@@RetroDaze I started in concessions, worked my way to box office then projectionist, and finally management. I was working for Carmike, which no longer exists having sold to AMC...
Back when we didn't have all the information on films that were being made right at our fingertips. Usually we found out what was coming out from posters, movie trailers, or advertisements in magazines and comics.
I grew up during those decades and the theater experience was awesome. We had no idea how good we had it compared to the movies of today. It’s all reboots, sequels, and superhero movies. There’s no variety anymore.
@@darrylwoodbury I’ve been saying for years--movies today SUCK. I grew up with 70’s (child) and 80’s (teen)moviegoing. I guess I was spoiled in that regard.
90s and early 00s theater going here. I definitely miss a lot of it. Unfortunately, after the pandemic and lockdown, something happened to my brain. I can't watch a movie all the way through without knowing that I can pause it and get up. Last movie I saw was No Way Home, and halfway through I just... couldn't enjoy myself. It sucks, because everything else about the experience is still something I crave. The popcorn, the comfy seat, the booming sound. If you rent out a theater for a party can you tell them to pause the movie while everyone goes for a smoke break?
@@Crocogator Not sure of the answer to that question, but you are right that something feels different about being in the theater post-pandemic. Kind of sad.
I've always had a fantasy to time travel back to the 70s and 80s purely to see films (that I now know to be classics) with the original audiences who had no idea what they were about to witness up on the big screen. I remember seeing The Matrix in 1999 and there was a genuine "energy" surging through the audience, an energy that you could sense almost on a primal level, like the audience knew they were seeing something on another level to anything they'd seen before and had totally bought into it. I'd love to re-experience that over and over. You can kind of get the experience with revival screenings, but it's really not the same thing.
This was a NEAT trip into the past. You get a REAL feel for a past time that doesn't really exist anymore, or is slowly fading away. I miss those trips to the theater. Stopping in the Venture (later ShopKo) a few doors down for snacks and then walking over to the theater. I saw a lot great movies that way and it was something we always did as a family. Thanks for the reminder of just HOW awesome it was! 👍🏾🍿🎞️🎟️
For anybody that wants that "video rental feel", you can go to your public library. They always have DVDs. You can always request a certain DVD and have it sent there for you to pick up too. 😊
I was 8 in 1989 i made Gen X by about 2 months . My brother was 12 and an absolute Batman Fanatic. He had a massive collection of Batman movie memorabilia. What a great time to be alive...
Thank you so much Maggie! We really dig doing these more narrative focused videos, though they are a bit more difficult to edit together coherently. Alyssa always manages to hit a home run with them!
1983 is my favorite year I had my twin sister Angie still alive and we both loved the twins of Star wars Luke and Leia and we knew who we were what a Time there's not much left for me nowadays but I have those memories
Thanks for the retro movie experience! Man There was nothing like seeing movies at the Movie Theater in the 80’s and 90’s! They used to make killer Movies everyone couldn’t wait to see! The excitement was almost to much standing in line to get those tickets for the 1989 Batman or Top Gun or Terminator! Then getting your favorite snack and then trying to get the perfect seat in the theater! Then after that amazing movie was over, you are bolting to the bathroom cause you drank a liter of cola and fill your eyeballs floating! Man great times! They just don’t make movies like those anymore!
I loved the 80’s and 90’s movie theatre situation but I absolutely loved the drive-in theatre era, especially when as kids we would sneak in to the woods across the train tracks across from the drive-in with our boombox and tune into the AM or FM station (can’t remember which) the drive-in was putting out and watch movies for free until the wee hours of the morning, all the while dodging their hired teenage security guards. Good times
I can still remember in the 90s when my local movie theater made the announcement that in addition to selling concession snacks, they were also going to open a restaurant and sell food there too. This was in the 90s and they were one of the first theaters to do that. Each seat had its own little slide in and out table and you could eat real restaurant food while watching your movie. It was awesome.
@@RetroDaze it totally did! I can still remember the first movie I saw there after the restaurant opened. It was demon knight. I BEGGED my mom to come with me and my friends. Me and my friends couldn’t because it was R rated and we were only like 14. But I finally convinced her. And idk if you’ve seen that movie, but it was totally meant to be seen on the big screen, so you’re absolutely correct about watching movies on the big screen. I still remember what I got for dinner at that restaurant. It was spaghetti and meatballs. Eating awesome fresh spaghetti and meatballs while watching demon knight on the big screen. It didn’t get any better!
I remember my hometown's old movie theatre "The Sword and the shield" used to play the old "Let's go to the lobby" jingle before the movie would start for a few years as a kid and then they retired it in 1994 (even though it was a old ad from the thirty years prior).
Can't beat those retro memories! ❤ My husband and I still sneak beverages into the movie theater via my big purse, but we buy a large popcorn at the theater to share. Luckily, the the theater gives out free refills of popcorn after the movie to take home!
Whoa, that's really cool. My local drive-in has free refills all night on popcorn if you buy a large, which is nice because this particular theater (The Mahoning) does double and triple features of older movies, so you can really get your money's worth.
My nostalgia button was crushed as soon as you showed the preview to The Wizard. I had a VHS copy recorded from the TV and i wore that thing out as a kid. I watched it soooo many times and send me an angel was my favorite song as a result. Seeing anything from that movie always brings me back!
I miss the comradery that we had in the 80's and early 90's in the theater! I remember going on a Friday or Saturday night, and the theater was packed! I remember going with my girlfriends, and we would scope out where the cutest boy was, and we would stand there and giggle and hope he sees us. That excitement that you would get between waiting for the movie and seeing that cute boy and hoping you can talk to him before the movies over. Then, we make our way into the theater with our popcorn, sodas, and junk food arsenal and finding our seats (hopefully near the group of cute boys we saw!). As we look for seats we find seats a row in front of the boys (although we were probably toward the front of the line so there would have been plenty of seats available lol) and the lights go down and the excitement of the rumbling of the speakers! Here is where the comradery comes in we would all (like almost everyone in the theater) react to the funny parts, the scary parts, the sad parts, and the amazing endings!!!! The theater was so loud at times and also so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Back then when you went to the theater when you were picking a movie it was based on which one out of all the great movies the were playing should we pick (and it was a hard decision most of the time) but now if I were to go to the movies it would be "which ones stink the least?". I really do miss the good old days of the theater (oh and don't forget the drive in!)! Unless you were around in that time, you have NO CLUE what you missed, and it can't ever be explained just perfectly. You REALLY had to be there!!! Thanks for that wonderful trip again down memory lane 😊
@@shannon_w. Thank YOU Shannon, for coming along on our trip to the theater. As for Drive-Ins, they are a subject that deserve their own video! Thank you for sharing those wonderful and fun memories of your theater experiences!
