Drinking @ The Movies-Classic or Dud?

Background first:

I’ve just got back from a midnight screening of Sunset Boulevard at our one and only Art House here in town. The theatre is a renovated picture palace; with a main room downstairs while the balcony has been enclosed and turned into two microtheatres (one friend compares them to really nice living rooms).

I was meeting friends for the screening, which was supposed to be in the big theatre. However, there was a note at the box office that said that the print had a damaged audio track and even though they were still going to screen it, they’d arranged an alternative digital presentation (projected DVD) in one of the upstairs theatres for people who, you know, actually wanted to listen to the film. Fine then, we’re down here already, it’s too far to go back home, let’s do it.

There is also a fully stocked bar & lounge upstairs, which is where everyone had to wait for the last showing of Another Year to surrender the theatre for our show. So of course the bar is doing way more business than usual, as the midnight movie didn’t happen til 12:20 or so (IIRC the bar tends to close up at midnight). Even I succumbed and had a drink (someone else paying helped) before heading in for the show. Most everyone else was at least slightly inebriated as well.

Now, aside from some obviously inebriated grumblings from the back of the gallery during screening that I could easily tune out and the persistent problem of “It’s funny cause it’s old” laughs, I had a fine time. But I’m posing this question solely because among those in my party was my best friend, who afterwards started coming on like a nazi to me about how no one should drink during a movie and because of the aforementioned grumblings he simply couldn’t enjoy the film. He went on at length.

This to me is annoying. I’ve heard it all before in other contexts. I know he has issues with drinking. I also know he’s a big cigarette smoker (and pothead to boot), which I think keys into some elitist trip about vices. And besides, how big a bug do you have to have up your ass to not enjoy Sunset Boulevard on the big screen?
But it got me thinking—do people other than me really have that big a problem with other people drinking at the movies? Does it enhance the experience? Or should celluloid and alcohol never share a room? Anybody got any entertaining stories to tell on the subject?

Oh, and just to spite my bud, I say CLASSIC.

drinking = classic
movies = okay
yr bro = dud

well I usually have a few beers at the art theatre around here but in general I think it's a dud because alcohol makes me tired and more likely to fall asleep during a movie. generally if I go to any movie after 9 pm, I have to have something with caffeine, or I will fall asleep. No matter how good it is.

Dud for me, but I don't care if someone else likes to do it, as long as they don't get drunk and ruin the movie for other people. but despite the actual stereotypes, most people who drink during movies don't act out like that at all. in fact at the local theatre that serves hard liquor/beer, there's only been one movie I went to where a drunk couple had to be told by management to shut up, and I think they were drunk on arrival.

so...dud, but only because it makes me drowsy.

regarding inebriated grumblings though, I can see how it can be annoying if it's really disruptive as opposed to just being mild background noise that's easy to tune out.

I don't know which of the two it was in your movie, but y'know just saying in general....

well I usually have a few beers at the art theatre around here but in general I think it's a dud because alcohol makes me tired and more likely to fall asleep during a movie. g

I can drink at home watching a movie yet at the theatre I'll fall asleep. Weird.

Classic if your bladder behaves itself. Only a few beers mind, going to the cinema completely wasted is kind of pointless.

Classic. My local cinema has a bar at the back of the room, but audiences are generally pretty good at not getting drinks during the film.

I'd like to try The Roxy near London Bridge, which is more of a bar set up, with a screen at one end of the room. I wonder if people actually watch films in that environment?

Going to the BFI hungover and watching at least two films = classic.

I went to see both the Simpsons and Walk Hard (separate nights) tipsy to plastered off wine. saw approximately 50 minutes of both movies combined before my eyes shut.

classic! (except for the multiple trips to the bathroom this usually entails for me)

my best booze @ cinema experience: sneaking bourbon into a midnight showing of Borat on opening night @ a theatre in Manhattan. It was a packed house & I'm pretty sure 50-75% of the audience either arrived drunk or smuggled their own. People were rolling in the aisles. It was a riotous experience!

