck]

I feel like the newer (e.g. post 2010s) theaters with more "premium" comfortable seats tend to assign seats these days. Probably differs by chain.

[IncreasePosts]

Yes for higher end theaters like imax and the kind where everyone had a recliner chair

[jb1991]

Or just about any movie theater of any kind outside of North America.

[duped]

I live in a major metro area, basically every theater has assigned seats now.

[ButlerianJihad]

If you go up to the box office and ask for "Alt-F4" they will act surprised and confused, but just tell them to type it into their computer

[JoshGlazebrook]

Do people really just show up and hope for the best anymore?

The "box office" is not even really a thing anymore at most theaters. And the single person you talk to inside that is the "box office" just uses the same system you can reserve seats yourself on your own time?

Pretty much every theater is reserved seating these days. Why would I risk showing up last minute on a whim and end up in a horrible seat near the front of the screen?

[robinsonb5]

In the small town where I live we have a small cinema with three screens. They always start the movie at the advertised time - no adverts, just a few trailers in the preceding 10 minutes. You can book online, but I usually just walk in and buy a ticket at the desk. The seats aren't assigned, so you can pick whichever you like.

Occasionally I have a "private screening" where I'm the only one in the auditorium. The most recent example was "The Mummy". I hadn't fully thought throught the implications of watching a horror movie alone in the middle of a darkened 65-seat auditorium!

There's another town a few miles away where a similar cinema has both assigned seating and 20 minutes of adverts before the movie.

[MattGaiser]

Mostly because unless it is a really desirable movie, hoping for the best has an expected outcome close to the best.I am a planner in most things, but for movies, it often simply does not matter.

[linsomniac]

Curious... Unless it's a really desirable movie, I typically won't go to the theater to see it. ;-)

[myself248]

This is surreal. I've never pre-purchased a movie ticket in my life. I show up, buy a ticket and a box of Milk Duds, wander down the dark hall, find a seat, turn off my phone, and the lights go dark.

Exactly the same as it's always been, and it works beautifully. I can't imagine a reason to mess with it.

[dewey]

I don’t remember the last time I bought a ticket at the cinema. I like picking my own seats online.

[pjmlp]

In most European countries you only get reserved seats at big multiplex cinemas, stuff like Cinestar, NOS and so on.

On the European Cinema network [0], reserved seats is a long gone concept.

So not always a given that seats can be reserved online for cinema, depends on ones location.

[0] - https://www.europa-cinemas.org

[magicalhippo]

Here in Oslo, Norway I only know of the local cinematheque which doesn't do reserved seats. All commercial theaters have reserved seats, even for the small screens with just a dozen or so seats. Been so as long as I can remember, so several decades.

So yea, location dependent.

[sixhobbits]

I've been to several European Network cinemas and always gotten reserved seats

[arrrg]

Dresden is truly blessed with cinemas and has four European Network cinemas. Three of those have assigned seating, though none do price discrimination based on where you sit. Culturally the assigned seating isn’t taken very seriously in those four cinemas, though, to the point where staff in one cinema sometimes tells visitors that they can sit somewhere else if they want to. In practice we still try to get seats where we want to sit and stick to them (front/middle, away from other people), though if people come in and sit right behind us we might change rows.

With new ticketing systems and online booking being introduced I think there has been a shift towards assigned seating. I remember the first time I was in a Dresden European Network cinema (Schauburg in 2015, that’s the oldest cinema in Dresden, 1927) and there either being no assigned seating or a seat printed on the ticket that no one cared about. We also weren’t asked where we wanted to sit. That has changed with a new ticketing system and now we are always asked about where we want to sit.

I think these ticketing systems come with assigned seating and that’s also a factor in assigned seating being introduced.

Notably, the one cinema that doesn’t have assigned seating also doesn’t offer online booking or reservations at all.

The four big multiplex cinemas in the city have assigned seating and do price discrimination based on where you sit – so it’s taken somewhat more seriously there.