@@shannon_w. I agree 100%. Kids from now on will never experience going to the Theater, using a payphone, and so on. This channel is one of my top 5 channels on Y.T. The comment section is also great! I LOVE THE 80's early 90's also.🤘🏻👍🏻🇺🇲
I grew up with theaters in the 70s and early 80s in Milwaukee. No online purchasing of course, so you had to wait in line for the box office to get tickets. No reserved seats, so you had to stay and wait in the lobby or risk getting bad seats or the group would be separated and where's the fun in that? Parents would not allow return visit to concessions, so we often had to stand waiting for a movie for 45 minutes while staring at popcorn we were holding and not allowed to eat until we were sitting. Originally only one or two screens in the theater. And they were huge. Then they figured out they could remodel and shrink the two screens to make three smaller screens and the triplex was born. Then for several years there was an arms race in screens- who can make four? Then five. Then six. There were a LOT of theaters back then. There were a couple within bike distance. But, today, not so many. The more recent trend to make the megaplex with 20+ screens has shut down many neighborhood theaters.
@@SyntheToonz THIS! Probably the biggest difference of all in theaters then and now. Today, huge theaters with tons of screens. Then, smaller theaters, many mom and pop types, that had two, maybe three screens.
I could go back and do the olden days. Went and saw Deadpool just this past Tuesday, what a difference it was than when I saw Mortal Kombat 3 times in 1995.
The one thing I miss about going to the movies back then is the flavor of the butter-oil on the popcorn. It was richer and not as chemical-ly. Good choice in the movie we saw!
loved going to my local cinema in the 80s and 90,s. sneaking in snacks was part of it. i dont think cinemas will last more than 10 years which is a shame.
@@rupert-j8f It does seem like there is a shift in our viewing habits that will have a big impact on theaters going forward. We certainly hope they don’t disappear.
@@MimiSpears-si7gg Absolutely. Friends we’ve lost or just lost touch with. Celebrities that have passed. It’s crazy. Even so, we hope this brought you some joy.
Thanks! As you might know, we take subscriber suggestions pretty seriously here, so I was curious (as the writer) when you ask for more like this, to you mean topic-wise or style-wise? Thanks for the input!
Tom Cruise can be a polarizing figure but he did revive cinema attendances after covid with Top Gun:Maverick. The opening 5 minutes was like 1986 again!
For me, seeing a movie at the theater was as much about the darkness, low-light setting, as it was about the movie itself. I had the same mysterious feeling in a theater with friends as I did when the school had open house at the school in the evening, an evening orchestra or band concert in the school auditorium, or an evening football game or football dance. The novelty of 3D movies wearing those red and blue lens disposable glasses was also fun. It was the experience of growing up together and experiencing new things with each other outside of a well-lit school classroom with the sun shining through the windows (and cooking us alive, we also didn't have AC in the school, but the movie theater did!)
Brought back a lot of memories for me. I'm not kidding when I tell you I have all my ticket stubs from late '80s early '90s up till the last time I started going to the theater. People really ruined it for me as well as cell phones. Talkers. People that put their feet up and take their shoes off. Kids running around rated R movies because their parents just drop them off in the theater. Constant eating with their mouth open. People just treated movie theaters like they were sitting in their living rooms so I haven't been to the theater since 2013 I think. I know people will say just drown all that out, but it's kind of hard when you're all in the same room together. Even if I go to a matinee anymore it's filled with like 60 people that just won't shut up. I'll just keep my memories of the good old days
I was lucky enough to experience movies in the 90s. The Disney Renaissance and while I didn't get to see Lion King in theaters I did get to see it a big screen TV in are cafeteria. I probably saw every single animated movie you can think of in the nineties in theaters. 😅 For anyone curious, the era during Dumbo and Bambi was the Golden era, the second was the package films during world war II, then you have the silver age which is like where Lady and the tramp and Peter Pan is, then you have the bronze age after Walt Disney's death which includes the aristocats all the way up to Oliver & company, you have the Disney Renaissance or the second golden age from about 1989 all the way to 99. Then you have what might be known as the experimental age from 2000 all the way to 2009. 2011 was the last time we got a traditionally animated movie with Winnie the Pooh. From there we're going to go from 2010 to about I would say 2017 with Coco I'm not sure exactly what we would call it maybe the third golden age. Right now we would technically be in another slump as far as Disney movies go
What a delightful video! Such great memories of some great mid-tier original movies back then that we just don’t get now in the age of sequel and reboot of BIG IPs … The Last Starfighter comes to mind Thanks Jon and gang
@@tedadamgreen Yes! Studios don’t take risks anymore! If it isn’t a guaranteed blockbuster with a built in audience they don’t want to give it a chance.
Ah the days of stepping into a theater room and trying to avoid getting sticky candy from the floor onto your shoes, and getting yelled at for spilling the expensive popcorn that was to be shared.
At least at my local Regal, the experience is still largely the same as it ever was and I wouldn't have it any other way. I go to the movies as often as I can and for me it's like going to church.
Going to the movie theatre and mall are still my two favorite things to do, and I'm 54 years old. I go with my hubby all the time. Today, we're going to a M Night Shyamalan movie (Trap). I get the hot dog, nachos, and cherry icee every time. My hubby gets popcorn and sneaks in his candy. We stream movies, but it's just not the same experience as going to a theatre. We belong to the Cinemark club, so we get discounts.
@@sylviarippey6488 Went to a Cinemark today to watch Deadpool & Wolverine! You’re so right… going to the theater is just a better way to experience certain movies.
@RetroDaze we saw that on Thursday and it was packed! Today's movie was packed as well. They didn't have any hot dogs and the nacho cheese was lukewarm 😕 I whispered something to my husband and the guy next to me shushed me!!! I was like WHAT?!?! 😬 Anyway, hope you had a good time.
