"Shut up, and don't touch my popcorn."

[apocalypsos]

denorios brought up something that, really, I'm amazed I never brought up during one of those seven-facts-about-yourself memes.

I hardly ever meet anybody who doesn't think that going to the movies alone makes them pathetic or sad or friendless or something. Which sucks for me, because I hate going to the movies with other people. I hate sharing my popcorn, I hate feeling like I have to talk to someone, I hate when other people want to show up any later than a half-hour before the trailers start, I hate having to persuade whomever I'm with to turn off their cell phone or being "with" someone with an embarrassing laugh or a previously unknown tendency to shout at the screen.

There is one person I can stand to go to the movies with, and that's my brother. I have that little bastard trained. He shuts up, he turns off his phone, he gets there early, and he doesn't bug the hell out of me.

You have to understand -- I've been burned. I spent my childhood going to the movies with my parents. My father, who rarely goes to a movie he doesn't fall asleep during, and my mother, who once made fun of me for flinching during Saving Private Ryan because the speakers were right over my head and the gunshots kept going off right over my ears.

I like going to the movies by myself, damn it. Other people want to talk during trailers I want to see or just want to say, "That was awesome!" about a movie I want to get into in great detail. Other people don't see what's rude about leaving their cell phone on or think I'm silly when movies make me cry.

And I really don't give a damn if an entire roomful of moviegoers think I'm a friendless nerd for going alone because I am never going to see these people again. What do I care what they think? And why do they care if I go alone? They're too busy having to talk to the people they were too dumb NOT to bring. ;)

(I'm really not this bitter about the whole thing, honest. *grins*)

Comments

[phillyexpat.livejournal.com]

I go to movies (and museums, and even plays) by myself all the time. Granted, I usually end up chitchatting with people sitting near me before and after the movie, but that's because I'm ridiculously extroverted and can't contain myself.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, same with me. The best was when I went to see Finding Nemo -- I went the first day, first showing and there was this woman there with the most adorable two-year-old little girl I think I've ever seen in my life. She said nothing while we were talking until she looked up at her mom and kind of whimpered, and her mom reached into her bag and handed the kid a Dory doll and a Marlin doll.

She then proceeded to clutch both of them for the entire movie while she stared at the screen with absolute wonder for two straight hours. It was SO COOL. :)

[budclare.livejournal.com]

I usually don't mind going with other people too much, but it's easier to go alone. But at least at a theater, my family tends to keep their mouths shut, unlike when they watch a movie at home and drive me bugshit.

Also, people seem to think it's odd going to a restaurant alone. Or shopping alone. God, people are stupid. And shamelessly impractical. And terrified of being alone for five minutes at a time, apparently.

[mcee.livejournal.com]

Dude, solo movie-going is one of the best things ever.

[thornsilver]

Also easier to get a good seat by yourself. The only drawback is not having anybody to discuss the movie with as soon as it is over.

Oh, and the cashiers look at you funny when you buy one ticket.

[cormallen.livejournal.com]

I love going to movies/plays/museums/things of that general nature by myself. It means I can just "relax and enjoy", rather than be concerned with whether or not I am moving too slow or too fast from room to room, or whether we've had equal dips into the popcorn. Maybe that makes me selfish, I don't know. When I am at home, though, I don't really ever watch anything without my significant other - all DVDs are watched together, because that's something we do with each other, in our home. That's different, though. It's not really a social situation, it's us enjoying each other's company and whatever (usually show, not movie) thing we're Netflixing.

[neonhummingbird.livejournal.com]

I can go either way on this. It's fun to have someone to whisper the occasional snide remark to, or to critique the trailers with, and have immediate-gratification discussion as soon as the credits roll. On the other hand, it's also nice not having to coordinate with someone else, or have them whisper when you don't want them to, and be able to sprawl over seats, and not have to do what other people want to do after the movie.

I go to a lot of movies alone -- hell, I go to live theatre and concerts alone -- and I have no problem with that.

