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[TSM]

Does the OP not believe in reserving hotel rooms, airplane tickets or rental cars as well? People should just show up for anything with limited capacity and hope for the best?

 

[Nightmare452]

Ok, lets get this straight. Reserved seats in a move theater are a great thing. It has made the movie watching experience fair. Now watching a movie is easy, I get to buy my tickets, pick where I wanna seat and if I find it acceptable, and no fuss, no worries that my group will be separate, no concern to arrive early. Nothing. Movie starts at 6, be there at 6, site and enjoy. No more lines. No more time wasted. Its still first come, first pick, and its 110% fair.

It is perfect, only one local movie theater has researved seats, and has been my go to place these past two years. Went to see another movie a few months back on a regular theater, horrible how it was done before, all this random seats.

Researved seats are the best, no argument against it, can't be done (sane-wise).

 

[HighAmperage]

I have no problem with reserved seating but I also have almost zero desire/need to see 99% of modern mainstream movies in the theater. Rogue One will be the only one I bother with this year.

 

[LegalEagleMike]

Ok, lets get this straight. Reserved seats in a move theater are a great thing. It has made the movie watching experience fair. Now watching a movie is easy, I get to buy my tickets, pick where I wanna seat and if I find it acceptable, and no fuss, no worries that my group will be separate, no concern to arrive early. Nothing. Movie starts at 6, be there at 6, site and enjoy. No more lines. No more time wasted. Its still first come, first pick, and its 110% fair.

It is perfect, only one local movie theater has researved seats, and has been my go to place these past two years. Went to see another movie a few months back on a regular theater, horrible how it was done before, all this random seats.

Researved seats are the best, no argument against it, can't be done (sane-wise).

mmhmm, I never ever again want to run the risk of walking into a movie I am excited about and seeing that the only seats available are in the front rows. Then I have to go exchange tickets for a different showing because I am not dealing with that shit.

 

[LumpOfCole]

I get convenience fees taken off with my AMC Stubs Premiere card. It's $15 per year and I've gotten back $906.50 total back in rewards/discounts (including the online convenience fees being taken off) since June 2012. They actually made Stubs better this year too with the exclusive queue lines and the smarter rewards pacing - I was concerned that they'd ruin it but they made it first class. If you go to AMC and you see at least 3 movies a year, it pays for itself and then some.

 

[firelogic]

It is bad if you want to just stroll into a popular or relatively popular movie.

It is great if you want to get really good seats for a popular movie way in advance, or any seat in advance for a relatively popular movie.

It is neutral for a relatively empty movie.


There's basically only one case where it's arguably worse than no reservation (wanting to see a really popular movie with a large group), but I'm not sure how often that comes up and even when it does you're still dealing with a huge line / seat rush with no reservation.

Movies theaters in the US are also the only seated entertainment that generally does not reserve tickets, too.



Premium theaters like that are popping up all over.

This doesn't make any sense. If you spontaneously decide to watch a popular movie you're still going to get terrible seats if you didn't line up well ahead of show time. So what does it matter if you walk in 15mins before and get a bad seat or you walk in 15mins before and reserve a bad seat at the ticket counter? Either way you're in a bad seat, reservations or not.

The reservations don't only happen online. You can walk up to the box-office and do it too. So if you reserve late it's the same as getting to the movie late and everyone who got there early gets the good seats.

 

[petethepanda]

It's a pain in the ass if you decide to go to a newish movie only a couple hours before the showtime, but I've always found it to be kind of nice for getting pre-release tickets (over the years my patience for getting to theaters early to stake out good seats has eroded)... but yeah, Rogue One is kind of a particularly awful example. Getting decent seats wasn't a guarantee even if you tried to get tickets right when they went on sale, since the highly publicized on-sale date/time created an "Amazon on Black Friday" situation. If that becomes the norm going forward... eeehhhh.

 

[vatstep]

It's great unless your reserved seats end up being next to some annoying fucks or noisy children. Then you just feel helpless and regretful.

 

[spelen]

Reserved seating is terrible for planning movie outings with friends. it's nearly impossible to get everyone to buy ahead of time, at the same time etc. and what if you have to back out last min? reserved seasting should be for the first week only of a film IMO

 

[Redd]

Reserved seating is terrible for planning movie outings with friends. it's nearly impossible to get everyone to buy ahead of time, at the same time etc. and what if you have to back out last min? reserved seasting should be for the first week only of a film IMO

You could just go to a theater that doesn't do reserve seating and wait in line with those friends.

