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A few days later I was walking in Westwood with a friend when I glanced into a trash can and saw a box. It was addressed to Detectives Somerset and Mills, and had red liquid oozing out of the bottom. We started freaking out and pointing it out to strangers, who also freaked out. Within minutes, there were like 30 or 40 people gathered around this trash can, debating whether this was a copycat crime\u2026or possibly even a bomb. Nobody had a cellphone \u2014 it was 1995 \u2014 so we couldn\u2019t even call the cops. Finally, some college kid said, \u201cFuck it,\u201d pulled out the box and opened it. He slowly peered inside \u2014 and started laughing. He reached into the box and pulled out…a watermelon.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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5.<\/span><\/p>\n My friends and I knew this guy who worked for a company that rounded up people to attend test screenings. One day in Dec., 2001, he called us and said, \u201cYou guys want to go see The Royal Tenenbaums<\/i> tonight?\u201d This got my attention, because this was Wes Anderson\u2019s follow-up to Rushmore<\/i>, which I’d loved. I asked, \u201cIs it a test screening?\u201d He goes, \u201cNo, the movie comes out in like a week. We just need to fill seats.\u201d So, we drove down to the theater \u2014 the El Capitan on Hollywood Boulevard \u2014 and immediately something felt…off. There were lights everywhere. Photographers. Press barricades. People in nice clothes. A red freaking carpet. And we slowly realized: Oh my God. This isn\u2019t just a screening. This is the premiere. Somehow, we’d scored tickets to the actual red-carpet premiere of The Royal Tenenbaums<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Next thing we knew, we were walking the red carpet in T-shirts with pit stains. We literally squeezed past Anjelica Huston, who was in the movie, as she talked to reporters. Casual. We got inside and our seats were way up in the top balcony \u2014 clearly the cheap seats for nobodies. Down below, though, we could see all the movie’s stars in the good section. Gwyneth Paltrow. Owen Wilson. Gene Hackman. Ben Stiller.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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6.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1999, there was a movie coming out about the legendary comedian Andy Kaufman called Man on the Moon<\/i>. It was directed by Academy Award winner Milo\u0161 Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest<\/i>, Amadeus<\/i>) and starred Jim Carrey as Andy. I had gone deep<\/i> into Andy Kaufman lore in college, so I HAD to see this movie. Through USC film school connections, I managed to secure a seat at a test screening. This was months ahead of the film’s actual release. I was stoked!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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I walked into the theater, found my seat, and noticed there was an open chair next to me on the aisle. Just as the lights dimmed, someone slid in beside me. Because I was a film nerd, I immediately<\/i> knew who it was: Milo\u0161 Forman, the director of the movie I was about to watch. And let me tell you \u2014 sitting next to the director of the movie you’re watching can totally ruin your ability to just sit back and enjoy a film. Every time something funny happened on screen, I felt like I had to laugh<\/i>. Every sad moment came with this weird pressure to look moved<\/i>. Whenever he glanced over at me, I worried that he was sizing up my reactions. I was basically in a self-conscious panic the whole time. Was it how I wanted to watch the movie? God no. But getting stuck watching the movie next to the director actually feels strangely appropriate \u2014 like a Kaufman-esque prank he might’ve pulled himself.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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7.<\/span><\/p>\n One year on my birthday, my wife was pregnant with our son. She was in her first trimester, because she was feeling awful \u2014 throwing up, exhausted, the whole deal. So instead of doing something big, I ended up spending my birthday with my little buddy: my daughter, who was three and a half years old at the time. We went out for breakfast, and in a moment of pure birthday impulsiveness, we decided to order four items off the menu: pancakes, French toast, an omelet, and biscuits and gravy (to make it healthy). Soon, there were four full plates of breakfast sitting in front of me and a three-year-old. Somehow, we ate way more of it than logic would suggest was possible. Just an absolutely irresponsible amount of syrup and carbs. Then we went to the movies \u2014 because I always go to a movie on my birthday. That year, since I was with a toddler, we went to see Big Hero 6<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Here’s where things got unique: We walked into the theater in the middle of the day\u2026and there was nobody there. Not one person. Now I\u2019ve been to thousands of movies in my life, but I can count on one hand how many times I\u2019ve truly had a theater to myself. Usually, you think you\u2019re alone, and then right as the lights go down, some random straggler wanders in and ruins it. But this time? No stragglers. The entire screening was just for me and my kid. It was a legitimate private showing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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8.<\/span><\/p>\n Back in ’95, when I was a freshman in college and Harmony Korine\u2019s Kids<\/i> came out, my friends and I headed to the Sunset Five to see it. We were in our seats, waiting for the movie to start, when my buddy elbowed me: \u201cPsst, check it out.\u201d <\/i>I followed his gaze to this stunning young woman walking down the aisle. She had long dark hair, a curvy figure, and was about our age. Naturally, we all turned into awkward seventh graders, giggling and whispering about how gorgeous she was. Meanwhile, the one girl in our group just rolled her eyes like, \u201cYou morons.\u201d <\/i>Finally, she leaned in and whispered, \u201cLook who she\u2019s with.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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We turned around, and there he was: Jerry Seinfeld. He was about 40 at the time. The girl? Shoshanna Lonstein, his 19-year-old girlfriend. She probably would have had more fun hanging with my crew than with a man twice her age. Or maybe not. We were kind of obnoxious, looking back, as we definitely entertained ourselves by joking about the situation with bad, sing-songy Seinfeld impressions: “What’s the deal with grown men, taking kids…to see Kids<\/i>?” And “What’s the deal with movie concessions not selling cereal? Would it be too loud and crunchy?” We thought we were being quiet enough so he wouldn’t hear, but now that I have a teenager myself, I wouldn’t bet on it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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9.