What's the first movie (or few movies) you remember seeing in a theater?

[daveB from Oakland]

Another early movie memory: My mom yelling at the theater manager for showing violence-laden trailers for R-rated movies during afternoon kiddie matinées. I was pretty embarrassed at the time, but in retrospect: Good for you, Mom!

I agree. Good for your mom! I remember going to a matinee of "Going In Style" with my dad. Granted, not a kid movie, but PG and in the afternoon. Kids would be there.  I remember absolutely nothing about the feature presentation. All I remember was a trailer showing tidal waves of blood coming out of creepy hotel elevators.

Kubrick's "The Shining", right? I gotta say, that was a pretty amazing trailer, inappropriate forum or not.

[Bernard]

dunno the first one i saw, but the first i saw with glasses was "death becomes her."

[JonFromMaplewood]

Kubrick's "The Shining", right? I gotta say, that was a pretty amazing trailer, inappropriate forum or not.

What amazes me is that someone back then had the stones to make a trailer that told you nothing about the film other than "Blood coming out of elevators. Dissonant music that includes howling voices. Brace yourself" followed by the equally-vague title "The Shining." 

[Chris L]

Kubrick's "The Shining", right? I gotta say, that was a pretty amazing trailer, inappropriate forum or not.

What amazes me is that someone back then had the stones to make a trailer that told you nothing about the film other than "Blood coming out of elevators. Dissonant music that includes howling voices. Brace yourself" followed by the equally-vague title "The Shining." 

Probably obvious, but I'm sure the trailer was Kubrick's idea.  He tried to control the marketing of all his films.

[Wes]

Kubrick's "The Shining", right? I gotta say, that was a pretty amazing trailer, inappropriate forum or not.

What amazes me is that someone back then had the stones to make a trailer that told you nothing about the film other than "Blood coming out of elevators. Dissonant music that includes howling voices. Brace yourself" followed by the equally-vague title "The Shining." 

Probably obvious, but I'm sure the trailer was Kubrick's idea.  He tried to control the marketing of all his films.

Nope. It was Scatman Crothers' idea. Kubrick planned to cut what was going to be a pretty standard horror trailer, and Scatman kept calling him up and saying "Just the blood, Stan! Just the blood!" Shortly before his death, Crothers was also the one who had to talk Kubrick out of his "fanatical, Lobo-fueled obsession" with casting Claude Akins as Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, which made it possible for R. Lee Ermey to later win Kubrick over.

[Smelodies]

It was also Scatman's idea to have the t&a in Eyes Wide Shut.

[JustSheaNo]

I submit these with special attention to the fact that I was 8 in 1986:

Raising Arizona (1986)
The Golden Child (1987)
The 'Burbs (1989)


I may or may not have also seen Sweet Liberty. I vaguely remember Alan Alda in a tri-corner hat.

(I am sure I saw a movie in the theater before these, but I don't remember them).

[AllisonLeGnome]

The Little Mermaid.

I wasn't born yet when it originally came out, so it must have been some children's matinee sort of thing. I remember being terrified at the end and biting my finger so hard that it left a mark for a long time after (at least in my imagination at the time- I haven't verified this or anything).

[Joe Rogaine]

I think the second movie i saw in a theater was Crocodile Dundee.

[Arsenio and Warren]

The first movie I saw in the theater was The Care Bears Movie.  I was about 5 or 6 and watched it in a theater with a whole gaggle of other little kids - if I remember correctly it was a matinee screening for church groups.  Anyway, probably five or six adult chaperones and about 30 little kids.  I don't think the film lasted more than ten minutes before the first reel got caught in the film gate.  Stunned, we all watched in horror as Funshine Bear's face melted through the celluloid until just a bright white light was projected on the screen with the fap fap fap of the broken film strip and a bit of smoke wafting out of the projector booth.  All of the kids erupted in screaming/tears and the theater manager came in and told us all to leave.

[DS1077]

Most of my first moviegoing experiences involve me leaving the theater in fear.  Vigo the Carpathian in "Ghostbusters 2" was too much for me, and the ending battle in "The Little Mermaid" had me going to the lobby and assuming the fetal position.  Although it's also possible that those aren't exactly the firsts but just stand out more vividly because of the whole being terrified thing.

[fonpr]

Herbie the Love Bug.

[JonFromMaplewood]

Vigo the Carpathian in "Ghostbusters 2" was too much for me...

I can see why.

[mackro]

It almost was Clash Of The Titans in 1981.  However, my mom decided to sneak into another movie she wanted to see before that one -- Arthur.

Arthur it was.

[samir]

Samir, how did you say He-Man growing up? I bet the British pronounced it as "HE-min", sort of rhyming with demon. Don't lie, man, we'll know.

"Hey-min"