 

[Gale007]

Reserved seating is terrible for planning movie outings with friends. it's nearly impossible to get everyone to buy ahead of time, at the same time etc. and what if you have to back out last min? reserved seasting should be for the first week only of a film IMO

I'm actually running into this now trying to set up my rogue one outing. Plus if extra friends become available or if someone has an extra person they want to bring later on then it's near impossible to add them in later because all the seats around us are most likely gonna be taken if we don't all get them at exactly the same time.

 

[Davey Cakes]

Also showing your QR ticket with your phone instead of having to print it? Best thing ever!
And even if you cant, there are printing machines there where you put the number they give you by email and off you go (although if the cinema is pack, theres simetimes a small queue on those).

I love having my tickets right on the phone with a QR code. 2 or more tickets? One scan (if they were all bought at once).

Convenience in getting our entertainment is the way of the present and the future.

 

[Sarcasm]

I'm actually running into this now trying to set up my rogue one outing. Plus if extra friends become available or if someone has an extra person they want to bring later on then it's near impossible to add them in later because all the seats around us are most likely gonna be taken if we don't all get them at exactly the same time.

Yea this sucks. Though if the seats are all filled and it is the first few weeks, seats going to be filled regardless if reserved or first come first serve. Still have the issue of trying to add more people in the end.

If someone backs out, get that ticket refunded. When I flew back to the states, we reserved one too many. It even got refunded straight back to the card. Pretty neat to as there was no paper ticket either. Though I am pretty sure this is a case by case thing.

But yes, if everybody can't get onboard and at same level, planning does suck.

 

[Violence Jack]

Reserved seating is terrible for planning movie outings with friends. it's nearly impossible to get everyone to buy ahead of time, at the same time etc. and what if you have to back out last min? reserved seasting should be for the first week only of a film IMO

I did this for my birthday when I had 20 friends come see Deadpool with me. We gave them a date to give us money (when advance tickets went on sale) or they would be taken off the list. It really wasn't too hard, and we had the entire back row to our selves.

 

[bronk]

Only reason I go to movies nowadays is because I can reserve seats.

 

[shintoki]

Thinking about it, one downside to this trend has been theaters becoming more like cozy dinners. I see the appeal, but I fucking hate it. I'm there to watch a movie, not eat.

I do not like dine in theaters with people order food, drinks, and waiters. It's too many small distractions. It's also jacked up the price. I love the theater by me, because it's 4$ for a flick any time from Sunday thru Thursday for new movies. The other theaters around here that use to do that no longer are and cost upwards of 10-12$ after upgrading.


Nor do I like those sofa seat shit... I've fallen asleep every time I've been to one. Even on dates. You can't park on ass on that much cushion and expect it to stay awake.

 

[AP90]

I strongly disagree. Reserved seating is amazing. Either book it earlier or try a different day. All theaters don't do it either. So you got options.

This.

It saves me and my family time as now we don't have to show up 30min early just to go and see a popular movie. Buy tickets online, pick them up 5min before movie start and that's it.

 

[Triteon]

So a few family members are coming to visit me over the holidays and mentioned that they're going to see Rogue One on their visit, and wanted me to come along. So, I went to the website for my local AMC, found the date and time for the movie, and then proceeded to purchase tickets. There were available tickets - the problem, of course, is that my theater now employs reserved/advanced seating, meaning you have to select your seats in the theater at the time of your purchase. Of course, the only seats remaining at this point were in the very front row all the way on the end. I cancelled the order and told them we could see it again another time.

This, to me, is just one of the many reasons why assigned seating in movie theaters is absolutely terrible. As mentioned, my AMC theater recently started doing this a few weeks ago. I was in line to purchase tickets for Dr. Strange with my roommate, and noticed that the line was moving incredibly slowly, and that people were spending an unusual amount of time at the ticket purchase window. I initially thought something may have been wrong with their credit car machines or something, but as I got closer to the front, I noticed that everyone at the ticket window would stop and start at some little screen before handing over their card to purchase tickets. When I finally made my way to a ticket window, it was then I realized that I had to select a seat, and was presented with this tiny, low resolution screen that I had to view through a pane of glass, and had to pick out my seat for the theater. Of course, I could barely make out any of the seats, and even if I could have, it wouldn't have provided any accurate indication as to where the seats were relative to the screen. It was basically impossible to know whether or not the seat I had just purchased was decent. And of course, my roommate and I couldn't sit together (unless we wanted to sit in the very front row, all the way on the end) because the only remaining decent seats were single seats scattered throughout the middle and upper portions of the theater.

