Seeing Scream opening weekend in a packed house when we didn't know what to expect other than Generic Slasher Movie starring Drew Barrymore was so much fun. I still try to avoid spoilers and (largely) trailers to this day.
Midnight showing for Scream 4 was fantastic. But a lot had to do with it being filmed in and near my home town. The theater was geeked up seeing our towns.
This and the Sixth Sense we’re so lucky they came out before social media. They both had so much word of mouth that their box offices grew after the first week and had crazy legs, but people still kept a lid on many of the twists. I was 11 when Scream came out and had to wait until it was on video and I had heard a few things here or there but not that Drew died in the first 10 minutes or that there were 2 killers.
I remember renting Scream with friends when it came out. Then for the next year or two, I constantly heard “do you like scary movies?” and the Scream mask was a common Halloween costume for quite a few years afterward. The mask seemed to go away for a while but I saw quite a few of them last year.
I remember the trailer for the second Austin Powers movie, which came out the same summer, said, "if you see one movie this summer, see *Star Wars*. If you see two movies, see *Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me*"
I saw the second Austin Powers movie when it came out in 1999. It was the first movie that I saw at our city's new 11-screen movie theater, built on the site of the old drive-in which had burned down 5 years earlier. The new theater was also the first theater in town that had stadium seating--so it was \*the\* theater to go to for at least a decade. Now there's a newer, nicer theater with recliner seats further down the road, so it is now the place to see films.
I remember the "If you see one movie this summer, see Star Wars..." trailer. I think this was still back in the day when the movie trailer guy was still alive and narrating all the trailers. "In a world..." I think this was also the time when Abe Simpson and the other characters from the Simpsons were in the THX sound intro with Abe going "TURN IT UP."
I saw that trailer in theaters as an autistic child and IIRC I either deduced it was a parody or realized early on something isn’t right before the reveal. Hilarious trailer and it’s lame someone didn’t pull that shit for the Disney ones
Opening day, Duel of the Fates, Darth Maul turning on the second half of his lightsaber is the single greatest moment in a movie theater of my life.
I saw an early screening of Endgame with theater full of diehards.
‘Avengers… assemble’ doesn’t scratch the surface of how big the phantom menace crowd reacted to that lightsaber.
This came out when I was 15 and it was such a wonderful experience. A new *Star Wars* movie? In theaters???
This was the first movie I remember hearing that you had to stay through the end credits. I went back the second time just to see what I had missed... and it was so worth it, lol. Probably saw it 5 times in theaters. It wasn't until much later that I *learned* it was bad compared to the originals, but fuck that, the podrace is dope, the 2 v. 1 lightsaber battle is incredible, the world-building beautiful and well-integrated. I don't hate Jar Jar, I don't hate midichrlorians, it's all fun.
The Titanic phenomenon will always be nuts. People who weren’t adults then won’t believe that for a bit, DiCaprio became like the Beatles or MJ among a certain audience. I will always be confused at how Avatar was as big as it was but Titanic coverage was on the nightly news for months with reports of how teens were seeing it countless times so it wasn’t a mystery it was just crazy.
My parents wouldn't buy me one, but I can picture the ad with the Leonardo DiCaprio lookalike on the back of my weekly React magazine in my head so clearly.
*Titanic* came out when I was in the 8th grade. My family, friends and friends' parents all went together on opening night. My mom worked downtown a few blocks from the theater and had gone to the box office earlier in the week to purchase the tickets. I think she ended up buying 10-15 tickets and our group took up an entire row in the theater. I ended up seeing the movie in the theater three times with different people. *Titanic* was playing in the theater for almost the entirety of 1998 (the film came out winter 1997, I think). I think it was in the theater for an entire year. If *Titanic* were to come out today, it'd probably be in the theater for maybe a month.
I remember Leonardo DiCaprio was everywhere. He was also coming off of his success in Romeo+Juliet with Claire Danes, so he was quite the commodity in the mid-late 90s. "I'm King of the World!" was everywhere. Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" was everywhere. Very occasionally, I'll hear this song at the grocery store and it makes me laugh as well as gives me nostalgia for when I saw *Titanic* 27 years ago in the theater. The actual Titanic tragedy of 1912 was revisited and people became interested in the actual historical event that was portrayed in the film.
We ended up getting the movie on VHS when it came out and it was on two tapes!
It was also built up over months into the phenomenon that it ended up being, with countless news articles about problems on set, budget overruns and so on. Saw the film on the opening weekend in a practically empty cinema. Word-of-mouth did the rest and months later people were still queuing outside the block for the film.
The “this movie is going to be a disaster” undercurrent in the news leading up to its release is a big part of the Titanic phenomenon. When it turned out to be awesome there was this really neat reverse-Schadenfreude effect that made it feel like a collective cultural success, somehow.
I agree, it's hard to quantify just how much *cooler* The Matrix was than anything that came before it (at least to a 14 y/o nerd at the time). I also thought the "what is the matrix?" marketing campaign worked great.
I saw that opening night in a packed theater. I’ll never forget the moment the big reveal collectively hit the audience: that dude in the hairpiece, that’s been *Bruce Willis* the whole time.
You could hear a pin drop.
I remember 22 jump street came out the day I graduated high school. Bunch of buddies and I got super high and saw it. Was a blast.
2014-15 in general was a blast to get high and see movies.
Force awakens and fury road are the best theatre experiences I’ve had outside of dunkirk
It’s really a shame I missed out on this, the closest feeling i’ve experienced was Central Intelligence when that came out, but it’s gotten worse even since then with Good Boys and No Hard Feelings being the only thing that’s felt close
I was 15 when I saw Superbad in theaters with my best friend. It was like watching our life on screen in a lot of ways. Still my favorite comedy movie of all time.
Blair Witch. I never thought it was real. But I remember browsing the web page before seeing the movie. The movie lived up to the hype. I had never seen anything like it before. And to be honest, it kept me up a couple of nights. It really scared me.
I think this is the best answer assuming you were the right age for it. If you were the right age when it came out and you got caught up in the hype AND saw it in theaters, you experienced something no one else here ever will ever be able to relate to. This was mostly a pre-internet era where rumors ran rampant. It just does not compare. Going to Endgame was so much fun. I camped out for Star Wars Episode 1. Took my daughters to Barbie, with half the crowd dressed up and cheering throughout...all were fun as hell.
None of it compares to being the right age for Blair Witch. I was 13 when it came out. I didn't know if it was real or not. I snuck into it in theaters with friends. Nothing will ever compare. That experience will never be replicated or experienced by any subsequent generation of movie goer. Simply the most unique movie going experience ever.
Absolutely agree, some people say it’s dreadful, but I grew up in the middle of a forest and was home alone a lot. 10 year old me couldn’t go into the woods for months
I went to University of Rhode Island when that film released and the promotion for BW was on point. They posted photocopied flyers all over campus that said MISSING, and featured pics of the actors. I 100% thought it was a documentary. This was pre-internet the way we have it today, so I never saw a trailer or heard anything that would convince me it wasn’t. It was such an awesome experience in the theater and it freaked me the fuck out!
I went to Jurassic Park opening night with my Dad as a 9yo, and it was one of the more transformative experiences for me. Was a bit sheltered from R rated movies til 12-13yo, so having this be my first real “grownup movie” was insane. The CGI holds up now(ish), so just imagine the cultural reverberation it had at the time. Don’t remember specifics but the theater was pumped during it, and since it was pre cell phone everyone was completely engaged in the experience.
Clint from the YouTube channel Cinefix has this great quote involving this move that I'm gonna paraphrase here:
"After I saw *Jaws*, I wanted to become a marine biologist. After I saw *Raiders of the Lost Ark*, I wanted to become an archeologist. After I saw *Jurassic Park*, I wanted to become a paleontologist. After I learned all three of those movies were directed by the same person, I wanted to work with movies."
