Ask Lemmy

As an acoustic engineer who would tune movie theaters, 2/3 of the way back in the center of the room. If it is a Dolby certified theater there will be a chair with a small plaque that is where the measurements are taken and the room is tuned to that seat.

Middle Middle. The "True Neutral" of movie theater seat preferences I suppose.

OP is more like Neutral Evil.

You, sir, are a psychopath. I always sit about halfway up as close to the center as I can get.

Center seat, about a third of the way to the back. This is where we setup to calibrate the surround systems back in the 90s and I'm not aware of any change to this so I still sit there.

havent been to a theater since 2019, but i used to go for center of the rows. My main reason being that the sound is "centered" there, so it isnt behind you like in the front row, or in front of you in the back.

Right behind the crossing lane and the never-used handicapped section so I can put my feet up. It's six rows from the front. Only downside is every yahoo with a tiny bladder that insists on parking on the far side of the theater from the exit has to parade back and forth constantly in the movie, breaking the emersion.

Bonus: a couple of airplane bottles to add to my coke and some raisinettes from the drug store where they cost 1/5 as much. Just carry them in my bag. No one working in the theater gives a crap if you bring in your own food.

Distance from screen: 1/2 to 3/4 back (2/3 back being ideal)

Horizontal position: as centered as possible

Wherever is easiest to get up and out and go pee because I snuck in beer and I have a small bladder.

The entire theater is designed around the center seat. Anything else is objectively wrong.

Very back row, dead center.

Unless it's a huge movie on opening night, I usually have all the leg room my tall ass needs, have a perfect view of the entire screen so I can take the whole movie in, sound is usually the best there, and there's just something about the back row and having all of that free space for activities. I can use set my bag down, get up and stretch without interfering with other viewers, and something about it is just very soothing for me. It's like a comfort thing.

Same feeling I get when I go camping and have everything within arms reach in my tent, or in my car on a roadtrip. Something about that feeling just does things for me. Most comfortable feeling in the world lol.

Edge seat nearest the door. A lot of the movies I'm willing to spend money to see are over 2hrs and I typically have to piss somewhere in that time. A quick convenient exit lets me get in and out with no fuss. I wish movies still had intermissions.

Bonus: Bit-o-Honey, just stick a few in one of your pockets. The body heat warms it up so it's not rock hard. No loud wrapper, not particularly messy.

Regular theater: in the center, about 1/3 back from the screen.

IMAX: in the center, very back row against the wall.

Very back row and centered. Can't stand getting my seat kicked (though with the re-designed rows and reclining chairs its not so much a problem anymore). I also just hate hearing people talk behind me. Would rather have a worse view with peace than a great view and hearing chattering in back/front of me.

I've been going to the same theater for the past 15 years, the largest/best equipped one in my city. I always sit about half way back from the screen (row 6 of 13), in the center of the room. Rows 5 and 7 work too, but 5 is slightly too close and 7 too far. My SO still thinks I'm weird for having a favorite row and seat, and I keep trying to explain why it's important.

Will be seeing Oppenheimer in my favorite seat today!

Way in the back, on my couch at home.

Always in the back. I get a better view that way. I've tried sitting in the front before, but I always had to have my head tilted up. I've tried sitting in the middle before and my eyes had to zoom around the screen still to try and catch everything.

So, the back it is for me.

Usually about halfway between the back and the front.

Ya'll can afford movie tickets?

High up in a corner where people mostly never sit. Though I don't go to theaters and movies by myself. Never. So I just suggest it to the person going with me.

Probably middle middle as well, maybe a bit higher than middle depending on the theater.

I don't have perfect vision so I can't seat super far back

I prefer to sit on the chair.

I only go to IMAX and sit in the back. I feel it gives me the widest view of the screen. I'm personally limited a bit because my left eye is pretty crappy. I tend to sit more towards left side facing the screen. That way my dominant eye is more capable of taking in the whole field of view.

I buy popcorn. Large which comes with free refill. Then i get my refill when I'm leaving. Yay! Popcorn for home.

Way at the back, for 2 reasons. First, it’s easier on my neck. Looking up when sitting in a lower section is hell for me. Second, I really dislike people sitting behind me.

The acoustic sweet spot… obviously.

The ideal viewing position is the center about 2/3 of the way back.

Farthest back row, dead center. The screen still feels huge, I don't have to move my neck, and most importantly I have no one behind me.

I’ve always sat in the center seats way in the back. I feel like any closer and my neck and eyes will start to hurt. Plus I don’t have to worry about people behind me being annoying or disruptive.

As a kid and most of the way through my 20s, I pretty much always wanted to be in the back row of a stadium seating theater (although the long, sloped plane theaters 🤮 I definitely didn't sit at the back because you were a mile away from the screen).

But over the last few years I've reevaluated my "always in the back" stance, and found that I, like OP, am happiest when the screen completely fills my view. Both of our theaters have leather recliners. At one of our premium/large format screens, I'll sit in about the 4th row of 30 because the recline is so substantial that I can sit so close without craning my neck to see the screen. In any of the other standard screens at that theater, I'll sit in the front half for sure.

We've also got a theater with two IMAX screens - one of them is so enormous and the seats are so vertically stacked that I've been pushing further and further back in the theater, almost to the back row. Because the screen is almost 80 feet tall, it positions you basically in the center of the screen and the recline in the chairs is very limited, so sitting too close means you are craning your neck.

Between the sticky Coke spill and the teen giving TikTok movie updates, and right behind the dystopian row of popcorn shrapnel.

Far away where I don't have to pay to have my experience ruined by screaming teenagers

Wherever there's an empty row.

I like to choose seats where theres nobody near me...usually try to go super late and if it is packed the front corners right by the screen...

I think that people who like the back row are weird. I'm a dead center kind of person myself.

Always in a seat, never on the floor

My local cinema with small screens has two rows of reclining seats at the front, so I always try to grab one of those as close to the centre as possible. If the only seats are too far to the edge though I’ll sacrifice the comfort to be further back but more central.