[gruyere.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I go to movies alone because I'm pathetic, not the other way around. ;)

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Heh. That's why I switched to just watching movies on dvd, because I can't stand the other people in the theatres. Cell phones. Couples who get into a fight. Friends meeting up who just have to catch up on their lives and jobs in stage whispers during the movie. Creeps who hit on single women. Bleh. I don't really miss the big screen experience. At home I can control the volume, rewatch the good parts, and stop it for bathroom and snack runs, all in perfect silence.

[scary-being-me.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me that I've never gone to a movie alone. I just never thought about it. It's always been a group activity.

That being said; I shut people out once the movie starts. I pretty much ignore everone. My friends are good about shutting off their cell phones and not talking.

You have to be pretty loud for me to notice you when I'm focused on something. I grew up with 13 siblings; so I know how to block out noise and focus. It used to drive my mother nuts because I'd have my nose in a book, she'd be calling me, and I just wouldn't hear her.

[embroiderama]

Oh, yeah, agreed! I don't go to movies at all very often anymore, but going to the movies by myself used to be one of my favorite things to do. Smuggle in some snacks, find a good place to sit and just enjoy the movie without having to worry about somebody else talking to you. Bliss!

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

Hell is other people.

[coolgrin.livejournal.com]

I love going to the movies alone. It's easier to get a seat, you can mix the popcorn and the m&m's and no one looks at you funny, and you can cry at the sad parts and you get to see what you want and not have to compromise. The best part is you can go when you want to not have to pick a time that is convenient for everybody. I'm an only child so I have no problem doing things on my own and laugh when my friend missed an opportunity to see a movie because no one would go with her.

[isabeau.livejournal.com]

... I *like* going to the movies alone. o.O (And I don't think going alone = pathetic/sad/friendless/antisocial.

[ralob.livejournal.com]

i don't mind going solo at all. hell, usually I prefer it because I don't have to compromise my schedule with someone else. Plus? Easier to find seats.

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

If I had to find someone to come with me to the movies, I doubt I'd ever go. It's all in the timing and not knowing anyone who wants to see the same things I do. One of the best teachers I ever had said people shouldn't mind going to movies alone.

I also go to plays, museums, and concerts alone, happy as can be. It doesn't make me friendless; it makes me a person who has friends with bad timing skills or different interests.

[doqz.livejournal.com]

I have a variation of the same affliction - hate going to the movies, period. Primarily because other people in the theater irritate the crap out of me. Eventually decided it's less aggravation to wait a couple of months and watch the DVDs instead.

[meredevachon]

I pretty much always go to the movies alone, and that's by choice. In fact, I don't like it when there are more than about 3-5 other people in the audience total. Just shut up, sit down, and let me watch the movie already.

I go often enough that the people in the box office know me and that I'm only going to get one ticket. And I really don't care what random people I'll never see again after we watch the same movie think of me.

[jade-starlight.livejournal.com]

I like going to the movies alone. It means there's no debate over where in the theater I'm sitting. *g*

My uncle's ex-girlfriend saw me coming out of a restaurant by myself once and thought it was just incredibly weird that I didn't have any problems eating in public by myself. I say eating alone is the only way to insure that I'm eating where I want to. *shrugs*

[bexone.livejournal.com]

My favorite movie-going experience is the one where not only am I not encumbered by anyone else, there are so few people in the theater that I can a) get the back-row-but-one center seat that is mine and b) almost believe that I'm just watching it at home on my GIGANTOR-screen tv.

But then, I also go to concerts, operas, restaurants, and entire vacations-in-foreign-countries by myself, so. *hands*

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

I'm the same! The trouble is that there are no cinemas round here that are accessible by public transport and I don't drive so if I want to see a film in the cinema, I have to go with somebody.

That was about the only decent thing about living in Royal Leamington Spa - I was above and slightly to the side of a combination indie/arthouse/mainstream cinema. Okay, it didn't get the big films until a few weeks after they'd been released but it got them. And it had an actual, proper projectionist who, by the look of him, had been doing the job since the days of magic lanterns. There was this whole atmosphere where they actually cared about films being shown properly.

It was rather horribly expensive but I was willing to pay for it.