Man, making me nostalgic for the Carmike Cinemas in my small southwest GA hometown. You might be a bit jealous of mine, as I also had pinball tables to play. Was one of the first times I ever saw the odd pinball/video hybrid "Baby Pac-Man". Hot DAMN, was it brutally-hard. The ghosts literally beeline to your position (meaning you HAD to flee to the pinball half on Game Start), and also EARN the Power Pellets and such from there.
We have an old theater here in Knoxville- it's so small but I love it!! Too bad it doesn't have 1980s prices!! 😅 I remember going to the 7-11 before the theater!!! We got soooo much candy for $5- a lot!! Then the night time movie was $5 for a ticket- them expensive it seemed ($10 for both- oh to go back in time.... ) Previews were awesome. Saw Ghostbusters 4 times in the theater. First movie memor: I was 3 and my parents took me to see Jaws 😂. I'll never forget that experience- but got over it. Less learned: NEVER sit in front row. Hard on the neck. Love your videoes!!!!
You described exactly how I felt for many years when going to the movie theatre. I wish you had commented on that moment when Batman appears for the first time and says "I'm Batman". How the crowd cheered!
@@RetroDaze yes I remember going to see it 3 times in 1989. The line was wrapped around the theater. I was wearing my large batman face graphic tee, yellow bicycle shorts, batman converse, and a glorious moused mullet! Ahhh I love the 80's!
Yeah, there was this whole thing about everyone making fun of Michael Keaton when they first found out he was going to be Batman, saying he wasn't buff enough, would be a terrible Batman, etc etc. Then the trailer hit theaters, and the public was floored. Totally turned the narrative around.
I walked into Blizzard Beach at Disneyworld. It is the last example of the 90's warm fuzzies left for me, in any of the parks. It's pure beautiful 90's aesthetics.
@@Sparty-pi3jq Taking a boat across to Tom Sawyer Island in the Magic Kingdom is a real step back in time as well. It feels untouched since it opened in the early ‘70s!
Enjoyable episode. I still routinely go to the movies. But oddly enough I was recently thinking about how it was when I was younger. They are still there, but I used to get so excited to walk the hallway looking at the movie posters to see what movies would be coming out.
Agreed! Nowadays it’s so easy to know what films will be coming. We know even before they start production. Back then, you were surprised when you saw the ad on TV or a poster or trailer in the theater.
70s the Drive-In. Sandwiches and Kool-aid from the cooler in the trunk. Pinball at the concession building and a playground under the screen. 80s movie theater that converted the balcony to a second theater. Popcorn, hotdogs and soda. Some arcade machines in the lobby. Smoke clouds catch the projector light. 90s the multiplex with bigger and bigger screens. Still not as big as the Drive-In. More popcorn and soda and an arcade filled with games and pinball. Theater managers mistake loud as good and crank speaker systems to 11. Movies got louder. Multi-channel speaker system wars begin.
@@reyluna9332 Thank you for sharing that journey through movie experiences in the ‘70s, ‘80s, & ‘90s! That was great. We are definitely considering doing another video just for Drive-Ins!
We had a couple family owned single and double screen Cines, and Wherenberg theaters. Kerasotes muscled in during the early 2000's and quickly ruined all their atmospheres with remodels and jacked up prices.
That’s what the AMC theaters have done here, though I don’t know when that happened. Meadows Theater, however, was the only theater left that was, as far as I know, locally owned and operated, but it failed to be able to compete with the competition and closed.
@@ChibaMitsurugi19792 Basically if it is in a heavily populated area, a theater is almost guaranteed to be one of the big companies. Only in smaller towns do you still see locally owned or family owned theaters.
i remember we used to have a little mall that had two things open a sears photo taking place and a second run dollar theater!!! i and my old school pals saw some of our first movies without adults there!!! spirited away, Napoleon Dynamite and the incredibles among others sadly it closed in 2007 and though we have our big multiplex still there, i will never forget seeing movies there and some saturdays bringing half my class because it was only a dollar good times!!!
Hi, Jon. Thank you for bringing me back to the 70s, 80s & 90s theatres with that. I had goosebumps all over again with that Batman intro as if I was watching it in the theatres for the first time.❤
Any way you look at it, going to the movies back in the day was just an all around better experience. And had I known then what I know now, I would have gone a lot more often... I miss seeing the giant marques outside with all the movie titles and times. Trying to read as many as I could as my mother or dad drove past..... Something about the popcorn was infinitely better than making it at home too.... Any kids reading this, please stay a kid as long as possible... It all goes away faster than you think...
@@RetroDaze Honestly, I don't think we Gen Xers would be experiencing the kind of longing for the past that so many of us have, if things today weren't so DRASTICALLY different. If you had told me back then what was gonna be going on with politics and this cancel culture crap, and all the PC stuff we've had to endure, I would've pissed myself laughing... And our younger generations that didn't live through it will just NEVER understand why we hold our convictions and nostalgia so close to our hearts. It's not just a "my generation is better than yours" thing. The 80's and 90's were TRULY a magical time to grow up. I don't think any other generation after X is going to look back on their childhoods and teenage years the way that we do. Technology and the Internet have all been wonderful things. But it's also robbed kids of their innocence so early in life. I dunno... I just really appreciate channels like this and how you and others keep our memories just that. OUR memories. We lived it, and it all helped make us the adults we are today... God bless...
So well said. There is definitely something to that. Our experiences growing up as the last generation to not have the internet, then to grow old witnessing all the ways it has changed us… it makes perfect sense that we would be so nostalgic. Nothing has changed us in recent history the way the internet has, for better and worse.
Fun Dip and popcorn! Seeing Spaceballs with my Grandmother! She had no idea what she was getting into! I've lost the bleeps, I've lost the sweeps, and I've lost the creeps!
