Movies are events. Midnight launches, collectible posters. huge lines, press coverage, billion dollar grosses, all of it is the result of a culture of making movies into events. Movies are marketed as big social activities, something to talk to your friends and neighbors about for months. Some people actually feel embarrassed to see a movie by themselves. There’s absolutely no need. There are many upsides to seeing a movie in a theater by yourself, if you know the right way to look at things.
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1. Clockwork
Have you ever had a problem with making yourself late? Even if you have, other people typically serve to make it worse. When all you count on is yourself, you tend to make it to movies on time. It used to be “oh we’ll only miss the trailers”, but trailers now are so good that they might exceed the main feature. You can set up your own schedule, allow time for popcorn, go to the potty, whatever you need to do. It’s way less stressful to mandate your own schedule for a timed event.
2. Prime Selection
If you’re seeing a movie on your own, you can choose the movie without guilt or expectation. In a group, you might have to concede to the lowest common denominator and see some awful comedy with nothing but fart jokes, or the latest boring action movie with nothing new to blow up. Going on your own, you can allow yourself to see the French musical about whaling ships. You can see the animated film about the happy horse prince. You don’t have to worry if anyone else will like it, just you.
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3. Hold On to Your Butts
Do you like to see the pores in your favorite actors face? Do you like to see the big picture from a ways back, like a benevolent god from on high? Do you like to see everything from slightly to the left, to emphasize the fact that nothing in life is seen from a perfect angle? When you go to the cinema alone, you get to pick your seat. This sounds like a minor thing, but once you’ve experienced the ultimate freedom in location, you’ll forever resent your friends and their vision preference.
4. To There I Never Was
Movies are about invoking a response in the viewer. You go see a movie to feel something, and the worst movies aren’t award winning affairs or z-grade grind house slop, they’re the mediocre ones with no emotional stakes or provocative imagery. If you see a film by yourself, you are immediately more immersed in what’s happening on screen. You aren’t paying attention to your friends reactions, trying to gauge them. Instead, you’re teleported to the time and place on the screen.
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5. Zen, Baby
Going to a movie by yourself leaves you with a sense of calm after leaving the theater that you can’t really get anywhere else. Watching a movie at home is the bees knees to, but you’re still lat home, distracted, thinking about other things. The ceremony of going out of your way to the theater and tuning out the world, your phone, your chores for 2.5 hours gives your senses a much needed break from the world at large. Take some time and try it yourself this week.
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