So, yeah, my guess would be that the role online ticketing and the respective software/service/devices those cinemas use for that do all play a role in what role assigned seating plays and those can also trigger a cultural shift from sit where you want to assigned seating. (I have vivid childhood memories of my hometown long before online booking with price discrimination sections but no assigned seating in cinemas.)

[pjmlp]

I can assert that none of those I usually go have reserved seats, what they do have is reserved tickets.

I guess it depends then.

[delusional]

I don't recall having been to any cinema in denmark ever that did not do assigned seats. They won't check if nobody complains, but is is printed on the ticket.

[kuboble]

In Switzerland it's a mix. The theater we use most frequently doesn't have assigned seats.

[dewey]

That's not true, I frequently reserve seats at the "Yorck" cinema chain in Berlin which is part of Europa Cinemas and has seat reservation.

[hombre_fatal]

Yeah, whether I go hinges on the seats available.

[stingraycharles]

> I'm old and have never pre-purchased a movie ticket in my life.

I’m old and have always pre-purchased tickets, even in the 90s, as that’s the way to get better seats.

[WillPostForFood]

You sure about the 90s? Not saying it was impossible, but must have been extremely rare. Arclight was one of the first theaters to do assigned seats in 2002. AMC only started trialing in 2008, but didn't start rolling it out until 2016 in NYC.

[magicalhippo]

In the US perhaps. Seat reservation has been the norm here in Norway since at least the 80s.

[stingraycharles]

Totally possible, was through a central phone number in The Netherlands called "BelBios" ("CallCinema"). You were guided through the different movies and showtimes, pressed the numbers, and got a booking code. You then went to the cinema, provided your booking code and paid.

[sschueller]

Last time I was in a US theater the tickets where not numbered and you could sit anywhere. There was no point in pre purchasing a ticket because if you wanted a good seat you needed to show up early either way.

In Switzerland the seats have always been numbered and even if the cinema is empty people wouldn't dare move into another seat. People do show up right before the film starts and try to avoid the ads. Some also hang in the lobby until the film actually starts.

[pjmlp]

My experience in Geneva and Lausanne was certainly a bit more flexible regarding moving around the seats, unless this changed in the last 20 years.

[sschueller]

I guess I should have been more specific. I was talking about Zürich.

[yieldcrv]

I haven’t bought a seat at the theater in over a decade

And the online process shows you which seats are already filled and I base my decision on that when there is assigned seating. One thing peculiar is that the theatres are not often as filled as the seat map shows, makes me think that an even newer generation of the movie ticket subscribers (AMC A-List) are reserving seats and changing plans

[SwellJoe]

I'm the same way, as I'm terrible at scheduling and often don't arrive on time for things I book in advance. So, I'll tend to show up at the theater and see whatever looks good that's coming up soon. But, I get the impression a lot of people do buy in advance these days.

But, I love the idea of a theater almost entirely to myself.

[lisp2240]

I assume everyone is using something like MoviePass because it’s way cheaper than paying full price. And they don’t allow you to pre-purchase tickets.

[pjmlp]

Same here, gen-x, in what concerns cinema, sometimes I do reserve if it is in high demand, but that is about it.

[fg137]

For theaters with reserved seats, if you don't buy early, you only end up with the worst seat.

That said, for "general admission" theaters, if you want to get good seats, you'd have to show up early and waste time watching all those trailers.

[redwall_hp]

I never do it in person. Alamo Season Pass -> select the reserved seats -> go sit down when you get to the theater. You have to reserve tickets for classic films or big releases because they often sell out, anyway.

[JoshTriplett]

I exclusively buy tickets online, and whatever seats show up as empty online are empty when we show up.

[vidarh]

Yeah, unless it's just me, and on a whim, which doesn't happen often, I'd always reserve online.

[dnnddidiej]

A mix. Prebuying is useful for your Barbie or Oppenheimer. Also good idea for kids birthday parties.

[BikiniPrince]

Quite a bit in the early showing for good movies. Project Heil Mary has continued to sell all the good seats out and I’m bad at planning ahead for entertainment. It usually isn’t obvious because most of the movies have been atrocious in the last several years.