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

God, yes. For ages, I was put off going on holiday to all the places I wanted to go, because none of my friends wanted to go with me. And one day, about ten years ago, I just bit the bullet and went - and it was the best holiday I've ever had! No worrying about whether you're dragging somebody round museums because they're just too passive to say they want to slob on the beach for the day. No arguments over what to do next.

Just BLISS.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I know! And yet when I say I go to the movies most people look at me like I'm the bravest person EVER.

[siberian-skys.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's because I grew up alone, but I have no problem doing anything on my own. I go to the movies, out to dinner and even take solo vacations when I can afford them.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, middle of the aisle right behind the rail when you go into the theater at Cinemark is MY seat. I want to snuggle in there with my popcorn and soda and paperback and MP3 player and be left alone, damn it.

[ladysorka]

I honestly can't remember the last time I went to a movie when I wasn't alone. Of course, I also cheerfully go to concerts, restaurants, and on vacation by myself.

...but I am sort of friendless in RL, um. But really, I'm having fun and would be doing things alone either way, so I don't think that matters very much.

[random-serious.livejournal.com]

I hardly ever meet anybody who doesn't think that going to the movies alone makes them pathetic or sad or friendless or something.

You've met one now. I love going to the movies alone.

[aint2nuts.livejournal.com]

I like going with my kids. They have learned you don't talk during the movies, you just sit and watch. They have no cell, no embarrassing laugh, and they are able to talk intelligently about the movie afterwards.

Other people? Not so much.

[tabaqui]

I love movie-going alone. Well, most anything alone. I usually bring a book to the movies and sit near a light so i can read until the previews start.

I *do* like going to the movies with my sister/brothers and a couple select friends, because we bitch and snark all through the commercials *omfg, *commercials*!!* and make snotty comments during the trailers of movies we think are stupid.

But, yeah - turn your fucking phone off and stfu while the movie is playing. I have been known to turn around and give people the Warning of Doom.

Popcorn and Peanut M&Ms

[ancientsavvy.livejournal.com]

My best friend and I combine popcorn and peanut M&Ms all the time. That combo is the BEST!

[kirana-44.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I like groups, it depends on the movie, and I will admit to one of those people who talks at the movies a lot. But I'm just as happy going alone, I just talk to myself. Although the last time I went alone I got hit on by a 40ish divorced guy who had a kid in tow.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

I like going to movies with others, but I'm used to doing it alone. I got over the "friendless" part of it years ago because I had to- no one else in my close circle goes to the theater as much as I do, so I was always going by myself. I do sometimes still feel weird eating in restaurants by myself, but usually I'm too hungry to care much. Anyway, while I think of movies and theater as a collective experience, that doesn't mean you have to actually know anyone in the crowd. The fact that you're sharing it all with complete strangers can be part of the appeal, actually.

-blue

[poisontaster]

Dude. That's crazycakes. I have ZERO SHAME about going to the movies alone. *raises fist in solidarity*

I don't mind going to the movies with my friends but I do hate when other people get all...up close and friendly. I went to the movies with a friend here in California and we were sitting there waiting for the movie to start and someone came and sat RIGHT NEXT to my friend without leaving the one courtesy seat between us. And it's not like the theater was even REMOTELY FULL. And then we're sitting a while longer and someone ELSE comes and sits RIGHT NEXT to ME without the courtesy seat. Theater still wasn't full. And I'm talking to my friend (a native Californian) and I'm saying, "Okay, this is weird, don't you think it's weird?" and he COULD NOT UNDERSTAND why I thought sitting right next to people you don't know is kind of strange. *sighs* Sometimes I hate California.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

HA! I always think skipping the courtesy seat is weird, but then again I sit far enough down in the audience that I'm always convinced that the entire theater's full whether it is or not. :)

Man, I've really got to go to the movies tomorrow.

[fyrdrakken]

Yes, I've been ruined for travelling with a group now because I just don't have the patience for putting up with it when everyone else wants to do something I don't care about and wanders off past something I wanted to check out.

