Where Do You Sit in the Movie Theater?

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.

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

Horizontal position: as centered as possible

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.

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.

I prefer to sit on the chair.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Ya'll can afford movie tickets?

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

The acoustic sweet spot… obviously.

More or less in the middle.

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

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.

Always in a seat, never on the floor

One or two rows before the last one, in the middle, I thought it was the preferred position, I guess I'm wrong.

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

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!

Middle on one of the edges. Best distance to screen but also easy to get up for the bathroom.

I haven't seen a movie in a theater since... forever. Probably 20 years.

I do watch a lot of plays though. Would throw money for that any time.

Usually right around the middle. I had a friend who'd want us sitting in the very front row and I'd always exit the theater with a stiff neck.

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.

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.

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...

About 4-5 rows back, next to an aisle if it isn't too off-center. If the row is deserted I will sit in the middle.

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.

Anything on the left next to the aisle.

Wherever there's an empty row.

You sit in the absolute middle (middle of the middle row) of course. Why would you sit anywhere else?

I invented a superhero called Molten Man who jizzes molten rock from his molten cock. I live in perpetual fear of Molten Man hiding above and/or behind me and getting hit by that spicy butter. Top, center, farthest back, in plain view of all exits.

We like to sit on the end of the middle row so my wife doesn't have to sit next to anyone else (her preference), and we can easily get up if needed without bothering anyone else. That said, it's why we prefer cinemas with fewer seating so our viewing angle isn't bad; unlike large theaters where end seats are too far to the side. Thankfully the IMAX in our city has the last 2 rows shorter than the rest, so seating at the end puts you close to the center; so we don't need to sit at the very side of a huge theater.

My agoraphobia says "not between people". So first or last seat in a row. Distance to the screen is irrelevant.

Middle back third

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