For some inexplicable reason, I can remember nearly every movie I've seen in theaters the first 20 years of my life, and in most cases, the exact theater, and in some cases, the exact auditorium. (I must be getting old, because I can't remember half of what I did last week lol.) Clearly I'm a movie guy; grew up watching and renting movies with my dad, who also let me make my own movies on his VHS camcorder (what a heavy sucker that thing was for an 8 year old). My first job was at a movie theater, a position I held for 17 years and only then because the place closed and I was starting a family at the time. My all-time favorite movie theater experience was watching Scream 2 opening night -- sold out show with an audience that was completely into it, much like the opening scene. Anyway, thanks for the great video. (Can I recommend doing one about book stores of the 80s and 90s?) Things have been nuts in life lately, so I've been binging your videos to take my mind off things. Thanks for letting me reminisce.
@@justinf9934 Thank you Justin, for sharing those fun theater memories with us. You can absolutely make suggestions! We crave suggestions! Speaking of book stores in the ‘80s and ‘90s, we cover a few of them in our ‘Ultimate 1980s Mall Experience’ video. You can see it here: The Ultimate 1980s Mall Experience th-cam.com/video/Eiu-R5xOxUo/w-d-xo.html You can also step back in time to the School Book Fair in this video: Scholastic School Book Fairs of The '80s & '90s th-cam.com/video/46l_7BkjhwE/w-d-xo.html Thank you for joining us on our little trip to the theaters of yesteryear!
Thank you sir for having this channel often think about the the 70s and 80s when I was a kid be honest with you on there's nothing like it I know that finish line today's times follow the technology and everything that they got nowadays I'm not knocking it I mean I guess some of it's good if I could go back to the 80's my bags would be packed ty again ..... Home sick for the 80's🤘
@@RetroDaze Exactly. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. But 1970,s moviegoing had an old time movie theater smell. Even the ones in the shopping centers or mall parking lot. There were no 30 screen multiplexes. Back then it was 2 -4 screens at a time.
I miss the theaters of the 80s. There are a couple of movies I remember so vividly: Ghostbusters (first horror movie as an 11 year old I got to see in the theater with my then 14 year old best friend) Goonies (saw it with that same friend) Flodder (Dutch soft sexual comedy movie), that I saw as a 13 year old with a class mate in a sleazy small theater in a junky ridden super mall. That was an eye opener for me, seeing the junks at 11pm preparing their shots around a planter with fake plastic plants. Naive me thought initially they were caring for the fake plants for so weird reason. Crossroads I saw as a matinee, skipping school. And I was just starting guitar so hearing Hack Butlwr (Steve Vai) do that run my friend and I had to hear it again and hid behind the cut outs until the next showing began. Because it was a sleazy theater with incredible sticky floors, cleaning was barely done between showings. So we were safe behind the cut out. I joked just now watching twisters 🌪️ that they didn’t need to worry about being sucked into the twister from the theater floor. Because they used to do sticky that no EF5 would lift you up 😂 Road House, my friend a d j weren’t allowed in (too young). So we bought tickets for another movie and snug into the theater that road house played. When we came out the ticket booth guy stood at the door. He saw us and grabbed us called the cops. Because he thought we snug a double feature (that was a year prior with cross roads buddy 😂) So the cops called our parents at 00:30 on a Thursday. Which made it even worse, because they didn’t know I snug out. At 15 I wasn’t allowed out after 22:00 on school nights. So my mum wasn’t amused. Even though the cops concluded no crime was committed. I slept again with our matras and blankets on the floor. (My parents’ favorite punishment. Under pants, floor no blankets, luckily it was a warm night that night 😂) And Last Crusade for my little brother’s (rip) 11th birthday party. What an awesome movie that still is. Oh and in the 90s it was Basic Instict where I was with a new girlfriend. And she did a really naughty thing to me during the movie 😂So naughty that I couldn’t even get drinks during the break (we used to have a break in a movie here in the Netherland), because I had some wet stains on my jeans. She was a true nymph 😂But I wasn’t complaining and back then not a whole lot more constrained than she was 😂
@@CallousCoder 😂 Wow! Now those are some VERY interesting memories! Glad to have sparked some nostalgia for you with this video, and we appreciate you sharing all that. Crazy to think about how strict theaters were then about making sure we ended up in the movie we paid for. Is that even a thing anymore?
@@RetroDaze they didn’t care about getting to the right movie, except when it was age restricted, the weren’t allow kids on their own to go in. And it was just that he saw us come out of road house, and remembered not selling us the tickets because we weren’t yet 16. So he thought that we snug in after seeing some other movie, in effect stealing a part of the movie. The weirdest was that the cops took it that seriously and took us with them. The cop that literally spoke to us why there are age restrictions and tested if we actually saw the whole movie was done on 5 minutes and let us call our parents. Because a minor here in The Netherlands has to be picked from the police station by a parent or guardian. That’s when it went wrong for me having snug out of the house. My mom didn’t like that at all. Especially that I had done a lot of stupid things before. And my parents weren’t strict but the few rules we had we had to follow to the letter. And that would be in bed by 11pm on a week day (as 15 y/o) and not being outside after 10pm on a week day. Well I broke two rules already 🤣 I also didn’t have the guts to tell her that a year before we did actually steal a movie because we watched a movie twice and that it was during school hours 😂 It’s beyond me how I got my school and college diploma. I was more often not in class than I was 😉
@@RetroDaze 🤣well they never found out about the double feature of cross roads, that’s the only real crime 🤣Road House movie rating only off by a few months, who cares. The guy from the theater didn’t even care about that, he was more concerned us having watched 1.5 movie and not paying🤣🤣🤣 But if it soothes you, we had what is called a community cop. He would be assigned to a neighborhood so he knows the people and can instruct officers to keep a special eye out. He knew my friend and my name and birthday by heart🤣 And I knew his first and last name 😂 But it was always petty stuff. Underage drinking, smoking weed, playing music too loud, souping up mopeds (they didn’t like that very much). The odd fist fight between some other neighborhood hoodlums. You know, the usual teenage boy stuff.
What an awesome video! Thanks for talking about The Wizard, I haven't heard about/seen it so it's now on my list of must-see. I haven't been to a movie theater lately, but plan to soon. I usually go to AMC theaters (since there's several locations I can go to) and Horizon Cinemas. You're completely right about Goobers, chocolate candy goes great with popcorn! There's nothing like going to the movies, especially when they're a theater within a mall. Before or after a movie, my family and I would shop around to kill time. And of course eat out at the food court or restaurant, talking about the movie we just saw.