[fyrdrakken]

Same here when it comes to preferring to go alone -- I'm usually the violator when it comes to commenting while it's going on, or at least often enough that I can't complain if someone else does. (Except when it's someone with no viewing comprehension skills who keeps asking me to explain what just happened and then misses even more shit due to our conversation going on over the dialogue.)

But I can't cope with trying to schedule an outing for a theater that's not too bad a drive for either of us with a showtime we can both live with. Especially since in recent years my movie-viewing has been along the lines of, "Eh, I'll go if I'm in the mood Friday night, and if not then I'll wind up Netflixing it eventually." I've gotten really bad about things I have to show up at a particular time for, due to not wanting to leave the house once I've gotten settled in for the evening or if I'm in the middle of something when it's time for me to gather up and leave, and if it's just me going I can leave it up to the last minute whether I'm actually going or not, but if I'm showing up for someone else that whole sense of obligation makes me drag my feet about it.

And this was a topic on my mind this week since I wanted to go see Stardust last Friday night, but someone saw my journal post mentioning it and basically invited his wife along with me, which means I didn't get to see it last weekend because our schedules didn't mesh and now I pretty much wish I'd just gone Friday night and pretended not to have seen his LJ comment till the next day, because by this point I really don't want to even bother...

[amaresu]

I go to movies by myself all the time.

[faith21.livejournal.com]

I'd totally go with you.

A half an hour is a little extreme, because the commercials annoy me, but I am GLUED to the trailers, yo.

[timba.livejournal.com]

I like going to the movies alone. More popcorn for me!

[chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com]

Hell, I go alone and had never even put that much thought into it.

I will admit taking my then 70 something year old mother to see "The Two Towers" and the scene where the really nasty super orc is born and my mother announcing to the whole theater "Dear god, that is UUUUUUGLLLLEEEEEEEE" was mastercard priceless though.

Lord of the rings was a special thing for us. I was reading the hobbit in third grade and had a teacher call in my mother declaring I was being "pretentious" and couldn't possibly understand the book. (now, I was reading the newspaper and comphrehending, for the most part, by 4 years old...okay??) My mother read that bitch the riot act and told her she didn't care if I came in with issues of playboy and hustler, I was to be allowed to read whatever the fuck I wanted to read. (later I was told NO, no playboy and hustler, that I knew what was acceptable, but if I wanted to read about dragons and dwarves and wierd crap, she didn't get it but that was okay, I was READING, and she was proud of me)

So taking her to see the first two movies (I wasn't there when the third came out, I'm hoping to sit her down with all three on disc and do a marathon afternoon if I ever get back to Indiana) and explaining it all was something special.

Other than that, I've always preferred to go to movies alone.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

I second all of this :)

[mcee.livejournal.com]

It's very common practice here! I think maybe it's a big city thing? Last movie I saw was Becoming Jane and I was sitting next to a DUDE by himself. Hahaha.

[chaoticasylum.livejournal.com]

When I got divorced, I hated the fact that I had moved somewhere where I didn't know anyone well enough to go to the movies with... and I missed the movies like crazy. I didn't want to go alone, because I thought everyone would see me and KNOW I was so lame I had no friends. I forget what finally came out that I wanted to see so badly I just went by myself.... and it was awesome. I figured out quickly no one else could care less about me... and no one wanted to chat, or annoy me.... It was so amazingly freeing.

now I almost always go only by myself, unless it's a thursday night midnight opening, for which I've a select group of pals who all understand movie etiquette.

[umetnica.livejournal.com]

I love going alone to movies, and every time I go with friends or family I appreciate going alone even more. I don't mind someone to share reactions to trailers (thumbs up? down?) but I hate when they talk during the movies and become Those People that ask what just happened or speculate on what's next. No, please no.

Now, I think people that go to restaurants alone are brave. I do not have the guts to do that.

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

I love going to the movies alone. It has never occured to me to be embarrassed about it, possibly because movie-going is nothing compared to my true shame -- I love eating by myself in nice restaurants. To sit there with a book and happily read while people bring me food -- what could possibly be better?

I've gone on vacations alone too. It was lovely.