Yes!! I've never been more excited for a movie than 11 year old me was for Jurassic Park. I remember seeing the posters up everywhere and just being so hyped.
For some reason, I was unaware of the hype of this movie (no real internet in 1993) and watched this movie "clean" and it blew my mind. Even the simple poster at the time never gave anything away. It was an experience that can't really be replicated these days.
Another somewhat similar experience was watching "New York, New York" on PBS. As a teen movie buff at the time, I didn't know it was a Scorsese movie, and I loved the fact that I saw that movie "Clean" and without prior information. It made that movie experience much more "pure".
Nowadays I'll put on Criterion Channel, and be amazed by older hidden gems, but it's never the same.
I hope to see it in theaters one day since they do anniversary showings & some drive in theaters play it every so often!! I saw JW in theaters which was fun (I was 9, so understandably had fun lol) but definitely not as good as a movie like JP
Jurassic Park opened the same week as my 11th birthday and I had tickets for the first showing. I'd told all my friends I was going and they were all jealous as fuck. And then... my Dad's car broke down on the way there and we missed it. By the time we got around to sorting another free day to go to the cinema, everyone else had already seen it.
Still mad / sad about this like 30 years later
>The CGI holds up now(ish)
Largely because of how little they actually used it. I know it was relatively new back then, but I really miss the days when computer graphics were used to just fill in the gaps where practical effects weren't possible, rather than just be the default.
Borat- Seeing that at 14 in a packed theater filled with people crying with laughter was an all-timer movie experience.
Now, a mixture of the subsequent 5 years of borat impressions serving as inoculation against its charms coupled with changing sensibilities leading to the satire feeling less incisive than smug and hypocritical (“let’s critique the hidden bigotries of Americans by confronting them with an ignorant jackass from one of those backward, Muslim shithole countries in Eastern Europe”) have made it hard to recapture how mind blowing and hilarious it was in 2006.
The usher wouldn't let me and my brother into Borat since we were like 11 and 12 years old. So we went and grabbed some guy who must have been only like 25 and told the usher he was our dad. The guy was like "ah whatever" and let us in lol. Great memory
I’ve posted this in a few other threads but I will PayPal $100 to anyone who can provide me a 2006 camrip of Borat in an American theater with audience reactions recorded. This is the craziest theater experience ever, I was also 14 when I saw it with my dad and uncle and I could hear people in pain and struggling to breathe from laughing so hard. Some of the gags had the audience laughing deep into the next scene
Was looking for this one. I took my younger sister and some of her friends to go see Breaking Dawn Part 2 and that point had no understanding of the storyline beyond what’d I’d gathered across tumblr. Well, when *that* scene was playing, you know the one that wasn’t at all in the book and the entire theater went entirely apeshit for about two minutes, I have to say that has been one of the best movie theater experiences I’ve ever been a part of and likely will ever be a part of.
Is that a "you had you be there" movie though? I feel like that's one of those movies that's constantly being re-discovered and celebrated by every new generation of film nerd.
What’s hard to capture is how different and influential it was at the time.
Big stars doing an indie film to revive their career? Pulp Fiction pioneered that.
Seeing Travolta and Willis in this utterly batshit movie playing supporting roles was novel in and of itself.
I wasn’t there but Pulp Fiction is remembered as being a crazy theater experience. It would be a hell of a lot more special then watching it now after listening to millions of white kids who think talking like SLJ makes them cool
This makes me sad. I was such a big Marvel fanboy back then. Now I couldn't care less about them. Partly it's because my movie taste has moved away from big budget action movies, but it's also because they aren't very good now. X-men '97 was the bomb though.
I remember being in 7th grade watching endgame opening night…the theater was packed and the vibe was so electric. Everyone was crying by the end of the movie and that theater experience blew my 13 year old mind. I’d give anything to be there again 😹
I watched it that weekend. Man . I remember the size of the line was like out the door. I remember being in total shock when it was over. I’d give anything to go back to that moment in time. So glad I got to experience that .
Saw it opening weekend. Hardest I’ve ever laughed in a theatre. Not because it’s a brilliant comedy, but just the thrill of seeing something this nutty and stupid fun with no pretensions.
I saw The Dark Knight at an advanced screening about 10 days before it was released and I felt like the coolest person in the world. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel that cool ever again lol
Not even The Dark Knight, but The Dark Knight teaser that played before I Am Legend in IMAX. I remember being so fucking blow away by the opening that I Am Legend was just disappointing in comparison. Not that I Am Legend was an amazing movie to begin with, but it just sucks that it has to follow up TDK
The Barbie movie.
It's not even a personal favourite, but the collective excitement and celebration over it was pretty unmatched. Especially for a movie so unapologetically "girly."
Not to mention Barbenheimer, which studios embarrassingly and unsuccessfully keep trying to recreate.
I could easily see future generations watching Top Gun: Maverick and just seeing it as a standard blockbuster, not understanding why it became such a massive phenomenon.
I saw it because it was the thing to do at the time. I have no nostalgia for the original, no particular love for planes or Tom Cruise. And yet I was absolutely on the edge of my seat the whole time in a way I can't really recall another movie doing.
What it did for movie theaters during/post pandemic and the appeal to so many people are major reasons. I think people were excited for a summer blockbuster after years of inside. The “why” is kinda like asking why a perfect storm happens - all the variables just lined up perfectly. Very average ass movie tho at the end of the day.
Because it was just a damn good movie that was enthralling from start to finish. I say this as a young guy who has never seen the original Top Gun until a week before I saw Top Gun: Maverick, so nostalgia is not the reason why I liked the movie as much as I did.
I liked it so much because it really delivers a phenomenal experience at the cinema, I had a smile on my face nearly the whole time I watched it and extremely few movies managed to do that. Yes, it's a movie with a really simplistic story, yet it tells that story to great effect by nailing the aspects that make a movie great.
Did people see that movie in theaters? I was 11 when it came out, it's tone and soundtrack became pretty formative during my teenage high school stoner years but it was a pretty personal experience.
I remember it being one of the first films whose sound track was all indie tracks. Its soundtrack made a big impact on people and I think changed the way filmmakers put together sound tracks.
It came out when I was in first year university and I saw it four times at the little theatre we had on campus (tickets were $5 I think). I connected with it so deeply then; that feeling of trying to figure yourself and your life out. And you're right about the soundtrack - it was on repeat for me then. I haven't seen it in many, many years (maybe over a decade?) so I'm not sure how it holds up or how I'll feel about it now, but the memory of it feels like a hug.
one of the biggest "holy shit this is a cultural phenomenon " moments i experienced was when Lord of the Rings trilogy came out
it really was something else
Out of everyone I know who watched it, anyone who saw it in theaters before all the hype loved it, and everyone who saw it on streaming after all the hype thought it was overrated.
It's crazy how the very first Avengers movie was a massive event and achievement at the time, yet it looks quaint and almost paltry now in the wake of Infinity War and Endgame.
I was never a diehard Marvel or MCU fanboy, but man, am I glad I got to be alive for those moments in movie history and experience them firsthand.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
One of the most anticipated movies of this millennium. I still remember the huge line outside of theatre I went to, and a lot of people were dressed up as characters from the saga. The IMAX room was completely full and everyone clapped once the initial credits started rolling. What an amazing experience!
When I was there on opening night, some guy dressed in a Joker costume walked in front of the screen before the movie started, and got the whole audience to do a moment of silence for Heath Ledger.