Of course, the seat ended up being terrible. I was much farther away from the screen than I thought I would be. I was about to move since the theater was relatively empty just 5 minutes before the movie was about to start, but that's when everyone flooded in at once. Throughout all of the previews, people stumbled through the rows and up and down the stairs with the flashlights enabled on their smartphones to try and find their seats. Even ~10 minutes or so into the movie, people were still coming in, flashlights turned on, staring at the seat numbers on the armrests trying to find their seat. It was probably the most frustrating movie experience I've had.

So this is what the movie experience is now like. Unless you know you want to see a movie days in advance, you just can't stroll down to the movie theater anymore with your friends or family and have a guarantee that you'll be able to see a movie and sit together.

I was already taking fewer trips to the movies, but these new theater policies may reduce my trips to the movies to about once per year.

I agree for many many reasons.

but the big ones are:

1. I like to go to movies spur of the moment, movies aren't gigs I shouldn't have to plan for them in advance.
2. the most important reason though if I don't want to sit near random people, I want space, I want the ability to eye up the rows and the other patrons before making my seating choice.
3. I don't want to have to talk to other people or have "oh I think your sitting in my seat" conversations.

 

[Forearm Star]

I'm confused by the fact that some are complaining about no longer being able to buy tickets spur of the moment. You can clearly see as you're purchasing your tickets just how many other people are already going to that particular show. How does this not help you plan accordingly?!

 

[user_nat]

I agree for many many reasons.

but the big ones are:

1. I like to go to movies spur of the moment, movies aren't gigs I shouldn't have to plan for them in advance.
2. the most important reason though if I don't want to sit near random people, I want space, I want the ability to eye up the rows and the other patrons before making my seating choice.
3. I don't want to have to talk to other people or have "oh I think your sitting in my seat" conversations.

But reserved seating actually helps with all those things. Unless it's near sold out, but you'd have the same issue with general admission there.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

rofl, no

It's the best thing to ever happen to movie theaters

This.
Seriously

 

[TSM]

I agree for many many reasons.

but the big ones are:

1. I like to go to movies spur of the moment, movies aren't gigs I shouldn't have to plan for them in advance.
2. the most important reason though if I don't want to sit near random people, I want space, I want the ability to eye up the rows and the other patrons before making my seating choice.
3. I don't want to have to talk to other people or have "oh I think your sitting in my seat" conversations.

1. So you take 1 minute before you even leave the house to check and see what seats are available for what showings. If there are seats you can grab a decent one before even leaving the house. If you see that it's packed or full you don't even waste time driving to the theatre to end up disappointed. It gives you an immediate assessment on the spur of the moment.

2. Go to a matinee and buy the seat on either side of your own. Nearly the same price as a normal ticket and you can have a great seat and a buffer zone.

3. you don't have to even acknowledge anyone else. You can waltz in 2 minutes before the showing and have whatever seat you wanted in peace. With reserved seating I've only ever had this issue once during a packed showing, but without reserved seating you are far more likely to have people asking you to move for friends during packed showings. Reserved seating has dramatically reduced the amount of my interactions with strangers.

 

[Triteon]

1. So you take 1 minute before you even leave the house to check and see what seats are available for what showings. If there are seats you can grab a decent one before even leaving the house. If you see that it's packed or full you don't even waste time driving to the theatre to end up disappointed. It gives you an immediate assessment on the spur of the moment.

2. Go to a matinee and buy the seat on either side of your own. Nearly the same price as a normal ticket and you can have a great seat and a buffer zone.

3. you don't have to even acknowledge anyone else. You can waltz in 2 minutes before the showing and have whatever seat you wanted in peace. With reserved seating I've only ever had this issue once during a packed showing, but without reserved seating you are far more likely to have people asking you to move for friends during packed showings. Reserved seating has dramatically reduced the amount of my interactions with strangers.

1. once you buy your ticket/s you have no choice who sits next to you. Buy a ticket online in an ok empty row drive down to the cinema and guess what a bunch of other people have bought tickets in your row. Sucks you still have to sit there.

2. Matinee isn't a thing here. Also buying the tickets directly around you isn't a cure all. if a kid is three seats away you're still going to have to deal with his noises, if you choose once you are actually in the cinema you can decide to get some real distance.

3. You do if someone is sitting in your seat either by accident, IE they thought it was their seat, or someone who knows they are taking the piss.