Great trip down memory lane! Mobile phones pretty much ruined the whole cinema experience for me. Ppl taking selfies in the middle of Indy 5 was the final straw. Jumping in the time machine and clocking Double Dragon, grabbing a choc-top, popcorn and Coke and watching _Police Academy_ at the awesome Academy Cinema City (which closed in 2007, damn.) Legit wagged school to see _Batman_ back in '89 lol
Didn’t theater hop very often because of the time factor. Places to go, that kind of thing. But sometimes we’d buy a ticket for 1 movies and go to another. Mostly the theater didn’t care but other times they’d call you on it if you tried to get into a R rated movie if they thought you weren’t old enough. Why take the chance, better to apologize than ask for permission.
I hate that movies are all digital now. I miss the old days where the projector was flickering. I miss actual film. You could see the small dust and hair particles on the screen. Movies just aren’t the same
Agreed. My local drive-in shows real films, all old stuff too, mostly horror but often other retro movies. Last night was a double feature of The Goonies and The Monster Squad.
I also wanted to add: I more so, went to the movies in the 80's but, in the 90's food venues were way (in the 90s) i have to admit better and, they tasted better..I would always get Taco Bell..Popcorn..you could get a soft pretzels 🥨 & a coffee, frozen yogurt ☕ Occasionally I would get KFC..& don't forget Nachos. And, Junior Mints 🍃 Do you remember getting Trubte magazines, all about upcoming movies & interviews, games..ect 🎥
I've been driving for 21 years. I go to the theater a lot, and I think in those two decades, I've bought my ticket at the box office maybe 5 times. They always have it closed and just sell the tickets at the concession stand (though in the past several years, I've been buying online and just picking them up from the kiosk). They don't even tear them anymore. They either just check it and give you the whole thing back, or they don't even bother checking, just letting people walk past. I assume they saw me print the ticket and just can't be bothered, but it still seems like it would be easy to just not buy a ticket. Hell, I could probably print off my ticket for Blazing Saddles (a September showing) today and walk into some other movie.
@@RetroDaze oh man that white one that Hawk won, you mean?! Pfew I don’t have a truck license never even drove a truck but I the day after I would have my first lesson for sure. Although… this American trucks and our small European roads don’t really mix well… but who cares 🤣😁🤣
Over here in Pensacola, we had one theater outside a mall that three screens, and one of them was extra large, AT LEAST as big as what some theaters call IMAX these days. And it didn’t cost any more to see it on that particular screen. Sigh….
Ok I'm 45 now but me my mom and my older brother would go to the movies in the early 80s and I can vaguely remember an intermission in the movie were u could go get snacks or use the restroom
I would have loved to go back to the 90s or the early 2000s, and check out the movies I never got to see you as a kid. As for the movies I did see as a kid in the theaters, while I barely remember most of them, the ones I do remember include The Lion King, A Goofy Movie, the Rugrats Movie, and my personal favorite, Pokémon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back.
I vividly remember 5:13 seeing Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Ghostbusters-2 like it was yesterday. All the other movies are kind of foggy in my memory LOL. I was going leave the channel a tip on the comments but it's not an option? I thought I left a tip last week? If you didn't activate the THANKS button on the comment section try to activate it. You could get some tips heading your way. This channel is in my top 5 on Y.T. These videos are just magical if you where around in the 80's - 90's. Thanks to everyone involved in the making of the videos, I'm probably biased lol but the quality is OUTSTANDING!🤘🏻👍🏻🇺🇲 EDIT- I DID TIP LAST VIDEO, THE THANKS BUTTON IS JUST NOT THERE ON THIS VIDEO?
Many of those memories of certain movies kind of blend together it seems. As for the tip, thank you for that ZMan! This video, however, could not be monetized… which explains the issue.
@@RetroDaze The movies do blend together. It doesn't seem that long ago to me but unfortunately it was along time ago. OK that explains the tip button, there's always next Saturday. Have a great rest of the weekend.🤘🏻👍🏻🇺🇲
I wasn't able to go to the theater on my own or with friends until the 1990s and it was 1996 when I felt like there were too many good movies to chose from at one time.
I wish I could go back to those carefree years and watch a movie. Movies of today really suck. They're all reboots or sequels. Hollywood has lost their imagination.
@@villain68 It’s true that studios just don’t want to take risks anymore. How many great screenplays could have become great films but were lost into obscurity because of the studio choosing ANOTHER sequel to something instead.
Movie goers are as much to blame. When they do make a risky original, nobody goes to see it. It bombs and is forgotten. Moviegoers are afraid to risk wasting their time. Why do you think Friends and The Office are always among the most streamed shows. People are afraid to step away from the familiar.
@@NWAWskepticNice thing about the old days, films that didn’t hit it big in the theater could find their audience in the video rental store. Think of how many classics (cult or otherwise) made bank and found its fan base in video rentals.
@@RetroDaze yeah. Home video elevated so many under the radar hits. Theaters are just becoming obsolete. I still enjoy an occasional trip but overall they are a huge commitment of time and energy. And socializing is a deteriorating skill in itself. Especially in person.
my movie theater closed where i live so that sucks but i do have one like 35 to 40 minutes away so thats not to bad but when u don't have a car to get it that makes it alot harder to get there
I loved, LOVED the movie the Wizard!! I also remember going to see Roger Rabbit, Ghostbusters 2 and Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989) I also liked Mac and Me, not really well received 📹
@@RetroDaze I love Mac and Me..because back then you didn't see people with disabilities, in movies as much. I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread..& I thought..it also needs a second look because it can teach people something..I used a wheelchair ♿ as well. But, this was big back then..thanks for the reply :) ☺ 👋 Thanks again
@@RetroDaze when it’s the only place in town…….. A few years later some nearby towns opened theaters, and the local one closed down. You can actually see the outside of it in the movie Powder.
