Let’s Go to the Movies
I go to movie theaters a lot. According to Megan Brenan, “U.S. adults saw an average of 1.4 movies in a theater” in the past year. This statistic is from 2021, so the numbers were probably still being influenced by the pandemic, but even before the pandemic, the average American watched only 4.8 movies per year in a movie theater. Just in 2023, I have watched sixty-six movies, and twenty of those were in a movie theater. Like I said, I go to movie theaters a lot.
Perhaps this seems a bit obsessive, but a movie theater is my ultimate comfort spot. There’s something soothing about walking into a dimly lit theater with the smell of popcorn surrounding me. One of the things that I like about movie theaters is their predictability. In every movie theater I have ever been to, there is a place to buy tickets (although a significant amount of people pre-buy their tickets online now), a concession area, and, of course, the actual theater where the movie is played.
All movie theaters have their own energy and personality, and I’d like to think I’ve experienced some of the best. My top three favorite movie theaters are the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, California, the Multisala Barberini in Rome, Italy, and our local Regal Bossier Corners Cinema. If you also like going to the movies, I would highly recommend going to the Grand Lake Theatre at least once in your life; it first opened in 1926 and looks a little like if The Strand was a movie theater. The Multisala Barberini is a cute theater that I found while on my May Module. Last but certainly not least, the Regal Bossier Corners Cinema was a small movie theater close to 2nd & Charles, but it, unfortunately, is permanently closed. The theater was the cutest little place and had a ton of character. Every time I drive past the building, I get a little sad.
I do love how each movie theater has its own personality, but my absolute favorite part of going to the movies is getting to experience a movie with a bunch of strangers. When a character tells a joke on screen and the person three rows below you just can’t stop laughing, it makes you appreciate the joke more. During a horror movie, the collective gasps and screams that erupt make it more thrilling. When a character is experiencing loss for the first time and the audience is full of sniffles and quiet crying, it makes the scene that much more powerful. I believe all of these reactions make the movie experience what it is, and it’s what I think has kept movie theaters alive for so long. Our society is so divided, but in a movie theater, we are connected to the same story and the same emotion. For those short couple of hours, we are bonded to total strangers. So yeah, I go to the movies a lot and probably spend way too much of my money buying tickets on Fandango, but I wouldn’t trade the movie theater experience for anything.