I wouldn't normally have more than one pint otherwise I'd need to piss and I hate having to annoy everyone by getting up, and also don't like missing any bit of a film. Although having said that going to see a midnight movie showing of The Room shitfaced was CLASSIC.

In terms of other people doing it, I don't think it's the case of drinking at the movies C or D, it's more a case of does their drinking cause them to perform annoying acts more frequently? If so, perhaps they shouldn't drink at the cinema. If not, then who cares? I probably have a lower threshold of annoyance at the cinema than most people, though, which is why I usually just have people round to watch films in an environment where I don't really mind chattering and laughing.

But maybe this is something about expectations? Like, I would expect all midnight movies to be completely rowdy and tailor my expectations accordingly, but I don't expect an early evening showing of a Derrida documentary to be full of irritating pricks.

^ yes, only classic when done under suitable circumstances.

i go movie-by-movie for this personally. some movies enjoy drunkenness more. sunset boulevard almost certainly does.

re: op's "inebriated grumblings", portland has plenty, plenty of theaters that serve beer/wine (some w/booze) and i have never seen or heard people getting out of line or too chatty etc.
Also, C

When I was a college freshman we used to sneak 6-packs into the local movie theater and get tanked while we watched. We did it for "The Running Man," "Eddie Murphy: Delirious" and "Nightmare On Elm Street III" that I can remember, probably others. It was awesome. For "The Running Man," there were like 8 of us, and one other couple in the theater, and they left about half an hour in.

http://blog.kexp.org/blog/files/2010/12/drinking-at-the-movies.jpg

For something like "the Room"? Utterly classic. For Moonlight Cinema outdoors also classic tho yeah the toilet problem ugh. I once saw Fear & Loathing ruinously drunk and stoned which is lol apporopriate I guess ha.

Last time I went to the cinema a friend and I drank a bottle of red. It was a great idea, if a little hard to pour in the dark.

You're supposed to pour it directly from the bottle to your mouth iirc

I miss Visions Cinema, especially because of their Saturday midnight "Kick the Keg" screenings. They'd put a keg of beer in the theater and for $10 you could drink all you wanted.

Uncle Boonmee was a great hangover palliative.

Dud. I get restless and want to leave the whole time. Doesn't help that the alien beauty of most hollywood celebs arouses me beyond belief.

http://images.free-extras.com/pics/f/family_guy_puking-1121.gif

LOL I thought this was gonna be a c/d thread for my friend Julia's graphic novel (pic'd above by askance johnson)

classic as long as you don't get too drunk

actually, that goes for drinking in general too

I almost always have a beer or some wine when I'm watching a movie at home and it sucks that there aren't a lot of public where you can do this

my bf at the time bought me v expensive tickets to the first LOTR premiere but i drank too much champagne at the pre-screening party and then there was something like a 45 min delay to start the movie (midnight screening obv) and i fell asleep before it even started.

Doesn't help that the alien beauty of most hollywood celebs arouses me beyond belief.

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Drinking beer @ the movies is so incredibly classic. Just killer classic. My sister is a bigger fan of sneaking in a flask and pouring it into the movie theater soda to make a giant (booze of her choice) + coke. It is nice to live in a town again w/a theater that serves beer. I was just sneaking it into the theater in my purse in Las Cruces. I quit doing it because they didn't get very many movies, and the only movies I ever went to see in the theater were like Pixar flicks & Ponyo & Coraline, stuff with lots of kids in the audience. Which made me feel like kind of a creep drinking some giant stout in the midst of some daycare field trip.

haven't had alkie in a theater in awhile. i once had three beers before an outdoor screening of 'bottle rocket' and fell asleep 20 minutes in, woke up five minutes before the end

Last time I went to the cinema a friend and I drank a bottle of red. It was a great idea, if a little hard to pour in the dark.

Hahah dude if the Room is showing again before u leave we should totally do this lol.

I've never smuggled drinks in the theater. Then again I'm the one usually driving myself to the theater these days.
I hear stories about people toking up at cheesy Fantasy and Action movies, I've never witnessed it myself. Twilight was the popular pot movie for a while.