Our favorite memories at the movies

As the box office heats up this summer, The Verge reflects on the magic of theaters

It’s a great time to go back to theaters! The Odyssey is currently making believers in IMAX . And combined with the power of Spider-Man, it’s also breaking box-office records . After Verge senior reviewer David Imel reported back on his latest 70MM IMAX adventure, it got most of the staff talking in Slack about our favorite memories in front of the silver screen.

Don’t worry, this isn’t Phase 3 of AMC’s Nicole Kidman ad campaign . But there’s still something great about settling into a dark room with noise that will blow you away like a Maxell cassette .

My own favorite memory is seeing the first live-action Transformers in the theater in 2007 in a giant stadium in Maryland. I’d never watched the animated series and wasn’t a fan of the franchise; it was just the biggest ticket you could get at the time. I wouldn’t rate this ridiculous film on a list of almost any size, but the in-person experience ranks at the top because of the audience . When Bumblebee transformed into a Dodge Challenger, the entire crowd erupted in applause and cheering with people leaping out of their seats. The fun was infectious.

We’d love to hear your own memories at the movies — so please visit the comments! — TC Sottek, senior editor

I was in high school when the Star Wars movies had their big 20th anniversary rereleases, and I was a huge Star Wars fan. (Got there through the music; it’s John Williams’ fault I’m a horn player.)

The nearest multiplex to my house was the Fresh Pond theater in Cambridge, MA — right off the Alewife end of the red line. We all settled into the dark with our popcorn, the famous blue text appeared on screen, and a man down in the front shouted along, in the most Boston accent you can possibly imagine: “A LAWNG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAH, FAH AWAY!!!”

The entire theater completely lost it, as one, cracking up entirely, and after that it was a very cool, very congenial, very unified group enjoying the movie. — Kate Cox, senior producer, decoder

Way back in 2009, I saw District 9 at the dear, departed Regal UA Court Street in Brooklyn (bring it back! Put in an IMAX!). This was a classically interactive theater, and my fellow filmgoers and I agreed that this movie using giant insecty aliens as a metaphor for South African apartheid was an entirely participatory experience. If only I could remember the quips (besides “BUG!”), but I think about the collective feeling nearly every time I go to the movies, which is an awful lot. — Meredith Haggerty, senior reports editor

It’s a sweltering day in early September in 2022, but I’m able to avoid the worst of it while holed up in various theaters for 12 hours a day while covering the Toronto International Film Festival. But then something weird happens: As I’m watching Glass Onion , Rian Johnson’s long-awaited return to Knives Out and Benoit Blanc, the logo of the very website I’m working for appears on the screen. Everyone else in the theater gasps because the Verge headline is a major revelation, meanwhile I’m dizzy from too many cups of coffee and wondering if what I just saw was real. Even weirder: Since the movie doesn’t stream until December, I can’t talk about it with anyone for months. — Andrew Webster, senior entertainment editor

For me, it was seeing Batman Begins at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood on opening night. Warner Bros. gave out little promotional bat symbol flashlights and, when the lights went down, the iconic ceiling of the theater lit up with little bat symbols as the crowd went wild. The feeling was electric. — Kevin McShane, editorial director audio/video

I got a phone call from a friend one morning. “Hey you want to go see Return of the King tonight?” My (shameful) answer was “what’s that?” He rightly lectured me on my life choices and explained a bit to me. So I was in, but I also hadn’t seen the first two movies. He pointed out we had the time if I left to go to his house right away, so I did. We watched Fellowship and Two Towers back to back, then immediately left the house for a midnight showing of Return of The King . The collective experience of everyone in the theater crying at “my friends, you bow to no one” is a thing I’ll remember forever. — Ursa Wright, podcast video editor, Decoder

I saw my first silent film in 2018, at the legendary Music Box Theatre in Chicago. Well, sort of silent — the 1928 melodrama Street Angel has title cards in place of audible dialogue, but was part of the transitional period between the silent era and the “talkies” and originally screened with recorded music (its lead, Janet Gaynor, won the first Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance). Growing up, I was not a movie person; my family watched the same few over and over. At the Music Box, a live organist off to the side of the screen accompanied Street Angel — something that didn’t even occur to me as possible. The experience of sitting in the resplendent theater with live music was so luxurious that it reframed what a movie night could be. I briefly fell asleep midway through, but waking up was heavenly. — Mia Sato, features writer