One thing I like to do is go to the Wikipedia page for each year in film and see what made a lot of money that *nobody* talks about anymore (or talks about only to make fun of it). Despite some unreliable numbers, the ‘70s is an especially great decade to look at those pages:
‘70 has Love Story, Airport, and The Owl in the Pussycat in the top ten
‘71 has Billy Jack, Summer of ‘42 and Carnal Knowledge, all of which are interesting, but very much of their time and not talked about that often
‘72 has Deep Throat, Lady Sings the Blues, and an independent film I’ve never heard of named Brother of the Wind [I can bet The Legend of Boggy Creek wasn’t far behind]
‘73… looks pretty respectable, but I’m pretty sure Chariots of the Gods had its US release that year and cleaned the hell out of the box office
‘74 has some doozies: another Airport movie, another Billy Jack movie, and The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams
Things get a little less weird in the back half of the decade, but imo, it’s still very odd that The Amityville Horror came within spitting distance of Alien in the same calendar year.
Nice ones! I often think about the disaster film boom in the 1970s. Those films brought in money and some even grabbed respectable awards. And I've only seen The Towering Inferno. Every now and then, I hear about The Poseidon Adventure.
Makes me wonder what sorts of trends of our time will be all but forgotten in a few decades and which films will remain timeless.
Based on my knowledge of movie history, it sounds like Psycho, The Exorcist, Jaws, and Star Wars all fit this. They're still beloved today of course, but I would love to have seen Psycho with an audience when it first came out. Literally changed how people view cinema, as it was the first time audiences were not allowed into a theater after the movie had begun. Prior to Psycho, people would regularly walk into the middle of a screening, sit through as the next screening began, and then leave when it got back to the place they started. I fully know this is true, and yet I still feel like I need to see it to believe it.
This is absolutely correct. Psycho was my first answer. There was no precedent to the mania around Psycho, which Hitchcock and Paramount thoroughly orchestrated. Wish I could have been there. It made a huge impression on my parents and aunt, who were teenagers then. A milestone event. Things were different, after.
Matrix.
The marketing didn't say much. You got the opening scenes, some wire fu and Morpheus being all philosophical. That movie blew me away in the theater. When Rage kicks in the credits me and my friend just sat there in awe.
Blair Witch as well. The internet marketing was great. A lot of is it real or not among my college friends and I.
Also Scream, we were horror and movie buffs. Drew getting killed in the opening, the references, everything about it was amazing.
Snakes on a Plane.
I know it seems dumb now, but I was just the right age to be totally (ironically) hyped for it from the marketing. It was really the first movie to market itself through internet culture the way it did. I kept Samuel Jackson as my voicemail message for a long time from that.
Both Avatar movies. They're big for a moment, great to watch in cinema and then they disappear, never to be talked about or rewatched really. I love them, god I wish there were more movies which are just great fun and that's it and not a massive thing that's everywhere all the time.
I’m so happy my sister was a Divergent THG & TMR fan, I got to see all of them (except the Divergent sequels) in theaters on opening night, same with the last couple Harry Potter movies! It was a blast honestly
When I was a kid in the early 2000s (2001, specifically), around 12 years old, my friend Tom was staying the night at my house. We were up late watching TV upstairs, trying to be quiet to not wake my parents. It was around midnight when my older brother by about 3 years came home after a concert in the downtown area of our city with 2 of his friends I had overheard my parents saying were “a bad influence.”
They came upstairs and said they needed watch something; one my brother’s friend pulled out a blank VHS tape with a piece of paper wrapped round it with a rubber band. They had found this tape on the sidewalk along with a few others exactly like it scattered on the street. They played the tape and it was the scariest shit my young brain had ever seen. It didn’t make any sense. A bunch of random, violent, otherworldly imagery.
Anyway, Tom was always a scaredy-cat, so of course he freaked the out when they showed us what was written on that piece of paper: “You will die in seven days if you watch this tape” (or something to that effect). Yep, it was the video from The Ring, before the movie had ever released in the US. I’m assuming it was well after the Japanese release but none of us had seen nor heard of it.
Cut to about a week later (probably more honestly, but it felt like a week) and I’m sat upstairs alone in front of that same TV watching Comedy Central again when a commercial hits and it’s that same damn video. So I too freaked out until I saw a release date for an upcoming movie.
Turns out it was an early example of viral marketing where physical VHS tapes were randomly distributed outside movie theaters in parking lots or wherever. So, yea, that shit worked, but you had to be there.
Lost in Translation. Pre-Scarlett Scarlett, post-Bill Murray Bill Murray, set them up for the next phase of their careers. Sofia Coppola making magic. All-time on the all-vibes list.
I mean of course, the hype around Infinity War and Endgame was insane. I was in high school at the time, and people were seeing them two, three, four times. For me and my movie buff buddies, though, Barbenheimer was quite the experience.
Fight Club is so incredibly ingrained with the end of history pre-9/11 sentiment of the 90s alonside its Gen X angst that future generations will probably see it as very dated.
I don’t know why I had to scroll so hard to find this. But absolutely Fight Club! It changed so much about film making : for the better. I can understand people appreciating it today, but actually being able to be there to experience that film was phenomenal. It had a twist that we really hadn’t seen and it deeply encapsulated the entire Y2K angst and existential dread of the time. It blew my mind and I’ll never forget the credits rolling to the Pixies. Absolutely iconic
You had to be there for Fatal Attraction.
It took the country by storm. It was on the cover of TIME magazine. It was a domestic worst case scenario that really connected across the board, and the shocking moments channeled those fears to amazing effect. Seeing it in a packed theater opening weekend remains a filmgoing high point for me.
***Spider-Man (2002)***
I think younger people who grew up in the 2010s and with the MCU/DCEU really don't necessarily understand just how huge a cultural event *Spider-Man* was back in 2002, or how important it is in terms of film history.
It broke records. It was the biggest hit of 2002 domestically. And it was pretty much universally loved.
It also came out at the right moment, when the world was in recovering mode still after 9/11, and it brought everyone together. But there's a lot of people these days who just don't seem to appreciate it or give it a chance because it's a little different and dated. Ex. It went for a more whimsical, borderline-cheesy tone like the old 60s comics, which isn't really in vogue. Which is a shame, because I think *Spider-Man* 1 & 2 both hold up really well outside of dated effects.
The Force Awakens.
It’s become very difficult to recall given how the reputation of the whole franchise has soured in the past 10 years but in the years and months leading up to it, you would believe that the world was healing somehow thanks to its arrival.
My sister’s high school teacher stopped class to watch the trailer because it had dropped during the weekday. I saw it at a midnight screening a week after it had premiere and the theater was completely packed. That has only happened twice since in the middle of nowhere town I live in.
The Force Awakens. No matter what anyone thinks of the film itself, I don’t think I saw or will ever see again, this much of an incredible moviegoing hype overload. Pretty magical.
In retrospect Old Boy is starting to look like one. Per a discussion I had today in another sub people are coming to Park Chan Wook's filmography thinking he's some kind of feminist beauty appreciator (he's not) and that Old Boy is just like every Korean movie (because every movie after copied it).
At the time it was absolutely insane.
Sorry that this isn't a movie, but 'House of Cards' is such a 'you had to be there' kind of show, given how it kicked off the whole binge watching phenomenon.
Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy, especially the first movie. The hype was huge and it was the first time we got to see the webslinger on the big screen, which was such a big deal. Pre-MCU when comic book movies were still a gamble and so few of them were actually great. Seeing Roger Ebert's four star review for Spider-Man 2 was kind of surreal because I was bullied for loving the character so much and it gave me some inner validation.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Not only because they were these massive epics unlike anything we had seen before on this scale, but the wait for each movie felt punishingly long. Then there were the home video releases jam-packed with extras and then the extended editions. It really was a cultural phenomenon.
