I hesitate to post on this thread, because I haven't seen a movie in a theater in years. Netflix and Hulu, now, that's a different story (it's also a different thread).
But if you want to talk about memorable moments associated with movies, and the lady with the conical cranium doesn't mind, I can share one of my favorite movie memories . . . .
The year was 1977, and
STAR WARS was redefining what the terms "smash hit" and "special effects" meant. I lived in a very rural county at the time - our nearest neighbors were a quarter mile away. Seriously - the young guys used our driveway as their quarter-mile marker when they drag raced each other. It took forever for hit movies to come to a theater near us. Even "near us" was relative - the closest theater was in the next county, which was a 30 - 45 minute drive from our house.
Everybody in our high school had heard of the movie, of course. My two best friends and I had heard all the hoopla, we'd read the book; we even had all the trading cards. When the movie finally came into our area, it got held over for weeks and weeks due to its popularity. Finally, during what was to be the last week of its run, one of my friends decided she couldn't stand it any longer; we had to go see that movie! My other friend and I agreed, but I had one condition. My younger brother was much more of a fan than I was, and it seemed unfair that I should get to see the movie when he couldn't. Could I bring him along? Even though they'd never met him, my friends knew that my brother and I were "twins born six years apart," so the plan was made for the four of us to see it together.
Tuesday night was bargain night at the theater; you could see a movie for a buck. We were high school students without actual jobs; naturally, we wanted to go as cheaply as possible. Tuesday night it was!
My friends also lived in remote corners of the county, even further away from the theater than I did. Only one of us had a car; she was going to collect the rest of us. I don't remember what went wrong, but she arrived at our house much later than expected. By the time we got to the theater, it was well past the 7:00 pm start time. We could deal with missing the beginning of the movie, but the guy at the ticket window said the movie was sold out. Sorry, but the Fire Marshall wouldn't allow people standing in the aisles.
What to do? There was a second showing after 9:00, but that would get us back to my house after 11, and my mother was expecting us back before 10. We trekked across the parking lot to the mall, and found a pay phone. Like ET a few years later, I phoned home.
Mom was OK with me staying out that late, since it was a special occasion, but she was adamant about my brother being home earlier - it was a school night, after all. It was doable - we had just enough time to make the trip to my house and back before the second show. My brother was trying hard to put a brave face on, but as the conversation went on, you could see how disappointed he was.
One of my friends tapped me on the shoulder. "We can't do that to him," she said. To bring him that close and then take him home was cruel. We'd just have to reschedule. We'd all have to pay a lot more for our tickets, but they didn't care - we'd all see that movie, or none of us would. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights were all out - one or another of us had a conflict on those nights. Saturday night was the last night the movie would be there, so it was arranged that we'd try again on Saturday.
My brother was sure something else would come up, but on Saturday night, we arrived at the theater with time to spare. We had even gotten the OK from my mother for us to stay for the second showing if necessary, but that turned out not to be a problem - we nearly had the theater to ourselves. As the often-parodied crawler started and we were transported to a galaxy far, far away, I looked over at my brother, who was sitting there with a big grin on his face.
I now own one of the millions of copies of
STAR WARS, and I've watched it many times. Every time I do, the Bunny remembers the thoughtfulness of a couple of teenaged girls.
Yeah, sometimes, it's the people you see the movie with that make it memorable.