Don't get me started i grew up on grindhouse experience of 70s 80s new york double & triple features for $5 (not to mention midnight showings of "the rocky horror picture show" and "dawn of the dead" in Greenwich village) it was completely bananas! 🍌🙃🍌
Fun stuff, brother! Born in 1974, so the real core of my own childhood is age 5-12 (1979-1986). After that I was far too interested in girls and music and learning how to play bass guitar. (Did I play D&D and watch old and new movies on tv and video? Of course! But, I wasn’t “a kid” anymore. lol) My (then, no more) small town of Fayetteville, GA (Hollywood studios and productions are now right at our doorsteps these past 15 years or so, here! Fairly quite literally! It’s not unusual to randomly run into a celeb in Fayetteville, neighboring Peachtree City, Newnan or Senoia) had a tiny, three screen theater when I was young. The lobby was almost as dark as the theater. Heheh. I didn’t really often see a huge, colorful lobby until I was in high school (1989). The first ‘big and modern cinema’ as you described didn’t show up here until a Cinemark opened with TEN!!! (Haha) screens when I was a sophomore in 1990. We later got a 24 screen AMC in the mid ‘00s. If I went on your journey, I’d be at a tiny, dark theater….to see Close Encounters, Reurn of the Jedi, The Last Starfighter, Commando….and play Dig Dug….probably only that. Limitations. If I only had “a few minutes” til showtime….might as well play Galaga…because that’s as long as my 8 or 9 year old self is gonna last anyway! 😂❤
Ahh. A fellow '74 baby (Producer Tony here). We would be glad to fit in one of those movie selections on our journey, and Galaga... well that was my jam! Especially Saturday nights at the skating rink.
I loved going to the movies in the 1900s and early 2000s, but movies mostly suck now. Also, I always saved my ticket stubs but nowadays, the stubs look like grocery receipts and the ink fades over time. Somewhere in all my junk is one of my 1977 Star Wars ticket stubs.
Now THAT ticket is precious for sure! Very cool that you have held on to them. We agree that these paper ‘grocery receipts’ tickets need to bite the dust.
There were probably a handful of really big multiplexes that had Predator, Full Metal Jacket, Robocop, and The Lost Boys all playing at the same time but, realistically for summer 1987, I feel like The Living Daylights, La Bamba, or the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves 50th anniversary rerelease (plus any number of less-fondly-remembered 1987 films) would probably have pushed Predator (June 12th) out of most multiplexes by the time The Lost Boys (July 31st) arrived on screens. I did see Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (plus UHF) with my family as a 14-year old but I don't think I saw anything on the big screen in 1987 or 1988; my problem with seeing movies on the big screen for much of the mid-to-late 1980s was that I was a tween and then a young teen but I had younger siblings and the movies I would have been interested in seeing weren't necessarily the movies that they were interested in seeing and I was just a hair too young to go to the movies by myself. (Another problem was that I lived in a small town just outside of Montreal and the closest cinema to me playing movies in English was a good 20 minute to half hour drive away.) One exception was that I did see Ferris Bueller's Day Off in 1986 as an 11-year old with my parents but I think my younger siblings either were at a different film or doing something else that day.
Oh man. You were right at the worst possible age it seems. Also, given the choice, any sane person would make room for a viewing of UHF on their time travel journey. ;)
@RetroDaze 1989 was also the first year that I started watching movies at the cinema by myself. For the longest time, I thought my first "solo" movie was Back to the Future Part II which came out soon after I turned 15 but it may actually have been Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, which came out shortly before my 15th birthday. (I'm about 60/40 on whether or not I saw the first Bill and Ted on the big screen.)
Oops, I was mistaken, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventrue came out in February 1989, not September 1989 as I had misremembered. I guess I didn't see it until the VHS release (unless they did a September 1989 theatrical re-release) so Back to the Future Part II remains my official first "solo" movie.
Hm. Still have my VHS collection and a working VCR. I even still own the very first VCR my family ever bought. A Panasonic top-loader bought by my dad in 1984. It’s not that hard to find still-working, quality 4-heads from the 90’s and 00’s on eBay. 🙂 Cheers!
I saw Batman at the theater and in fact, saw it 3 or 4 times at the theater. I have not seen a movie at the theater more than once in the last 10 years. I did want to see Godzilla Minus One Minus Color (sort of seeing it again, I guess) but circumstance and the short run time made it not happen.
Slim Jims are biting into grease for me its buttered pop corn 🍿 with Coke Cola and chocolate covered almonds or Raisinettes chocolate covered raisins you got caught up with upcoming trailers
![[DRIP] ‘Love, Maybe’ PREVIEW](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U7hwHp95m1k/mqdefault.jpg)
You make the best nostalgia videos, thanks for the memories!
Thank you for that Erin! We enjoy bringing back fond memories through these videos.
Having had an 18 year run working in the theater starting in 1992, I definitely felt this video.
You've seen this whole experience from BOTH sides! Not many can say that.
@@RetroDaze I started in concessions, worked my way to box office then projectionist, and finally management. I was working for Carmike, which no longer exists having sold to AMC...
@@VideosandMemories-qi4mq Very nice! You made it all the way to the top. That's awesome.
@@RetroDaze not as glamorous as it might seem, we had to work nights and all but 10 weekends a year...
Ouch! That would dampen things a bit.
I went to the drive-in to see Deadpool and Wolverine and it's the same place I saw Star Wars in 1977.
That’s awesome! Love old school drive-ins.
@@RetroDaze We still have the drive in and a couple restaurants with carhops.
That’s so cool. Wish we had that nearby.
You had me at nostalgia with that Regal Cinema preshow bumper. I had a Regal Theater in my area and seen that bumper so many times in my day
So glad you enjoyed it Issac! We love that Regal bumper so much.
Nice, glad to hear it! I had a heck of a time choosing which pre-roll to show, and was hoping at least a few people would connect with it.
Also looking at the posters of the upcoming movies in the hallway was one of my fun movie theater experience.
Back when we didn't have all the information on films that were being made right at our fingertips. Usually we found out what was coming out from posters, movie trailers, or advertisements in magazines and comics.
I grew up during those decades and the theater experience was awesome. We had no idea how good we had it compared to the movies of today. It’s all reboots, sequels, and superhero movies. There’s no variety anymore.
@@darrylwoodbury Definitely. We don’t seem to get those unique or off-the-wall hits anymore.
@@darrylwoodbury I’ve been saying for years--movies today SUCK. I grew up with 70’s (child) and 80’s (teen)moviegoing. I guess I was spoiled in that regard.
