What's the Best Place To Sit In A Movie Theater?

When it comes to where you should sit in a movie theater to get the best experience, it's mostly a matter of preference. Except when it comes to sound. Find out why -- and where you should sit -- in this episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
it's Christian Seger. And let me tell you I love
going to the movies, but I have often experienced that
awkward moment when you walk into the movies with friends
and you all kind of have a quick discussion. It
can sometimes get heated about where you want to sit
down to watch the film. Now, everybody has their preference.

(00:25):
Some people like to sit towards the front, some people
towards the back. The good news is that most modern
theaters are built in such a way that almost anywhere
you sit, you're going to have a pretty good experience.
And it actually starts with the seating because it's way
more plush than it used to be. If you go
to an older or discount theater, sometimes you'll still feel

(00:46):
the hard seats that fold down and they're not super
comfortable to spend two hours in. But most modern theaters
have really plush seats, and their backs are higher, the
armrests can fold down or up. You have to put
your cup there. Sometimes they even have trays that slide
out like that like you're on an airplane or something.
Their stadium seating, though, and that has really changed things

(01:08):
because theaters used to be built with a grade of
about fifteen degrees from the front to the back to
theoretically give you a good view over the heads of
other viewers, but now it's actually terraced so that it's
a rise of about twelve to fifteen inches per roh.
So no matter how many fools are coming into your
theater and sitting down with giant hats or big hair

(01:30):
dues and sitting in front of you, you're still going
to be able to see pretty well. But aside from comfort,
the really big thing that you want to take into
consideration is sound. We live in a time when theater
sound has been amped up to super digital magic. Really
the best place is going to be about two thirds
back from the front and toward the middle. The sound

(01:54):
engineers balance out a theater, and the way they do
it is they will sit in that exact position and
balance out everything from that spot, so that if you're
sitting right there, it's completely balanced and you almost get
a neutral sound. But if you shift just a seat
or two left or right, you're actually going to get
a more dynamic, stereo kind of sound. But if you

(02:18):
just want to sit wherever you want, look that's cool,
but just know you might not be getting the best
possible sound experience, so pick your seat and have a
great time at the movies. Check out the brainstuff channel
on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands of

(02:38):
other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.