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  • The Passion of the Christ. I was very confused that people thought it was a good film. And in my specific case, confused about why my school thought it was a good idea to take a bunch of minors to see a very gory R-rated film. That was the most violent movie I had seen up to that point. The whole experience was surreal, and not in a good way.

  • I saw a free preview screening of Mission to Mars right before it came out. That horrible movie ended and the theater was dead silent, then someone yelled out, "I didn't have to pay to see that pile of crap". Everyone applauded.

  • Jurassic Park.

    Everyone was blown away, like holy shit, that was amazing

    • It's hard to describe what it was like seeing Jurassic Park in the theater for the first time as a kid.

      Picture this... You're a teenager going to see that big blockbuster everyone's been talking about, but it's 1993. There is no YouTube. There's basically no internet. No spoilers. You've seen the trailers, and they're carefully done so as not to give away the big reveals. So you know this is some kind of dinosaur movie, but you don't know much else.

      And then the dinosaurs show up. And they look 100% fucking real.

      Even today, that movie's special effects hold up, and that's for three reasons:

      • They had CGI, but used it sparingly because it wasn't ready to be all the effects in a movie yet. Where they could use practical effects, they did. And they did an astonishingly good job with them.
      • The dinosaurs are shown sparingly until the audience is practically begging for the various "money" shots - which are then provided, with perfect timing. It's like cinematographic edging.
      • Spielberg was at the absolute top of his game. Scenes were thoughtfully executed and beautifully shot. The water in the glass scene? People in the audience were dead silent, holding their breath. Then the T-motherfucking-rex appears, and it's glorious. Everyone screaming and shouting, half-thrilled and half-terrified.

      It changed movies, permanently.

      • Brilliantly put, and I had basically the exact same experience. I was 13, I think, and I was just blown away by JP.

    • Jurassic Park is the only movie I saw where people clapped at the end. And that was during a screening in 2018. There was no reason, no one was there related to the movie, it was just that good.

  • Just as a disclaimer: I can count on one hand the number of films I've seen in the theater but the answer is "none".

  • The Force Awakens. Not just at the end, though, but also when the opening crawl started and when every returning character showed up.

    "I know what that is! I clapped when I saw it!

  • Wyatt Earp. It was 3 hours long, which was not a normal thing with movies back then (also the movie just wasn't that great). Halfway through people were starting to yell advice to Kevin Costner up on the screen, and when it finally ended, everyone clapped and cheered because it was finally over.

  • Stop Making Sense - maybe the greatest concert film of all time.

    • Hell yeah! That's one of mine too - when I saw it it was at the Edinburgh Film Festival and they set it up like a concert - open air screening, support acts, a bar and food kiosks in sight of the screen, standing only. It was amazing.

  • The theater I was in clapped and cheered during the first multiple Agent Smith fight in the second Matrix movie on opening night.

  • I've been to a few premières through a past job, so I don't count those, nor ones where the filmmakers are present at the screening, as that's just politeness, but I have seen it sometimes (UK)

    Movies where I've seen this happen (and it felt right):

    • South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
    • Grosse Pointe Blank
    • Goodfellas
    • The Big Lebowski
    • Stop Making Sense (special open air screening which was set up like a gig - they even had support acts!)
    • Ghostbusters
    • The Room
    • Aliens
    • All three LOTR movies

    In most cases these were either screenings with a big student crowd, or retrospective screenings which will always bring out the fans, and the atmosphere was really positive, so the applause felt, like a collective acknowledgement of, "How fucking great was THAT?!"

    It's a bit odd to see it at other times, but if someone has had that good a time at a movie, then great! I'm certainly not going to have a problem with it :-)

  • Return of the King, midnight showing as the tail end of a triple feature. Also the first two were the shown as their extended editions. It was quite an event!

    There was one other instance where I remember applause at a theater, but I'm blanking on what movie it was. Trying to think of what might've had the right crowd for it, and that I saw close enough to it's release date. Maybe The Force Awakens, or Endgame? Dunno...

  • Crossroads, with Britney Spears. They shushed when we laughed and we laughed when they clapped. It was a great experience.

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