I went to see Spider-Man: No Way Home in theaters with a friend during its opening weekend. I’ll never forget the moment that theater exploded in cheering and applause when Andrew Garfield hopped through a portal and pulled off his mask. I’m a huge Spider-Man fan and had already heard all the rumors about Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire appearing in the film, but that didn’t dull the thrill of being in the theater for that scene. It’s my least favorite of the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, but had the best theater experience by far — watching it at home just isn’t the same. — Stevie Bonifield, news writer

In 2022, I went to see Everything Everywhere All at Once by myself at around 11PM on opening night. I had absolutely no idea what it was about, and just coming out of COVID lockdown, I was both starved for community and good storytelling. The emotional whiplash I felt during that film was crazy. Everyone in the tiny theater in Brooklyn was laughing, crying, and exclaiming together. When the movie ended, I was emotionally drained but so happy. I went on a four-hour existential walk afterwards and watched the sunrise over the water before finally heading back home. — David Imel, senior reviewer

In 2011, I went on a first date to see Rango (that movie about the chameleon voiced by Johnny Depp). I was so nervous and overthinking my hand placement on the armrest the entire time — trying to encourage him to hold my hand, which he did — that I didn’t pay attention to the plot at all and had quite literally zero memory of the movie. We’re still together 15 years later! I’ve never rewatched the movie (or, should I say, watch it for essentially the first time), but it’s on my list! — Hayden Field, senior AI reporter

Seeing Barbie in theaters right when it came out was just so much fun . Everyone was excited to be there, and a bunch of people were dressed up. When the film started, a fellow Barbie told the rest of us Barbies in the theater to all be quiet, which got a big laugh. Good thing the film was so good, too! — Jay Peters, senior reporter

I grew up near Pittsburgh, and a few times a year, my parents would take us to the Carnegie Science Center downtown. Among its many charms — a huge model train setup! a planetarium! — was the Rangos Omnimax Theatre, one of the huge old IMAX dome theaters . Imagine growing up watching four and a half over-the-air channels on a TV the size of a microwave, then seeing a blue whale the size of a blue whale on the screen all around you. And the sound! When they showed you the speakers behind the screen , they were not messing around. I always walked out of there with a sore neck and mild motion sickness, but to this day, I’ve never seen anything more immersive. I just found out they replaced the old 70mm film system with a 4K digital projector in 2017 . To hell with that. We have 4K at home. — Nathan Edwards, senior reviews editor

I’ll never forget the exhilaration of leaving the now-since-rebranded Pittsford Cinema in Rochester, NY for a late-night showing of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight on opening weekend in July 2008. It was the summer before I left for college, and I wouldn’t have guessed at the time how often I would see an incredibly tacky Heath Ledger Joker poster in the dorm rooms of countless freshmen later that year. But in retrospect, it did make sense.

I recall thinking it was the first time I was that excited to see a movie in theaters, and the first time that experience actually exceeded my expectations. It certainly was not an IMAX screen, and the theater was small, old, and filled with uncomfortable chairs. But everyone spilling out into the parking lot at what had to be 1AM that night looked deeply satisfied to have been there. — Nick Statt, senior producer, Decoder

I absolutely love seeing horror movies in theaters, but my all-time favorite experience was seeing Hereditary at the Kabuki in San Francisco. It’s a harrowing, haunting movie, but we got a tiny bit of levity when, toward the end, there was a mostly silent scene with something lurking in the background. Most people in the theater either hadn’t seen it yet or were quiet about it, but one person in the back saw it and immediately yelled out, “Oh, hell no,” which sent a wave of nervous giggles through the rest of the theater. I normally hate it when people talk in movie theaters, obviously, but in this case, it was a kind of bonding experience for an entire group of very scared, very upset people. It’s a great movie that I haven’t dared to watch since. — Kallie Plagge, senior copy editor

A few friends and I went to see I Am Legend in Imax in 2007. There wasn’t anything much cooler to a group of 13-year-olds at the time than a movie that promised zombies, guns, and Will Smith yelling at stuff. We were bouncing in our seats for the movie to start and heckling each trailer for movies that couldn’t hold a candle to what was surely going to be the best movie… until something else started playing. Some people assumed the movie started because there were some studio logos before a big opening shot and there was no “in-a-world” trailer announcer. Still, people murmured to each other about how they didn’t think I Am Legend would have an opening scene with a bunch of men in clown masks setting up for some kind of heist.

It was the first six minutes of The Dark Knight, the entire bank heist sequence, and everybody in the theater was locked in. What followed was about 1 hour and 40 minutes of an entire theater of people wishing they were watching The Dark Knight instead. — Owen Grove, video director