Heaven help you if you're late, because you can't just find a free isle seat just in case that seat has also been booked. You better inconvenience all those people who are already sitting down because you reserved middle row seats.

If it was unreserved you just suck it up and look for another seat with a reasonable viewing angle. Reserved seating makes it a "thing" .

That's what I prefer about unreserved, I can choose once I'm in there and I don't have to deal with anyone else. I like being able to make that choice after I know what my options are.

That's not to say I don't see any benefit to Reserved its far better for group bookings and date night "everything has to be perfect" events.

 

[PreFire]

Sorry OP, completely disagree. I don't want to wait in line for a movie, then get seats that I don't want.

With reserved I pick the seats I want, no waiting on line. Either order early or pick a later showing.

Sucks that you don't have the option, but reserved seating is not terrible. It's amazing actually

 

[AlteredBeast]

Worst OP...holy shit.

Reserved seating is the best thing ever. Waiting literally 2+ hours on opening night for the Lord of the Rings movies was ridiculous. At least those were awesome movies. Waiting in line for 2+ hours for Indiana Jones 4 was horseshit plain and simple. Now, I can look and see if seats are available that I feel comfortable with. If there aren't, I don't go. Period.

Best advancement in cinema technology since free refills on my 9 dollar soda.

 

[Fei]

Some of the arguments for reserved seating solve a bunch of problems I've never had. Showing up an hour before showtime? Never did that once and never had a problem. I guess if you're in NYC and LA, you might have that issue? But most mid sized cities have plenty of cinemas for the population. If you're that concerned, don't go opening night.

 

[Junior Asparagus]

I live in Boston and I've never seen a single theater that does this.

Wait, what? Almost all of the big chain theatres have converted except for the AMC in the Common.

I think all the other AMCs in close proximity to the city (Assembly, Braintree, Burlington, etc.), Regal Fenway (at least in some of the theatres if not all), and the Showcases in Dedham, Foxboro, and Randolph have some form of it.

The smaller indie theatres (Cooldige, Somerville, Kendall, Waltham) don't have it.

 

[Rumblebones]

Reserved seating is the only way. Cinemas that don't employ it aren't worth the time.

 

[darkazcura]

Wait, what? Almost all of the big chain theatres have converted except for the AMC in the Common.

I think all the other AMCs in close proximity to the city (Assembly, Braintree, Burlington, etc.), Regal Fenway (at least in some of the theatres if not all), and the Showcases in Dedham, Foxboro, and Randolph have some form of it.

The smaller indie theatres (Cooldige, Somerville, Kendall, Waltham) don't have it.

Yeah I was going to reply to that one right before you haha. Only the Common and some of the smaller theaters are general audience now. Pretty much all of the bigger theaters have gone reserved seating in the Boston metro area.

I'm not sure the Boston Common AMC will ever go reserved honestly. It seems turning theaters into reserved at AMC comes with the reclining seat renovation, but that would reduce head count which the Common AMC does fine with anyway. I guess they could just go reserved without the renovation, but I haven't seen an AMC do that yet. We will see.

 

[Lionheart1827]

Nah I disagree. I mean, I guess if you just go to the theater that has reserved seating, you can get screwed like that.

After preordering tickets online and picking my seats to see Ep7 last year, I'm never going back to traditional seating.

 

[The Kree]

why is this thread 16 pages

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Uh... Are you crazy?

The fact that this is standard in Japan is literally the only good thing about going to theaters here.

 

[Radec]

Reserved Seating and booking it online via phone or pc is a god send.

No more going to the movies only to found out thst the only seats left are nosebleeds.

You are terribly wrong OP.

 

[MHWilliams]

Some of the arguments for reserved seating solve a bunch of problems I've never had. Showing up an hour before showtime? Never did that once and never had a problem. I guess if you're in NYC and LA, you might have that issue? But most mid sized cities have plenty of cinemas for the population. If you're that concerned, don't go opening night.

Packed opening nights and weeks in major cities exists.

Everyone wins because reserved seating is a thing that also exists in those places to alleviate the problem. The concern has been taken care of.

 

[The Kree]

I stood in line for two hours to watch Batman '89 opening week.

The first time I flashed a QR code on my phone screen for a ticket attendant at a theater, I almost came.

 

[Peterthumpa]

Yeah, this is like saying airplanes are bad because once in a while there's an accident that kills everyone on board.

 

[Fei]

Packed opening nights and weeks in major cities exists.

