Theater first time reactions

Hi everyone. I'm sitting here watching BTTF2 with my 5yr old nephew, explaining the plot (his first time watching beginning to end.) His reaction to1985A got me wondering, how was the theater reaction when Marty jumps into his window and the girl screams and the family chases him out, and the theater reaction to 1985A all together? I wish i seen it in theaters for the first time.

Side note- What is your most memorable theater reaction?
My most memorable theater reaction has to be the final scenes of Star Wars ROTS. I cried. lol

I don't remember any specific reaction to the screaming girl -

My most memorable reaction was in Terminator 2 - after Sarah has the dream where Los Angeles is wiped out and the " children burn then are blown apart like leaves" . She suddenly wakes up and everything goes quiet. This huge black guy sitting right in front of us turned to his girlfriend and said in a super deep voice - "Now I don't need no dreams like that!!" the whole place started laughing

I think mine was probably Temple of Doom when the dude gets his heart ripped out, mind you i was really little then (not even first grade i don't think). The funniest was watching Braveheart in the theater and hearing little old ladies about 70 years old cheering on the Scottish and Wallace as they massacre the English lol.

Opening weekend at the original Hawthorne 6 movie theater, I was the only person in a sold out theater that was not of color, seeing "I'm Gonna Gut You Sucka". There were people dancing in the aisles, screaming at the screen, talking back to the movie, popcorn hitting the ceiling and some guy would randomly yell out "BEAN PIE, BEAN PIE".

Was A W E S O M E.

Let's see, Saw Major Payne at a theater which had mostly Black people for the audience. It made it so much fun, they know how to interact with a movie.

Best Reaction(s). My friend and I are watching trailers, when a trailer for a Western Comes on. The audience is Hmmmm...a Western, Cool. Well, you see Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris, and everybody is going Hmmm...Good cast. Then...THEN Clint steps out of the shadows, and the Reaction was like electricity. all you heard was "OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH" a CLINT EASTWOOD WESTERN!!! 2 weeks later we're at another movie, and the trailer (Unforgiven if you haven't guessed) comes on, and my friend and I kicked back and waited for the reaction, same thing. The audience jumped like they had been tased. My friend and I just looked at each other with smug satisfaction on our faces.

Mine was the original release of "Jaws". I was sitting in the middle of the theatre with my cousin and when the guy's head pops out of the hole in the boat, we were SHOWERED with soda & popcorn from the reaction of the people in front of us.. left the theatre all soaked & sticky.. ( I think I stayed out of the water for a year afterwards, that damn shark scared me so bad! )

Another funny time was when we saw "Fright Night" and when Sarandon appears at the end as the vampire, this woman stood up behind us and started to YELL - "DO DAH CROSS BABY"!!!! over & over.. I still crack up when I think of that

with Angelina Jolie, when she searches the murder suspect's apartament and when she reaches a ventilation opening in the ceiling or something, rotten body is falling o nher head. the whole theater screamed, and I also added to the sound effects. ..

When ET came out, our neighbor took a bunch of kids to see it... and I wound up puking in the theater during the scene where the guys were chasing ET through the grass at the start of the movie.

It took a long time for me to live that down....

Oddly enough most of my early early movie memories were of the drive in. Its still here, barely, and i remember seeing a double feature of Superman 3 and i think Black Beauty. I wish more kids these days could enjoy drive ins.

Holy Crap!!! I bet Grandma just Loved you for that.

Jayn said:

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Mine was the original release of "Jaws". I was sitting in the middle of the theatre with my cousin and when the guy's head pops out of the hole in the boat, we were SHOWERED with soda & popcorn from the reaction of the people in front of us.. left the theatre all soaked & sticky.. ( I think I stayed out of the water for a year afterwards, that damn shark scared me so bad! )

That is pure Spielbergian genius, huh? It's funny, though, that the other scare -- Bruce's first appearance -- got me more. But, for the most part, it's Ben Gardner's head that scares the **** out of everyone (which, in turn, makes 'em more cautious for the remainder of the movie).

0neiros said:

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Best Reaction(s). My friend and I are watching trailers, when a trailer for a Western Comes on. The audience is Hmmmm...a Western, Cool. Well you see Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris, and everybody is going Hmmm...Good cast. Then...THEN Clint steps out of the shadows, and the Reaction was like electricity. all you heard was "OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH" a CLINT EASTWOOD WESTERN!!! 2 weeks later we're at another movie, and the trailer (Unforgiven if you haven't guessed) comes on, and my friend and I kicked back and waited for the reaction, same thing. The audience jumped like they had been tased. My friend and I just looked at each other with smug satisfaction on our faces.

That is a cool story!

I'll have to have a think about some of mine.