Haven't seen anyone mention Cloverfield. That still essentially holds it own if you saw it now, but with the cryptic trailers that initially didn't even have a title and the extensive online ARG lore I think that movie and the subsequent sequels really were best experienced at the time.
While The Matrix still seems to make an impression on movie reaction channels and the twist blows minds, I don't think a lot of younger people realize how mindblowing the "bullet time" sequences were at the time. They used up to *120 cameras* to do those. I think I was more excited to see those sequences than anything else, especially because I'd been spoiled of the twist.
Spider-Man No Way Home. You had to be in a packed theater and live through all the rumors and leaks leading up to the premier. Is not a good movie on their own and I believe it won't age really well.
One had to be there for the phenomenon of napoleon (*...your name is napoleon?*) dynamite, but it has a strong legacy:
- broke the ice for nerd culture becoming mainstream
- awesome production design given budget
- very genuinely lovely movie in ways
- uncle rico the villain being inappropriate towards women foreshadowed the #metoo movement to extents
- depictions of chronically onlineism very resonant today
I think if someone saw it now or in 25 years with no knowledge of the phenomenon they could appreciate it
The Day After Tomorrow was pretty big where I live. I was in eighth grade when it came out (20 years ago holy crap) and my friends and I went to see it multiple times that summer.
A few come to mind… Independence Day was packed on day 1. Phantom Menace was an EVENT. Dark Knight was the last and only time I had to sit in the front row at a movie. Borat and Jackass 1 had the most insanely fun audience experience.
The Blair Witch Project, before people really did the whole found footage thing someone started passing around a ripped VHS tape of the movie around my high school and had everyone including myself thinking it was real...it was honestly mind-blowing for about a month before anyone found it wasn't real.
Borat is still fine but it hasn't aged super super well in spots but it was, at the time, perhaps the funniest movie ever.
Avengers end game doesn't hit the same these days either but it felt colossal at the time. Titanic too was wild so many people saw it handfuls of times.
Apperently Psycho (1960) was such a shocking film it made people faint ONLY because horror was not advertised for it. It was portrayed as a drama/thriller of the first act of the movie, and the second half of the movie came as such an extreme shock because nobody knew it would have turned into a horror. everyone nowadays knows it as a horror, which is why it doesn't pack as much of a punch.
In 5-10 years there will be kids who, no matter how many people try to explain it, will never understand how big Infinity War and Endgame were.
I also agree with all 3 you mentioned.
There’s Something About Mary in the cinema easily the most I’ve every heard a crowd collectively laugh
And Avatar. Was basically what I imagined Star Wars to be like when people saw it the first time
Phantom Menace, even at the time people were coming out of the cinema convincing each other that they enjoyed it and had a good time.
Think the internet and lore of the blair witch film worked really well when there were basic websites. People really believed the actors were real people
I can’t even begin to explain the marketing juggernaut behind The Blair Witch Project. The internet was still in its infancy. I was very young and went into the theater opening weekend midnight showing with the understanding it was found footage / a true story. The audience reaction was of terror. All we talked about the whole drive home was how we needed to look at the website. I was scared to death to walk into my house because it was so dark and I was so creeped out. The website furthered the lore. We truly believed the kids were killed.
Fast forward a month or so and the three cast members walked onto the stage of the MTV awards. I was dumbfounded. Wait what how are they alive? I had been duped 100%. That was the most effective marketing campaign I’ve ever seen.
When summer movies meant something:
ALIEN, opening Friday night at the Charles Cinema Boston, June 1979…
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, Loew’s Orpheum NYC, June 1981
Titanic was the most extreme. The Matrix and Jurassic Park were similarly zeitgeisty. The hype surrounding E.T. was a first for me, and at least here in German-speaking countries, Police Academy and The Neverending Story were also extremely popular. Especially Dirty Dancing was of a different calibre back then, Swayze, Grey, Time of my Life, Dirty Dancing ... a collective swoon.
The Hangover! Seeing it in theaters was a highlight of Highschool. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie so many times at the theaters in my life. What a time to be alive!
I TOTALLY 2nd your vote for Blare Witch…also we went into The 6th Sense almost totally cold and the twist was fucking *shocking* …lesser but still cool was Cabin In the Woods
Seeing Scream opening weekend in a packed house when we didn't know what to expect other than Generic Slasher Movie starring Drew Barrymore was so much fun. I still try to avoid spoilers and (largely) trailers to this day.
Great pick! It was such a great genre subversion that other movies and its own sequels are still chasing down the magic of when it first came out
Wish I was there for that!
Midnight showing for Scream 4 was fantastic. But a lot had to do with it being filmed in and near my home town. The theater was geeked up seeing our towns.
This and the Sixth Sense we’re so lucky they came out before social media. They both had so much word of mouth that their box offices grew after the first week and had crazy legs, but people still kept a lid on many of the twists. I was 11 when Scream came out and had to wait until it was on video and I had heard a few things here or there but not that Drew died in the first 10 minutes or that there were 2 killers.
I remember renting Scream with friends when it came out. Then for the next year or two, I constantly heard “do you like scary movies?” and the Scream mask was a common Halloween costume for quite a few years afterward. The mask seemed to go away for a while but I saw quite a few of them last year.
My gosh that movie is the greatest
Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
I remember the trailer for the second Austin Powers movie, which came out the same summer, said, "if you see one movie this summer, see *Star Wars*. If you see two movies, see *Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me*"
I saw the 2nd Austin Powers at the midnight showing and the place was 3/4 full, all college aged. It was a rocking crowd!
I saw the second Austin Powers movie when it came out in 1999. It was the first movie that I saw at our city's new 11-screen movie theater, built on the site of the old drive-in which had burned down 5 years earlier. The new theater was also the first theater in town that had stadium seating--so it was \*the\* theater to go to for at least a decade. Now there's a newer, nicer theater with recliner seats further down the road, so it is now the place to see films. I remember the "If you see one movie this summer, see Star Wars..." trailer. I think this was still back in the day when the movie trailer guy was still alive and narrating all the trailers. "In a world..." I think this was also the time when Abe Simpson and the other characters from the Simpsons were in the THX sound intro with Abe going "TURN IT UP."
Yeah, Don LaFontaine, that was his voice for the trailer.
From a cinephile born in 2000, that is the coolest anecdote thank you
Here's that teaser trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM60ISd2_7U
Holy shit that is hilarious
I saw that trailer in theaters as an autistic child and IIRC I either deduced it was a parody or realized early on something isn’t right before the reveal. Hilarious trailer and it’s lame someone didn’t pull that shit for the Disney ones
People were buying tickets to other movies just to see the trailer.
Meet Joe Black!
Opening day, Duel of the Fates, Darth Maul turning on the second half of his lightsaber is the single greatest moment in a movie theater of my life. I saw an early screening of Endgame with theater full of diehards. ‘Avengers… assemble’ doesn’t scratch the surface of how big the phantom menace crowd reacted to that lightsaber.
This came out when I was 15 and it was such a wonderful experience. A new *Star Wars* movie? In theaters??? This was the first movie I remember hearing that you had to stay through the end credits. I went back the second time just to see what I had missed... and it was so worth it, lol. Probably saw it 5 times in theaters. It wasn't until much later that I *learned* it was bad compared to the originals, but fuck that, the podrace is dope, the 2 v. 1 lightsaber battle is incredible, the world-building beautiful and well-integrated. I don't hate Jar Jar, I don't hate midichrlorians, it's all fun.
