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Jun 1, 2021 · A Guide to Movie Theater Seat Selection Most of us went more than a year without walking into a movie theater. Don’t be like me; don’t be stricken by paralysis when you pull up the seating chart for your favorite local cineplex and have approximately 4:51 seconds left to make your selection and checkout.
- Overview
- Getting the Best Sound and Visuals
- Increasing Your Chances of Getting the Best Seat
- Picking the Right Days and Times
Not all seats in a movie theater were created equal. It's true! Some movie theater seats are better than others. It should be easy to get the best movie theater seat if you put some forethought into how you buy your tickets and choose a seat.
For the best seat in a movie theater, sit in the center roughly two-thirds back from the front so that you view the screen at a roughly 38-degree angle.
Buy your tickets ahead of time and go to a theatre where you can choose your seats to get the optimal viewing experience.
If you can’t buy tickets online, show up at least 15-20 minutes early so that you can beat the crowds.
Sit in the center two-thirds back.
In order to get the best sound quality, you should sit where the sound technician sits to calibrate the experience. This is the most common way to get a good seat.
That means you should plant yourself two-thirds of the way toward the back of the theater, right in the middle. In terms of viewing, most seats in modern stadium theaters are 12-to-15 inches higher than the seats in front of them, allowing for unobstructed viewing. That’s why choosing where you sit based on sound is a good idea.
Experts recommend that you sit slightly off center to amplify the effect of the sound. Try sitting one or two seats from the dead center of the theater, two-thirds back. You will have a “dynamic, stereo sound” from this position.
This phenomenon is widely known. The sound is going to be sharper – and you will get the full effect of it - in this spot.
Sit at the best viewing angle.
Many movie theaters have it set up now so that you can easily buy your tickets online with a credit card. Check on the theater's website.
This will allow you to evade long lines for popular movies, thus getting into the theater ahead of other people to choose the best seats.
Some dinner theaters allow you to actually select your seats. Some regular theater seat selections are first-come first-serve, though, but buying them online means you can skip the lines and get into the theater sooner before the choice seats are snapped up.
Buying tickets online also eliminates the chances you will arrive to a sold-out show.
You could purchase reserved seats online, depending on the theater. They usually cost a little bit more (a few dollars), but they guarantee you a good seat.
You could also buy a reserved seat at the theater. Reserved seats are often more comfortable and are larger recliners too. Most larger theaters sell reserved seats, although some small ones may not.
Go on Mondays and Wednesdays.
These weekdays are considered the lowest traffic movie days, so if you want to avoid the crowds, go then. Avoiding crowds means you will have your choice of seats.
Holidays can see spikes in traffic. If you don’t want to fight the crowds for the best movie theater seats, avoid showings around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The last evening showing on Monday or Wednesday will be the emptiest theater yet in most cases.
You could also wait until a popular new movie has been out for a while. That way you can avoid the crush, and settle into the best seat in the house instead of battling someone else for it. You could also check out smaller chains or budget theaters.
The best seat might not be the seat that allows you to hear or see best if it means you will be uncomfortable.
Jul 26, 2022 · You also don’t want to have too wide of a vertical viewing angle so you have to look too far up or down to see the whole screen. That’s a large part of what makes sitting in the front row so ...
Jul 7, 2017 · Don’t go sitting in front of any pillars, railings or large groups of sold-out seats (if you can). Some people prefer to sit closer to the front whilst others sneak off into the back for all sorts of goings on such as a cuddle in a movie theatre (or more). Opt for seats that offer a clear and unobstructed view of the screen (if you can help it).
Sep 22, 2023 · To get the best possible sound, you want to sit as close as possible to where this mic is positioned: About two-thirds of the way back, in the center of the row. “THX designs every seat to be a ...
Mar 6, 2023 · Factors to Consider When Choosing a Seat. According to Popular Science, you shouldn’t select your movie theater seat at random. To see as much of the action as possible, sit in a chair that ...
People also ask
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Oct 21, 2016 · According to the audio technicians who calibrate the sound systems in theaters, the best place to sit is in the middle of the theater, about two-thirds of the distance back from the screen. The ...