90s and early 00s theater going here. I definitely miss a lot of it. Unfortunately, after the pandemic and lockdown, something happened to my brain. I can't watch a movie all the way through without knowing that I can pause it and get up. Last movie I saw was No Way Home, and halfway through I just... couldn't enjoy myself.
It sucks, because everything else about the experience is still something I crave. The popcorn, the comfy seat, the booming sound.
If you rent out a theater for a party can you tell them to pause the movie while everyone goes for a smoke break?
@@Crocogator Not sure of the answer to that question, but you are right that something feels different about being in the theater post-pandemic. Kind of sad.
I've always had a fantasy to time travel back to the 70s and 80s purely to see films (that I now know to be classics) with the original audiences who had no idea what they were about to witness up on the big screen.
I remember seeing The Matrix in 1999 and there was a genuine "energy" surging through the audience, an energy that you could sense almost on a primal level, like the audience knew they were seeing something on another level to anything they'd seen before and had totally bought into it. I'd love to re-experience that over and over.
You can kind of get the experience with revival screenings, but it's really not the same thing.
@@joseparcenary4706 Yes! Had that same feeling with The Matrix, the first Spider-Man, Terminator 2, and Batman.
This was a NEAT trip into the past. You get a REAL feel for a past time that doesn't really exist anymore, or is slowly fading away.
I miss those trips to the theater. Stopping in the Venture (later ShopKo) a few doors down for snacks and then walking over to the theater. I saw a lot great movies that way and it was something we always did as a family.
Thanks for the reminder of just HOW awesome it was! 👍🏾🍿🎞️🎟️
We’re very glad you could join us in this trip to the theater Brandon! Sounds like your own memories mirror this pretty well. Excellent!
For anybody that wants that "video rental feel", you can go to your public library.
They always have DVDs. You can always request a certain DVD and have it sent there for you to pick up too. 😊
Yes! Libraries still have plenty of physical media. Books and much more!
Great insightful Video! Very accurate descriptions!
Used to be awesome. Can't get that magic back again. Glad I got to experience it.
We are lucky to have been able to. Hopefully we can bring you a little bit of that magic back now and then. 😉 🪄
I was 8 in 1989 i made Gen X by about 2 months . My brother was 12 and an absolute Batman Fanatic. He had a massive collection of Batman movie memorabilia. What a great time to be alive...
It absolutely was!
You could also fall under the umbrella of ‘Xennial’, which Gen X happily takes under its wing.
@@RetroDaze wow. Never heard of that. Cool. 👏
@@jonathanfreedom1st Now you know. And knowing is… well, you know. 😆
🎥 ❤️ 🍿 I loved this. Captured my full attention and prompted a pleased grin of entertainment that was non-stop. Thanks for the visit back.
I really love this video. Big fan of nostalgia channels, but the immersive walk-thru is so much fun! Subscribed! ❤
Thank you so much Maggie! We really dig doing these more narrative focused videos, though they are a bit more difficult to edit together coherently. Alyssa always manages to hit a home run with them!
Glad you dig it! We have another one in this style coming in a couple weeks. 🙂
I'm so happy you included the regal rollercoaster - some variant of it is what I saw as a kid and is deeply nostalgic as you described 🥺
Our pleasure, Shamra. They still have the same pre-roll even today, though it is a bit more advanced.
1983 is my favorite year I had my twin sister Angie still alive and we both loved the twins of Star wars Luke and Leia and we knew who we were what a Time there's not much left for me nowadays but I have those memories
Keep coming back to us each week Ben. We want to bring you a little bit of that joy. We appreciate you.
Thanks for the retro movie experience! Man There was nothing like seeing movies at the Movie Theater in the 80’s and 90’s! They used to make killer Movies everyone couldn’t wait to see! The excitement was almost to much standing in line to get those tickets for the 1989 Batman or Top Gun or Terminator! Then getting your favorite snack and then trying to get the perfect seat in the theater! Then after that amazing movie was over, you are bolting to the bathroom cause you drank a liter of cola and fill your eyeballs floating! Man great times! They just don’t make movies like those anymore!
Those childhood theater trips were the stuff of legend, for sure. Very glad we could bring back some great memories CDR!
I loved the 80’s and 90’s movie theatre situation but I absolutely loved the drive-in theatre era, especially when as kids we would sneak in to the woods across the train tracks across from the drive-in with our boombox and tune into the AM or FM station (can’t remember which) the drive-in was putting out and watch movies for free until the wee hours of the morning, all the while dodging their hired teenage security guards. Good times
Yes! We think drive-in theaters deserve their own video!
Also, thanks for sharing those fun memories.
Wow, that Regal Cinemas bumper took me back. I used to raise my hands in the theater like I was really riding a roller coaster.
There were fleeting moments where you could almost feel like you were riding it!
I can still remember in the 90s when my local movie theater made the announcement that in addition to selling concession snacks, they were also going to open a restaurant and sell food there too. This was in the 90s and they were one of the first theaters to do that. Each seat had its own little slide in and out table and you could eat real restaurant food while watching your movie. It was awesome.
@@josh24441 More common today. Back then though… that would have blown our minds!
@@RetroDaze it totally did! I can still remember the first movie I saw there after the restaurant opened. It was demon knight. I BEGGED my mom to come with me and my friends. Me and my friends couldn’t because it was R rated and we were only like 14. But I finally convinced her. And idk if you’ve seen that movie, but it was totally meant to be seen on the big screen, so you’re absolutely correct about watching movies on the big screen. I still remember what I got for dinner at that restaurant. It was spaghetti and meatballs. Eating awesome fresh spaghetti and meatballs while watching demon knight on the big screen. It didn’t get any better!
@@josh24441What a great memory! Thank you for sharing that!
I remember my hometown's old movie theatre "The Sword and the shield" used to play the old "Let's go to the lobby" jingle before the movie would start for a few years as a kid and then they retired it in 1994 (even though it was a old ad from the thirty years prior).
@@bluetarantulaproductions6179 Still love that and all other intermission segments from the ‘50s and beyond.
Can't beat those retro memories! ❤
My husband and I still sneak beverages into the movie theater via my big purse, but we buy a large popcorn at the theater to share. Luckily, the the theater gives out free refills of popcorn after the movie to take home!
Whoa, that's really cool. My local drive-in has free refills all night on popcorn if you buy a large, which is nice because this particular theater (The Mahoning) does double and triple features of older movies, so you can really get your money's worth.