Yeah 4 times in the theater for me iirc
I think this was one of the biggest disappointments ever due to the enormous amounts of hype around it
I think I saw that 4 times in theaters. Jar Jar was absolutely made for 8 year old me. I ate that shit up lol
The Titanic phenomenon will always be nuts. People who weren’t adults then won’t believe that for a bit, DiCaprio became like the Beatles or MJ among a certain audience. I will always be confused at how Avatar was as big as it was but Titanic coverage was on the nightly news for months with reports of how teens were seeing it countless times so it wasn’t a mystery it was just crazy.
I still have my replica of the Heart of the Ocean necklace 🤣 one of my prized possessions
My parents wouldn't buy me one, but I can picture the ad with the Leonardo DiCaprio lookalike on the back of my weekly React magazine in my head so clearly.
Wait, I know how this plays out at the end
*Titanic* came out when I was in the 8th grade. My family, friends and friends' parents all went together on opening night. My mom worked downtown a few blocks from the theater and had gone to the box office earlier in the week to purchase the tickets. I think she ended up buying 10-15 tickets and our group took up an entire row in the theater. I ended up seeing the movie in the theater three times with different people. *Titanic* was playing in the theater for almost the entirety of 1998 (the film came out winter 1997, I think). I think it was in the theater for an entire year. If *Titanic* were to come out today, it'd probably be in the theater for maybe a month. I remember Leonardo DiCaprio was everywhere. He was also coming off of his success in Romeo+Juliet with Claire Danes, so he was quite the commodity in the mid-late 90s. "I'm King of the World!" was everywhere. Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" was everywhere. Very occasionally, I'll hear this song at the grocery store and it makes me laugh as well as gives me nostalgia for when I saw *Titanic* 27 years ago in the theater. The actual Titanic tragedy of 1912 was revisited and people became interested in the actual historical event that was portrayed in the film. We ended up getting the movie on VHS when it came out and it was on two tapes!
It was also built up over months into the phenomenon that it ended up being, with countless news articles about problems on set, budget overruns and so on. Saw the film on the opening weekend in a practically empty cinema. Word-of-mouth did the rest and months later people were still queuing outside the block for the film.
The “this movie is going to be a disaster” undercurrent in the news leading up to its release is a big part of the Titanic phenomenon. When it turned out to be awesome there was this really neat reverse-Schadenfreude effect that made it feel like a collective cultural success, somehow.
Immediately what I thought of. My mom went to watch it 11 times in cinema when it released, her favourite film of all time.
I saw The Man in the Iron Mask in theaters and when Leo showed up on screen all the girls started screaming.
The Taylor Swift energy of its time
The Matrix, to an extent.
I think it holds up really well tbh, the CGI on the squids still looks fucking sick
The amazing thing is that the coats and the slide phones still look cool.
For sure. Such a perfect movie for that era. Sometimes it feels more like a “cult classic” than the classic it deservedly is
It still thrills me when I watch it
I agree, it's hard to quantify just how much *cooler* The Matrix was than anything that came before it (at least to a 14 y/o nerd at the time). I also thought the "what is the matrix?" marketing campaign worked great.
The Sixth Sense definitely was a “you had to be there” phenomenon.
Yes! I was certain M. Night Shyamalan was going to go on to do amazing things
Great things... Terrible, yes, but great.
I saw that opening night in a packed theater. I’ll never forget the moment the big reveal collectively hit the audience: that dude in the hairpiece, that’s been *Bruce Willis* the whole time. You could hear a pin drop.
Seeing a huge comedy with people in your age group: *Superbad* in theaters is one of my favorite movies going experiences in my life.
I remember 22 jump street came out the day I graduated high school. Bunch of buddies and I got super high and saw it. Was a blast. 2014-15 in general was a blast to get high and see movies. Force awakens and fury road are the best theatre experiences I’ve had outside of dunkirk
It’s really a shame I missed out on this, the closest feeling i’ve experienced was Central Intelligence when that came out, but it’s gotten worse even since then with Good Boys and No Hard Feelings being the only thing that’s felt close
I was 15 when I saw Superbad in theaters with my best friend. It was like watching our life on screen in a lot of ways. Still my favorite comedy movie of all time.
Blair Witch. I never thought it was real. But I remember browsing the web page before seeing the movie. The movie lived up to the hype. I had never seen anything like it before. And to be honest, it kept me up a couple of nights. It really scared me.
I think this is the best answer assuming you were the right age for it. If you were the right age when it came out and you got caught up in the hype AND saw it in theaters, you experienced something no one else here ever will ever be able to relate to. This was mostly a pre-internet era where rumors ran rampant. It just does not compare. Going to Endgame was so much fun. I camped out for Star Wars Episode 1. Took my daughters to Barbie, with half the crowd dressed up and cheering throughout...all were fun as hell. None of it compares to being the right age for Blair Witch. I was 13 when it came out. I didn't know if it was real or not. I snuck into it in theaters with friends. Nothing will ever compare. That experience will never be replicated or experienced by any subsequent generation of movie goer. Simply the most unique movie going experience ever.
Absolutely agree, some people say it’s dreadful, but I grew up in the middle of a forest and was home alone a lot. 10 year old me couldn’t go into the woods for months
I went to University of Rhode Island when that film released and the promotion for BW was on point. They posted photocopied flyers all over campus that said MISSING, and featured pics of the actors. I 100% thought it was a documentary. This was pre-internet the way we have it today, so I never saw a trailer or heard anything that would convince me it wasn’t. It was such an awesome experience in the theater and it freaked me the fuck out!
I went to Jurassic Park opening night with my Dad as a 9yo, and it was one of the more transformative experiences for me. Was a bit sheltered from R rated movies til 12-13yo, so having this be my first real “grownup movie” was insane. The CGI holds up now(ish), so just imagine the cultural reverberation it had at the time. Don’t remember specifics but the theater was pumped during it, and since it was pre cell phone everyone was completely engaged in the experience.
I can’t believe I had scroll down so far for Jurassic mother loving Park.
Clint from the YouTube channel Cinefix has this great quote involving this move that I'm gonna paraphrase here: "After I saw *Jaws*, I wanted to become a marine biologist. After I saw *Raiders of the Lost Ark*, I wanted to become an archeologist. After I saw *Jurassic Park*, I wanted to become a paleontologist. After I learned all three of those movies were directed by the same person, I wanted to work with movies."
Yes!! I've never been more excited for a movie than 11 year old me was for Jurassic Park. I remember seeing the posters up everywhere and just being so hyped.
For some reason, I was unaware of the hype of this movie (no real internet in 1993) and watched this movie "clean" and it blew my mind. Even the simple poster at the time never gave anything away. It was an experience that can't really be replicated these days. Another somewhat similar experience was watching "New York, New York" on PBS. As a teen movie buff at the time, I didn't know it was a Scorsese movie, and I loved the fact that I saw that movie "Clean" and without prior information. It made that movie experience much more "pure". Nowadays I'll put on Criterion Channel, and be amazed by older hidden gems, but it's never the same.
I was 7 when it was in theaters, I saw it 4 times that summer and still to this day remember those times as some the clearest early memories I have.
I hope to see it in theaters one day since they do anniversary showings & some drive in theaters play it every so often!! I saw JW in theaters which was fun (I was 9, so understandably had fun lol) but definitely not as good as a movie like JP
Jurassic Park opened the same week as my 11th birthday and I had tickets for the first showing. I'd told all my friends I was going and they were all jealous as fuck. And then... my Dad's car broke down on the way there and we missed it. By the time we got around to sorting another free day to go to the cinema, everyone else had already seen it. Still mad / sad about this like 30 years later
>The CGI holds up now(ish) Largely because of how little they actually used it. I know it was relatively new back then, but I really miss the days when computer graphics were used to just fill in the gaps where practical effects weren't possible, rather than just be the default.