I remember going to see the extended cut of LOTR Two Towers at the theater. I had never seen the film before (not even on DVD), but of course was familiar with the story as pretty much everyone from my generation who played D&D was. But I still was taken off guard during the Orc seige of a tower with the Elven archers staring them down. Then all of the sudden, an Orc falls to one arrow being shot. It was dead silence in the audience, but when I saw the Orc get hit, I blurted out "Oh ****" somewhat louder then I expected and the theater chuckled. Talk about tension relief.

When George Kennedy in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot tells the kid at the ice cream truck to:

"...go **** a duck."

My mother nearly fainted thinking I'd never heard such language. Yeah... right. I was 13, it was 1974. Sorry mom. No big.

I know what you mean about a large crowd of "people of color", they can make it fun. There was a group of blacks a couple rows ahead of me when I saw Poltergeist, and they really got into it. When the coffins started coming up out of the ground, one of them shouted "Y'all better stop smokin' that ******!"

Opening nite for Van Helsing I was so bored by it that when Franki entered I could not help my self and loudly sang "Put'n on the Rriits!!" Young Frankenstein style. I've never hear an audience laugh so hard...

District 9 was a good one.

Sitting in a cinema that Pete is a patron of, full of folks from the Wingnut Collective, makes for an interesting experience, I tell ya.

The most memorable moment had to be when Wikus, in the Exosuit, catches the RPG. The crowd had already been gettin' into it; but seconds before that shot, they went quiet -- then, he caught it, and popcorn went flying.

It was beat perfect

The midnight movie premieres for the Harry Potter films have gotten increasingly crazier around here with each one that comes out. For Deathly Hallows Part 1, about 75% if the theaters goers (of all ages) had some sort of costume on. Some home made, some store bought, some really unique and clever. Every highly dramatic on screen moment was met with either crying, applause, booing...you name it. It was so much fun to be apart of.

0neiros said:

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Holy Crap!!! I bet Grandma just Loved you for that.

She definitely wasn't a happy camper and sure didn't want to take me to another movie for awhile!
She was about to make us leave right after Murphy's death scene but I told her that we couldn't get our money back for the tickets and we'd be wasting our popcorn & soda.

As I mentioned in the Star Wars thread, growing up in England it was very unusual for people at the cinema to clap or cheer. I do remember two occasions though...

One was at a big Leicester Square cinema, watching Superman II soon after opening. Everybody was obviously into it, and at the end when Lois punched Ursa there was a huge cheer.

The other was at our local Odeon, watching The Black Hole during the school holidays. Nothing remarkable until the end when Pizer floats off and Old BOB goes and rescues him. Suddenly, huge cheer! That one really puzzled me at the time. Not because I didn't think BOB deserved it, but because it came out of nowhere.

JLeezy23 said:

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Side note- What is your most memorable theater reaction?

Easy. May, 1977, the very first showing of Star Wars in the Los Angeles area. Absolute silence throughout most of the film, except for the occasional laugh (at appropriate moments). That is, until the Death Star exploded, at which point nearly everyone in the theater rose to their feet and cheered. It was truly awesome.

Jayn said:

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Mine was the original release of "Jaws". I was sitting in the middle of the theatre with my cousin and when the guy's head pops out of the hole in the boat, we were SHOWERED with soda & popcorn from the reaction of the people in front of us...

Sounds like you were sitting behind my buddy and I the first time I took him to see Jaws. As Hooper was still trying to talk a rather drunk Brody into going out on the ocean in the middle of the night to look for signs of shark activity, my buddy leaned over and quietly asked me if he had time to get some popcorn. I told him yes if he hurried, and off he went; he got back and settled into his seat just as Hooper was entering the water. Moments later, sure enough, popcorn everywhere. To this day I honestly believe there were as many people laughing at his reaction as there were laughing at their own reactions.

Five minutes later, he leaned over and asked, "Okay, do I have time to get more popcorn?"

When I saw Alien, I had to go to the restroom soon after Brett got it. I walked into the restroom and BAM! a big hunk of fiberglass insulation was hanging from the ceiling. It looked a lot like the shed skin Brett found. Yes, for just a fraction of a second, I thought it might be a galactic critter of some kind out to get me

I cried during ROTS. Last Star Wars movie in theatres (I thought at the time, anyway) and the Jedi Purge and everything made me feel depressed.

Seeing TDK for the first time was amazing. It was packed and the first showing of the night (midnight, then a 12:30 showing). During the entire film I was just glued to the screen. I was blown away. Nothing special happened, it was just awesome.

When I saw Watchmen at midnight I just remember being really pissed when Rorschach went at the guy's head with a cleaver. That's now how it should've been. I read the Graphic Novel before seeing the movie, and I was just mad. I cried when he died at the end too.

When I saw Kick-Ass both times I cried a lot. When he is defending that guy getting jumped and Prodigy starts bumping, I was "Ohhh s***!" and it was a proud moment. Probably because I'm a geek, but I was legitimately excited and happy when Kick-Ass was kicking ass. I cried when Nick Cage died too, a lot. Both times.

Yeah, I'm manly.

There are tons more, but that's all I can think of for now.