<\/span><\/p>\n One Saturday afternoon in 1992, my parents and I went to see the horror movie Candyman<\/i>, starring Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen. Normally, this would\u2019ve just been another perfectly average family trip to the movies. But on this day, things went a little differently for little old me, then a 16-year-old. I remember I usually looked pretty put together, but that day I hadn\u2019t shaved and had a baseball cap pulled down low. Dare I say I looked a little tough, maybe even slightly cool? Anyhoo, as the previews rolled, suddenly a teenage girl about my age taps me on the shoulder. She\u2019s kneeling in the aisle next to my seat and whispers, \u201cPsst\u2026 My friend over there thinks you\u2019re cute. Do you want to come watch the movie with us?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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10.<\/span><\/p>\n In the late \u201990s my friends and I went to see Boogie Nights<\/i> in Westwood. We showed up way too early, because we were losers, and ended up sitting outside the theater waiting for it to open. Weirdly enough, there was just one other person also waiting: Crispin Glover. That’s right \u2014 George McFly from Back to the Future<\/i>. So there we were \u2014 a bunch of dorky college kids sitting against the wall \u2014 and two feet away sat the co-star of my all-time favorite movie. We tried to carry on a normal conversation, but you try acting casual when Crispin Glover is silently hanging out right next to you.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The weirdest part of this story, though, came when the doors finally opened. Crispin wandered into the theater and chose a seat marked with a giant \u201cOut of Order \u2013 Do Not Sit Here\u201d<\/i> sign. We stood back and watched him like we were primatologists in the wild examining a silverback. “The fuck is he doing?” one of my friends said, summing up our thoughts. Crispin ripped the sign off, tossed it aside, and plopped right down in the broken chair like nothing was weird about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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11.<\/span><\/p>\n My family and I were watching Kurt Russell in 1996’s Escape from L.A.<\/i> \u2014 the sequel to Escape from New York \u2014<\/i> when there was a moment where the bad guy is on a global satellite broadcast or something, talking about how he\u2019s going to flip the switch and cut off all the world\u2019s power. He bellowed something like, “Prepare to be plunged into darkness!” And then \u2014 at the very moment \u2014 the power in our theater<\/i> went out! Totally confused, we sat there in the dark for a few seconds, thinking, \u201cIs this some kind of immersive part of the movie?\u201d For a minute, I really did wonder if this was a practical effect that the theater had synced to the film. But then, when nothing turned back on,<\/i> it became clear it wasn\u2019t part of the show \u2014 just a million-to-one coincidence.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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12.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1998, I’d just graduated from college and moved to Los Feliz, California \u2014 the hipster heart of Los Angeles. One random weekday, when neither my buddy nor I had work, we decided to go see a matinee. The movie was Velvet Goldmine,<\/i> a stylized imagining of the glam rock era starring Christian Bale and Ewan McGregor. We walked over to the Vista Theater \u2014 a beloved local movie house \u2014 and took our seats among only a handful of people in a house that seated hundreds.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Not long after, two strangers trickled in and sat directly in front of us: a long-haired blonde woman and an Indian dude. At first we didn\u2019t think anything of it, but the two seemed really interested in the musical elements of the movie. That’s when it hit me: It was Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal from No Doubt. As the movie played, they were super into it, talking animatedly about the musical moments and leaning into each other\u2019s reactions. For the rest of the film, I couldn\u2019t really pay attention to Velvet Goldmine<\/i> because it was more interesting to watch Gwen and Tony (ok, mostly Gwen, lol) watch it. We didn\u2019t bother them or anything. We just let them enjoy the movie. But watching a movie about rock stars with actual rock stars a row in front of you was pretty surreal!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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13.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, one day in the late \u201990s, my film-school buddy and I had what felt like a perfectly reasonable question: What was the most movies you could see in theaters in a single day? This was the late \u201990s, which meant we didn\u2019t have apps or movie websites to help us figure out the schedule that would get us to the most movies. We just had a newspaper, and sat over it, analyzing the showtimes like detectives trying to crack a case. The earliest screening we could find anywhere was a 10:00 a.m. showing of The Thin Red Line<\/i> \u2014 Terrence Malick\u2019s three-hour World War II epic. Not exactly the ideal way to maximize volume if your goal was \u201cmost movies,\u201d but it was the earliest start time available, so we committed. We stumbled out of that theater in the early afternoon, emotionally shell-shocked and already exhausted \u2014 and this was just movie number one.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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If you were wondering, I had a hot dog and nachos for \u201cbreakfast\u201d while watching The Thin Red Line,<\/i> another hot dog for lunch at the New Beverly, and finally, two hot dogs for dinner during Meet Joe Black<\/i>. Thankfully for me, I had no issue using the bathroom at movie theaters (having seen so many movies), so I was able to take care of my business that way too. By this point it was 10 p.m., we were exhausted and a little sick from hot dogs, but we could see the finish line. So we hustled to yet another movie theater to cap off the marathon with The Hi-Lo Country<\/i>, the modern western starring Billy Crudup.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.buzzfeed.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"13 Wild Movie Theater Experiences From A Guy Who Saw 2500+ Films Let’s just get this out there right away: I have seen a LOT of movies in theaters. Growing up in the ’80s, my family (which didn’t have cable) went to three to four movies a week. This made me want to be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2237417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[91165,399879,239547,21912],"class_list":["post-2237415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-evergreen","tag-first-person-narrative","tag-geekyfb","tag-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13-Wild-Movie-Theater-Experiences-From-A-Guy-Who-Saw.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2237415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2237418,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237415\/revisions\/2237418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2237417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2237415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2237415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2237415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}