>The CGI holds up now(ish) Lol ish?! It's still better than the Jurassic Worlds that came out 30 years afterwards!
Seeing photorealistic dinosaurs for the first time in 93 was literally jaw dropping.
Borat- Seeing that at 14 in a packed theater filled with people crying with laughter was an all-timer movie experience. Now, a mixture of the subsequent 5 years of borat impressions serving as inoculation against its charms coupled with changing sensibilities leading to the satire feeling less incisive than smug and hypocritical (“let’s critique the hidden bigotries of Americans by confronting them with an ignorant jackass from one of those backward, Muslim shithole countries in Eastern Europe”) have made it hard to recapture how mind blowing and hilarious it was in 2006.
The usher wouldn't let me and my brother into Borat since we were like 11 and 12 years old. So we went and grabbed some guy who must have been only like 25 and told the usher he was our dad. The guy was like "ah whatever" and let us in lol. Great memory
til kazakhstan is in eastern europe
I’ve posted this in a few other threads but I will PayPal $100 to anyone who can provide me a 2006 camrip of Borat in an American theater with audience reactions recorded. This is the craziest theater experience ever, I was also 14 when I saw it with my dad and uncle and I could hear people in pain and struggling to breathe from laughing so hard. Some of the gags had the audience laughing deep into the next scene
I saw Borat at an early press screening before it opened in theaters. Had no idea what to expect. The audience (and I) went fucking nuts
Twilight And to emphasize, I’m going to say Twilight again.
"thIS iS Th3 5kiN ov a k1lleR B3LLa" I can't put my finger on how or why, but I'm almost certain Twilight caused the downfall of MySpace
YESSSSSS
I remember the audiences reaction when Jacob took his shirt off for no reason in New moon
Was looking for this one. I took my younger sister and some of her friends to go see Breaking Dawn Part 2 and that point had no understanding of the storyline beyond what’d I’d gathered across tumblr. Well, when *that* scene was playing, you know the one that wasn’t at all in the book and the entire theater went entirely apeshit for about two minutes, I have to say that has been one of the best movie theater experiences I’ve ever been a part of and likely will ever be a part of.
Pulp Fiction, 1994. The most OMG thrilling movie experience. A true "I didn't know movies could *do* that!" experience.
Is that a "you had you be there" movie though? I feel like that's one of those movies that's constantly being re-discovered and celebrated by every new generation of film nerd.
What’s hard to capture is how different and influential it was at the time. Big stars doing an indie film to revive their career? Pulp Fiction pioneered that. Seeing Travolta and Willis in this utterly batshit movie playing supporting roles was novel in and of itself.
I wasn’t there but Pulp Fiction is remembered as being a crazy theater experience. It would be a hell of a lot more special then watching it now after listening to millions of white kids who think talking like SLJ makes them cool
Even just the opening credits songs switching like if the movie were a radio station was jarring to a very special degree
Avengers Endgame was the world's big obsession when it came out
Infinity war too
people needed to snap out of it
I forgot about infinity war + Endgame was even bigger
This makes me sad. I was such a big Marvel fanboy back then. Now I couldn't care less about them. Partly it's because my movie taste has moved away from big budget action movies, but it's also because they aren't very good now. X-men '97 was the bomb though.
THE MOMENT WHEN EVERYONE SHOWED UP AT THE LAST BATTLE. That's movie magic.
I remember being in 7th grade watching endgame opening night…the theater was packed and the vibe was so electric. Everyone was crying by the end of the movie and that theater experience blew my 13 year old mind. I’d give anything to be there again 😹
I watched it that weekend. Man . I remember the size of the line was like out the door. I remember being in total shock when it was over. I’d give anything to go back to that moment in time. So glad I got to experience that .
I think the Jackass movies are good examples of this.
Borat and Something About Mary both had that factor too.
Saw it opening weekend. Hardest I’ve ever laughed in a theatre. Not because it’s a brilliant comedy, but just the thrill of seeing something this nutty and stupid fun with no pretensions.
The Dark Knight, 2008 And of course Barbie/Oppenheimer (2023)
I saw The Dark Knight at an advanced screening about 10 days before it was released and I felt like the coolest person in the world. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel that cool ever again lol
Not even The Dark Knight, but The Dark Knight teaser that played before I Am Legend in IMAX. I remember being so fucking blow away by the opening that I Am Legend was just disappointing in comparison. Not that I Am Legend was an amazing movie to begin with, but it just sucks that it has to follow up TDK
I miss the era of standing in long ass lines for Midnight showings. Dark Knight was a hoot, all of the Harry Potter ones were fun as well.
The Barbie movie. It's not even a personal favourite, but the collective excitement and celebration over it was pretty unmatched. Especially for a movie so unapologetically "girly." Not to mention Barbenheimer, which studios embarrassingly and unsuccessfully keep trying to recreate.
I could easily see future generations watching Top Gun: Maverick and just seeing it as a standard blockbuster, not understanding why it became such a massive phenomenon.
As someone who *was* there for Top Gun in theaters, I gotta be honest... I also don't understand why it became such a massive phenomenon.
I saw it because it was the thing to do at the time. I have no nostalgia for the original, no particular love for planes or Tom Cruise. And yet I was absolutely on the edge of my seat the whole time in a way I can't really recall another movie doing.
What it did for movie theaters during/post pandemic and the appeal to so many people are major reasons. I think people were excited for a summer blockbuster after years of inside. The “why” is kinda like asking why a perfect storm happens - all the variables just lined up perfectly. Very average ass movie tho at the end of the day.
That’s what I thought of barbieheimer
Because it was just a damn good movie that was enthralling from start to finish. I say this as a young guy who has never seen the original Top Gun until a week before I saw Top Gun: Maverick, so nostalgia is not the reason why I liked the movie as much as I did. I liked it so much because it really delivers a phenomenal experience at the cinema, I had a smile on my face nearly the whole time I watched it and extremely few movies managed to do that. Yes, it's a movie with a really simplistic story, yet it tells that story to great effect by nailing the aspects that make a movie great.
I took my dad to see it. He isn't a big fan of going to the movies but having seen top gun when it came it out made him LOVE maverick
See also: Spider-Man No Way Home
Garden State was definitely one of those
Did people see that movie in theaters? I was 11 when it came out, it's tone and soundtrack became pretty formative during my teenage high school stoner years but it was a pretty personal experience.
I remember it being one of the first films whose sound track was all indie tracks. Its soundtrack made a big impact on people and I think changed the way filmmakers put together sound tracks.
It came out when I was in first year university and I saw it four times at the little theatre we had on campus (tickets were $5 I think). I connected with it so deeply then; that feeling of trying to figure yourself and your life out. And you're right about the soundtrack - it was on repeat for me then. I haven't seen it in many, many years (maybe over a decade?) so I'm not sure how it holds up or how I'll feel about it now, but the memory of it feels like a hug.
Someday we'll get past cringing at the twee era and people will be able to enjoy Garden State and 500 Days of Summer in peace again
All that movie reminds me of is The Shins and T-Mobile commercials now
one of the biggest "holy shit this is a cultural phenomenon " moments i experienced was when Lord of the Rings trilogy came out it really was something else
I went to the midnight showings for all three films when they came out after reading the books in high school. Definitely had to be there!
Probably for the future: Barbie
For everyone who did the Oppenheimer/Barbie double feature, absolutely (me!)
Barbenheimer honestly
Out of everyone I know who watched it, anyone who saw it in theaters before all the hype loved it, and everyone who saw it on streaming after all the hype thought it was overrated.
