Best audience reactions you've heard in a movie theater

[sydneybrown]

There's Something About Mary.

 

Jizz.

 

Hair.

 

Probably the most sustained crowd laughter I've ever heard in a movie theater.

 

 

That's mine.  I saw it opening night and I'm not kidding when I say I went to see it twice partly because I literally missed the ENTIRE date between Diaz and Stiller because the audience laughed hard for the first punchline and then just completely lost their shit for the second punchline.  It was at least one-two minutes before I could even hear what anybody was saying in the movie.

 

The Borat wrestling scene is a definite runner-up.  And the surprise inside the trunk in The Hangover is up there too.

 

The greatest theater experience I ever had was a midnight sneak preview of Ed Wood.  It was a packed house full of total movie nerds who lost their shit at all the right times.  You would have thought it was bound to be the smash hit of 1994. 

 

As far as most memorable moments by a single person, I went to the opening night of Trainspotting, and I live in OKC which is a somewhat conservative town, and when they get to the scene where a girl is trying to have sex with her passed-out boyfriend, and she picks up his semi-erect penis, a guy in the audience just shrieked "OH MY GOD!!!" To this day I can't watch that movie without remembering that.  And it's so weird considering how there were WAY more disturbing moments in that movie than that, but a flacid dick sent one guy over the edge.

 

Let me also add that the second greatest theater experience I ever had was attending a double feature of Bullets Over Broadway and Clerks.  The audience was completely old couples, a young couple, and myself.  Everybody watched the Woody Allen film.  And I KNEW things were about to get ugly.  By the time they got to Randall listing off the porn titles in Clerks, there were only three people left in the theater.

[caley]

 

 

Let me also add that the second greatest theater experience I ever had was attending a double feature of Bullets Over Broadway and Clerks.  The audience was completely old couples, a young couple, and myself.  Everybody watched the Woody Allen film.  And I KNEW things were about to get ugly.  By the time they got to Randall listing off the porn titles in Clerks, there were only three people left in the theater.

 

Awesome.

 

Reminds me of seeing 'Apocalypto' in theaters and there was a family behind us who were fairly uncomfortable the whole way through, then when the jaguar pretty much rips that one dude's face-off, without a word (at least an audible one), they stood up in unison and walked out of the theater.

[JRGoldman]

A couple come to mind for me. 

 

I can't remember what the movie we were seeing was, but one of the trailers was for Midnight Meat Train. People were pretty in to it, and then the title screen popped up. There was this overwhelming sense of puzzlement and people were trying not to giggle. It was all for naught when someone yelled out "All Aboard! Toot Toot!" and everyone completely lost it. 

 

When the Friday the 13th remake came out, my friends and I decided to see it at a theatre in Cleveland called Tower City, which generally has a pretty high quotient of audience participation. There was a woman sitting in the same row as us who had two comments that we still quote. When the girl was being held captive by Jason and her brother says she has been missing for a few months, she yelled out "Damn, that girls pussy must be stank!", which was only topped when Jason came out and killed someone in particularly graphic fashion and she informed all of us "That motherfucker is too exclusive for the oh-nine". 

[Skeeball Wizard]

Mine would have to be in the "South Park" movie, when Cartman finally breaks out the "Kyle's mom is a big fat bitch" song, the entire theatre clapped along in unison like they planned that shit out beforehand .

[Petey]

I actually wasn't there for it, but I've had several people tell me that the midnight showing of Snakes on a Plane was something they've never experienced before or since at a movie theater. Just people going crazy all movie like they were watching a sports game or wrestling match.

[caley]

I actually wasn't there for it, but I've had several people tell me that the midnight showing of Snakes on a Plane was something they've never experienced before or since at a movie theater. Just people going crazy all movie like they were watching a sports game or wrestling match.

My friend said he went to 'Snakes on a Plane' and there was this big group of loud drunk dudes in the back row who erupted into applause when the "Motherfuking snakes on the motherfucking plane" line was said, then stood up in unison and walked out.

[piranesi]

This probably doesn't count, since it was the Oakland "speakeasy theater" and not a regular showing...But the night they played ZARDOZ accompanied by service of beer and cocktails, along with pizza...was mental.

 

I mean, people had clearly spent days working up the material they were bringing to this.  It was fantastic.  But most showings of anything there were pretty great.

 

RIP Oakland Speakeasy theater...