Isn't that exactly what I said?

 

[Dr.Horrible]

Chalk up another vote for it's the best.

 

[Gameboy415]

Strongly disagree with the OP.
I remember waiting in line for an hour to see Revenge of the Sith back in college only to get stuck sitting in the very front row - ugh!

I can see it being frustrating for a spontaneous trip to the movies but if it's something you really want to see, buying your ticket early and guaranteeing a good seat is great!

Well, if the theater actually honors their seating chart...

I bought a pair of tickets to see Shin Godzilla when it came to the US a few months back at a theater with reserved seating.
I bought my tickets within minutes of them going up for sale, got 2 seats dead-center in the very back row, and couldn't wait to see the movie.
However, when my girlfriend and I arrived at the theater we found out that they'd switched theaters and we got shifted all the way to the left end of the back row. The view was still decent (and the movie was great!) but it annoyed me that I'd made a point of buying tickets for the exact seats I wanted as soon as they went on sale but we still had to move to crappier seats without warning.

 

[Cheesecakebobby]

Uh... Are you crazy?

The fact that this is standard in Japan is literally the only good thing about going to theaters here.

Yup. This thread just reminded me to book tickets for Rogue One, it's nice being able to just walk right in knowing we have great seats.

 

[Fei]

I can see it being frustrating for a spontaneous trip to the movies

This is what it boils down to for me. As someone who sees most movies with a group of six busy friends who may or may not be able to make a movie, it's tough. If I'm taking my wife, it's fine.

 

[StopMakingSense]

Packed opening nights and weeks in major cities exists.

Everyone wins because reserved seating is a thing that also exists in those places to alleviate the problem. The concern has been taken care of.

One other side benefit is that it has made parking so much better, since the turnover is so much better with people leaving and people arriving at the same time.

 

[MHWilliams]

Isn't that exactly what I said?

You questioned if there was a concern and offered up anecdotal evidence to the contrary. I'm saying there was a concern - as others have pointed out in the thread - and we fixed it already! Win for everyone!

 

[Fei]

You questioned if there was a concern and offered up anecdotal evidence to the contrary. I'm saying there was a concern - as others have pointed out in the thread - and we fixed it already! Win for everyone!

It's not a win for everybody, as the length of this thread makes apparent.

I actually love the compromise someone suggested earlier in this thread - reserved seating for opening week. That would be perfect.

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

Reserved seating is now standard in Australia (in our 2 major theatre chains) and has been for some time and it's awesome.

I find it staggering that it's still not standard across the US. Getting online and finding no decent seats is FAR better than physically GOING to the theatre and finding no decent seats.

 

[MHWilliams]

It's not a win for everybody, as the length of this thread makes apparent.

Tackled part of that earlier in the thread. Popularity equals scarcity, meaning someone will always lose. This is a shift in where that happens. The beauty is this shift is the OP and others already know there are no good seats in the theatre and they haven't left their couch.

But yes, it's true there will be someone who loses!

 

[What A Time To Be Alive]

Reserved seating is cool if your plan out going to the movie theaters but theres times Ill chill over my friends, randomly go to the movies and get terrible ass seats because it was spur of the moment which sucks :/

 

[KHarvey16]

Reserved seating is cool if your plan out going to the movie theaters but theres times Ill chill over my friends, randomly go to the movies and get terrible ass seats because it was spur of the moment which sucks :/

But getting terrible seats because you didn't buy them early enough in a theater with reservations means you probably don't get good seats either way. The spur of the moment argument isn't compelling to me because when I used to walk by the theater and would just decide to see a movie starting in the next 30 minutes anything popular would have no good seats left by then. Movies that aren't popular it would be fine, but you'd also be fine picking your seat at a kiosk in that scenario too.

I'd 100% rather know before purchasing if I'm going to get a decent seat.

 

[TasTokyo]

Uh... Are you crazy?

The fact that this is standard in Japan is literally the only good thing about going to theaters here.

Compared to the UK I would say the only bad thing about cinemas in Japan is price. Otherwise they are cleaner, and I've never experienced people talking, using their phones, throwing popcorn etc.

On topic reserved seating is fantastic. I can't imagine having to wait outside a cinema to try and get good seats. If I was going with a group of people and suddenly the number increasing meant we had to get there 30minutes, an hour or whatever earlier to make sure we got good seats then I just wouldn't go.

 

[hamchan]

Reserved seating might be the best thing ever to happen to cinemas.