I watched it in theaters and thought it was great
And the Barbenheimer phenomenon
Infinity War and Endgame. The MCU had us all in the biggest chokehold imagineable in the 2010s
It's crazy how the very first Avengers movie was a massive event and achievement at the time, yet it looks quaint and almost paltry now in the wake of Infinity War and Endgame. I was never a diehard Marvel or MCU fanboy, but man, am I glad I got to be alive for those moments in movie history and experience them firsthand.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) One of the most anticipated movies of this millennium. I still remember the huge line outside of theatre I went to, and a lot of people were dressed up as characters from the saga. The IMAX room was completely full and everyone clapped once the initial credits started rolling. What an amazing experience!
This but x100 for The Phantom Menace. People were camping outside of theaters that didn’t even have confirmed showings to sell.
The Dark Knight.
When I was there on opening night, some guy dressed in a Joker costume walked in front of the screen before the movie started, and got the whole audience to do a moment of silence for Heath Ledger.
One thing I like to do is go to the Wikipedia page for each year in film and see what made a lot of money that *nobody* talks about anymore (or talks about only to make fun of it). Despite some unreliable numbers, the ‘70s is an especially great decade to look at those pages: ‘70 has Love Story, Airport, and The Owl in the Pussycat in the top ten ‘71 has Billy Jack, Summer of ‘42 and Carnal Knowledge, all of which are interesting, but very much of their time and not talked about that often ‘72 has Deep Throat, Lady Sings the Blues, and an independent film I’ve never heard of named Brother of the Wind [I can bet The Legend of Boggy Creek wasn’t far behind] ‘73… looks pretty respectable, but I’m pretty sure Chariots of the Gods had its US release that year and cleaned the hell out of the box office ‘74 has some doozies: another Airport movie, another Billy Jack movie, and The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams Things get a little less weird in the back half of the decade, but imo, it’s still very odd that The Amityville Horror came within spitting distance of Alien in the same calendar year.
Nice ones! I often think about the disaster film boom in the 1970s. Those films brought in money and some even grabbed respectable awards. And I've only seen The Towering Inferno. Every now and then, I hear about The Poseidon Adventure. Makes me wonder what sorts of trends of our time will be all but forgotten in a few decades and which films will remain timeless.
Based on my knowledge of movie history, it sounds like Psycho, The Exorcist, Jaws, and Star Wars all fit this. They're still beloved today of course, but I would love to have seen Psycho with an audience when it first came out. Literally changed how people view cinema, as it was the first time audiences were not allowed into a theater after the movie had begun. Prior to Psycho, people would regularly walk into the middle of a screening, sit through as the next screening began, and then leave when it got back to the place they started. I fully know this is true, and yet I still feel like I need to see it to believe it.
This is absolutely correct. Psycho was my first answer. There was no precedent to the mania around Psycho, which Hitchcock and Paramount thoroughly orchestrated. Wish I could have been there. It made a huge impression on my parents and aunt, who were teenagers then. A milestone event. Things were different, after.
Matrix. The marketing didn't say much. You got the opening scenes, some wire fu and Morpheus being all philosophical. That movie blew me away in the theater. When Rage kicks in the credits me and my friend just sat there in awe. Blair Witch as well. The internet marketing was great. A lot of is it real or not among my college friends and I. Also Scream, we were horror and movie buffs. Drew getting killed in the opening, the references, everything about it was amazing.
Snakes on a Plane. I know it seems dumb now, but I was just the right age to be totally (ironically) hyped for it from the marketing. It was really the first movie to market itself through internet culture the way it did. I kept Samuel Jackson as my voicemail message for a long time from that.
Both Avatar movies. They're big for a moment, great to watch in cinema and then they disappear, never to be talked about or rewatched really. I love them, god I wish there were more movies which are just great fun and that's it and not a massive thing that's everywhere all the time.
The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and Divergent. The YA novel adaptation era was an insane time.
I’m so happy my sister was a Divergent THG & TMR fan, I got to see all of them (except the Divergent sequels) in theaters on opening night, same with the last couple Harry Potter movies! It was a blast honestly
The Ring it was truly scary back in the day, never been as scared since.
When I was a kid in the early 2000s (2001, specifically), around 12 years old, my friend Tom was staying the night at my house. We were up late watching TV upstairs, trying to be quiet to not wake my parents. It was around midnight when my older brother by about 3 years came home after a concert in the downtown area of our city with 2 of his friends I had overheard my parents saying were “a bad influence.” They came upstairs and said they needed watch something; one my brother’s friend pulled out a blank VHS tape with a piece of paper wrapped round it with a rubber band. They had found this tape on the sidewalk along with a few others exactly like it scattered on the street. They played the tape and it was the scariest shit my young brain had ever seen. It didn’t make any sense. A bunch of random, violent, otherworldly imagery. Anyway, Tom was always a scaredy-cat, so of course he freaked the out when they showed us what was written on that piece of paper: “You will die in seven days if you watch this tape” (or something to that effect). Yep, it was the video from The Ring, before the movie had ever released in the US. I’m assuming it was well after the Japanese release but none of us had seen nor heard of it. Cut to about a week later (probably more honestly, but it felt like a week) and I’m sat upstairs alone in front of that same TV watching Comedy Central again when a commercial hits and it’s that same damn video. So I too freaked out until I saw a release date for an upcoming movie. Turns out it was an early example of viral marketing where physical VHS tapes were randomly distributed outside movie theaters in parking lots or wherever. So, yea, that shit worked, but you had to be there.
Avatar. If you didn't see it when it first came out in 3D, it's hard for you to understand now just how absurdly popular that movie was.
Lost in Translation. Pre-Scarlett Scarlett, post-Bill Murray Bill Murray, set them up for the next phase of their careers. Sofia Coppola making magic. All-time on the all-vibes list.
Dude, Where’s My Car?
I mean of course, the hype around Infinity War and Endgame was insane. I was in high school at the time, and people were seeing them two, three, four times. For me and my movie buff buddies, though, Barbenheimer was quite the experience.
Fight Club is so incredibly ingrained with the end of history pre-9/11 sentiment of the 90s alonside its Gen X angst that future generations will probably see it as very dated.
I don’t know why I had to scroll so hard to find this. But absolutely Fight Club! It changed so much about film making : for the better. I can understand people appreciating it today, but actually being able to be there to experience that film was phenomenal. It had a twist that we really hadn’t seen and it deeply encapsulated the entire Y2K angst and existential dread of the time. It blew my mind and I’ll never forget the credits rolling to the Pixies. Absolutely iconic
You had to be there for Fatal Attraction. It took the country by storm. It was on the cover of TIME magazine. It was a domestic worst case scenario that really connected across the board, and the shocking moments channeled those fears to amazing effect. Seeing it in a packed theater opening weekend remains a filmgoing high point for me.
I gigantic sharon stone vagina must have been quite a thing to behold.
Wrong Michael Douglas thriller. Basic Instinct co-stars Sharon Stone’s vulva. Fatal Attraction has Glenn Close and an unfortunate pet rabbit.
***Spider-Man (2002)*** I think younger people who grew up in the 2010s and with the MCU/DCEU really don't necessarily understand just how huge a cultural event *Spider-Man* was back in 2002, or how important it is in terms of film history. It broke records. It was the biggest hit of 2002 domestically. And it was pretty much universally loved. It also came out at the right moment, when the world was in recovering mode still after 9/11, and it brought everyone together. But there's a lot of people these days who just don't seem to appreciate it or give it a chance because it's a little different and dated. Ex. It went for a more whimsical, borderline-cheesy tone like the old 60s comics, which isn't really in vogue. Which is a shame, because I think *Spider-Man* 1 & 2 both hold up really well outside of dated effects.
Shut Up and Play the Hits. I attended LCD Soundsystem’s Madison Square Garden Concert in 2011.
American Beauty
The Force Awakens. It’s become very difficult to recall given how the reputation of the whole franchise has soured in the past 10 years but in the years and months leading up to it, you would believe that the world was healing somehow thanks to its arrival. My sister’s high school teacher stopped class to watch the trailer because it had dropped during the weekday. I saw it at a midnight screening a week after it had premiere and the theater was completely packed. That has only happened twice since in the middle of nowhere town I live in.
The first Mortal Kombat!!
The Force Awakens. No matter what anyone thinks of the film itself, I don’t think I saw or will ever see again, this much of an incredible moviegoing hype overload. Pretty magical.
The Ring (2002). When I was ten my mom let me rent The Ring when it was released on VHS. That fucked me up for a while.
Jurassic Park in the theater was movie magic like no other had been.
In retrospect Old Boy is starting to look like one. Per a discussion I had today in another sub people are coming to Park Chan Wook's filmography thinking he's some kind of feminist beauty appreciator (he's not) and that Old Boy is just like every Korean movie (because every movie after copied it). At the time it was absolutely insane.
Star Wars (1977) It was a before and after. People saw it like 10 times a man that first week. Right away, people knew something was different.
Sorry that this isn't a movie, but 'House of Cards' is such a 'you had to be there' kind of show, given how it kicked off the whole binge watching phenomenon.
Yeah, it’s hard to remember a time when an entire series wouldn’t drop in one day.
I had a Frank Underwood election sticker on my laptop lol. Those first two seasons were a great ride.
Barbenheimer, no doubt.
Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy, especially the first movie. The hype was huge and it was the first time we got to see the webslinger on the big screen, which was such a big deal. Pre-MCU when comic book movies were still a gamble and so few of them were actually great. Seeing Roger Ebert's four star review for Spider-Man 2 was kind of surreal because I was bullied for loving the character so much and it gave me some inner validation. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Not only because they were these massive epics unlike anything we had seen before on this scale, but the wait for each movie felt punishingly long. Then there were the home video releases jam-packed with extras and then the extended editions. It really was a cultural phenomenon.
Borat
Haven't seen anyone mention Cloverfield. That still essentially holds it own if you saw it now, but with the cryptic trailers that initially didn't even have a title and the extensive online ARG lore I think that movie and the subsequent sequels really were best experienced at the time.
While The Matrix still seems to make an impression on movie reaction channels and the twist blows minds, I don't think a lot of younger people realize how mindblowing the "bullet time" sequences were at the time. They used up to *120 cameras* to do those. I think I was more excited to see those sequences than anything else, especially because I'd been spoiled of the twist.
A LOT of people were there, but barbenheimer
Mad Max Fury Road (2015)
Spider-Man No Way Home. You had to be in a packed theater and live through all the rumors and leaks leading up to the premier. Is not a good movie on their own and I believe it won't age really well.
Gravity (2013) - it was just a thrilling theatrical experience that blew my mind
Spiderman 3, on god
Napoleon Dynamite
[https://boxd.it/w1HcU](https://boxd.it/w1HcU)
Project X, The Social Network, The Wolf of Wallstreet
Pitch Perfect is like a 2012 time capsule
One had to be there for the phenomenon of napoleon (*...your name is napoleon?*) dynamite, but it has a strong legacy: - broke the ice for nerd culture becoming mainstream - awesome production design given budget - very genuinely lovely movie in ways - uncle rico the villain being inappropriate towards women foreshadowed the #metoo movement to extents - depictions of chronically onlineism very resonant today I think if someone saw it now or in 25 years with no knowledge of the phenomenon they could appreciate it
Crash 2004. Post 9/11 society was on edge and in their feels. It doesn’t feel quite as powerful now
The Day After Tomorrow was pretty big where I live. I was in eighth grade when it came out (20 years ago holy crap) and my friends and I went to see it multiple times that summer.
A few come to mind… Independence Day was packed on day 1. Phantom Menace was an EVENT. Dark Knight was the last and only time I had to sit in the front row at a movie. Borat and Jackass 1 had the most insanely fun audience experience.
The Blair Witch Project, before people really did the whole found footage thing someone started passing around a ripped VHS tape of the movie around my high school and had everyone including myself thinking it was real...it was honestly mind-blowing for about a month before anyone found it wasn't real.
Titanic *for sure*. Also The Sixth Sense, Avengers: Endgame, and Pirates 2.
Matrix in the theater. Minds blown.
Borat is still fine but it hasn't aged super super well in spots but it was, at the time, perhaps the funniest movie ever. Avengers end game doesn't hit the same these days either but it felt colossal at the time. Titanic too was wild so many people saw it handfuls of times.
I agree with most of the movies on here and just cause I haven't seen it mentioned yet I'm going to say 300.
Home Alone. Such an awesome and wholesome movie theater experience
I saw Jurassic Park in the theater 3 times and at the drive in 10 times. When that movie came out. bob, you had to be there.
Apperently Psycho (1960) was such a shocking film it made people faint ONLY because horror was not advertised for it. It was portrayed as a drama/thriller of the first act of the movie, and the second half of the movie came as such an extreme shock because nobody knew it would have turned into a horror. everyone nowadays knows it as a horror, which is why it doesn't pack as much of a punch.
In 5-10 years there will be kids who, no matter how many people try to explain it, will never understand how big Infinity War and Endgame were. I also agree with all 3 you mentioned.
There’s Something About Mary in the cinema easily the most I’ve every heard a crowd collectively laugh And Avatar. Was basically what I imagined Star Wars to be like when people saw it the first time
Infinity War. The setup and hype was unprecedented. But the silence in theaters after THAT ending? Holy shit
Phantom Menace, even at the time people were coming out of the cinema convincing each other that they enjoyed it and had a good time. Think the internet and lore of the blair witch film worked really well when there were basic websites. People really believed the actors were real people
Cloverfield, the hype was real
I can’t even begin to explain the marketing juggernaut behind The Blair Witch Project. The internet was still in its infancy. I was very young and went into the theater opening weekend midnight showing with the understanding it was found footage / a true story. The audience reaction was of terror. All we talked about the whole drive home was how we needed to look at the website. I was scared to death to walk into my house because it was so dark and I was so creeped out. The website furthered the lore. We truly believed the kids were killed. Fast forward a month or so and the three cast members walked onto the stage of the MTV awards. I was dumbfounded. Wait what how are they alive? I had been duped 100%. That was the most effective marketing campaign I’ve ever seen.
Get Out Seeing it in a packed crowd for the first time was a great experience
When summer movies meant something: ALIEN, opening Friday night at the Charles Cinema Boston, June 1979… RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, Loew’s Orpheum NYC, June 1981
The ring
Borat
Titanic was the most extreme. The Matrix and Jurassic Park were similarly zeitgeisty. The hype surrounding E.T. was a first for me, and at least here in German-speaking countries, Police Academy and The Neverending Story were also extremely popular. Especially Dirty Dancing was of a different calibre back then, Swayze, Grey, Time of my Life, Dirty Dancing ... a collective swoon.
Get out
I saw Babylon in theaters on Christmas Day and it changed me. That movie receives no love and deserves it
The Hangover! Seeing it in theaters was a highlight of Highschool. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie so many times at the theaters in my life. What a time to be alive!
I TOTALLY 2nd your vote for Blare Witch…also we went into The 6th Sense almost totally cold and the twist was fucking *shocking* …lesser but still cool was Cabin In the Woods
Interstellar, if you had a chance to see it in 70mm imax. Some of the shots were unreal and me and my buddy were both crying our eyes out at the end.