@@jrebecca0195 Free popcorn refills AFTER the movie is a great deal!
My nostalgia button was crushed as soon as you showed the preview to The Wizard. I had a VHS copy recorded from the TV and i wore that thing out as a kid. I watched it soooo many times and send me an angel was my favorite song as a result. Seeing anything from that movie always brings me back!
@@kronvlat We are so glad to have brought those nostalgic feelings back!
I miss the comradery that we had in the 80's and early 90's in the theater! I remember going on a Friday or Saturday night, and the theater was packed! I remember going with my girlfriends, and we would scope out where the cutest boy was, and we would stand there and giggle and hope he sees us. That excitement that you would get between waiting for the movie and seeing that cute boy and hoping you can talk to him before the movies over. Then, we make our way into the theater with our popcorn, sodas, and junk food arsenal and finding our seats (hopefully near the group of cute boys we saw!). As we look for seats we find seats a row in front of the boys (although we were probably toward the front of the line so there would have been plenty of seats available lol) and the lights go down and the excitement of the rumbling of the speakers! Here is where the comradery comes in we would all (like almost everyone in the theater) react to the funny parts, the scary parts, the sad parts, and the amazing endings!!!! The theater was so loud at times and also so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Back then when you went to the theater when you were picking a movie it was based on which one out of all the great movies the were playing should we pick (and it was a hard decision most of the time) but now if I were to go to the movies it would be "which ones stink the least?".
I really do miss the good old days of the theater (oh and don't forget the drive in!)! Unless you were around in that time, you have NO CLUE what you missed, and it can't ever be explained just perfectly. You REALLY had to be there!!! Thanks for that wonderful trip again down memory lane 😊
@@shannon_w. Thank YOU Shannon, for coming along on our trip to the theater.
As for Drive-Ins, they are a subject that deserve their own video!
Thank you for sharing those wonderful and fun memories of your theater experiences!
@@shannon_w. I agree 100%. Kids from now on will never experience going to the Theater, using a payphone, and so on. This channel is one of my top 5 channels on Y.T. The comment section is also great! I LOVE THE 80's early 90's also.🤘🏻👍🏻🇺🇲
@@ZMAN_420 Indeed. Thanks as always Z Man!
I grew up with theaters in the 70s and early 80s in Milwaukee.
No online purchasing of course, so you had to wait in line for the box office to get tickets.
No reserved seats, so you had to stay and wait in the lobby or risk getting bad seats or the group would be separated and where's the fun in that?
Parents would not allow return visit to concessions, so we often had to stand waiting for a movie for 45 minutes while staring at popcorn we were holding and not allowed to eat until we were sitting.
Originally only one or two screens in the theater. And they were huge. Then they figured out they could remodel and shrink the two screens to make three smaller screens and the triplex was born. Then for several years there was an arms race in screens- who can make four? Then five. Then six.
There were a LOT of theaters back then. There were a couple within bike distance. But, today, not so many. The more recent trend to make the megaplex with 20+ screens has shut down many neighborhood theaters.
@@SyntheToonz THIS! Probably the biggest difference of all in theaters then and now. Today, huge theaters with tons of screens. Then, smaller theaters, many mom and pop types, that had two, maybe three screens.
I could go back and do the olden days. Went and saw Deadpool just this past Tuesday, what a difference it was than when I saw Mortal Kombat 3 times in 1995.
@@Rob-rx3jw Oh gosh. MK3 was horrible. 😆 But the theater experience then… just better.
The one thing I miss about going to the movies back then is the flavor of the butter-oil on the popcorn. It was richer and not as chemical-ly. Good choice in the movie we saw!
@@ctbinary42 Glad you enjoyed our movie choice! If only we could have brought back some of that better butter!
what i dont miss about those era cionema's were the rock hard seats
@@patrickarseneault7407 Yeah that is true. Seats in theaters today are much more comfortable.
loved going to my local cinema in the 80s and 90,s. sneaking in snacks was part of it. i dont think cinemas will last more than 10 years which is a shame.
@@rupert-j8f It does seem like there is a shift in our viewing habits that will have a big impact on theaters going forward. We certainly hope they don’t disappear.
Old intros were the best but still I enjoy the Nicole Kidman ad.
@@Mike-gl4wt Nicole Kidman ad?
I sure miss the 90s and all the friends who are no longer with us and all the social aspects that no longer seem to exist. 😢
@@MimiSpears-si7gg Absolutely. Friends we’ve lost or just lost touch with. Celebrities that have passed. It’s crazy.
Even so, we hope this brought you some joy.
Great video more like this please!!!!!!!!!
As you wish! 😆
Thanks! As you might know, we take subscriber suggestions pretty seriously here, so I was curious (as the writer) when you ask for more like this, to you mean topic-wise or style-wise? Thanks for the input!
80s and 90s best times
My teen and young adult decades. Back then, many neighborhoods still had local theatres, bowling alleys, skating rinks, etc. I miss that era as well.
As do we! Best we can do is make these videos. But if you come across a Time Machine… 😆
I always saved my ticket stubs. I still have them, That was a great episode.🤘🏻👍🏻🇺🇲
@@ZMAN_420 Thanks once again ZMan! Glad you enjoyed tagging along on our theater trip!
I have mine in a box. They're amazing to look at.
@@chaos120 Min are in a cup. They are great too bring back memories
Tom Cruise can be a polarizing figure but he did revive cinema attendances after covid with Top Gun:Maverick. The opening 5 minutes was like 1986 again!
@@davidcarrol110 Tom is probably the last ‘Movie Star’ out there. An actor that attracts people to any type of movie, so long as he is in it.
Such a great time that is never coming back
Even so, we feel like we can capture little bits of the magic in these videos. At least that is our mission!
How doesn't this channel have a Million Subs, it's that good. 👍🏻
@@jonathanfreedom1st This kind of comment let’s us know we’re doing SOMETHING right. You are kind to say so. ❤️ Our new favorite person today. 😉
@@RetroDaze thank you thank you..😃
The WIzard has been saved on my DVR for about 5 years now and I still watch it! Couldn't say no when I saw it playing on HBO.
@@Rob-rx3jw It’s much more than just a feature length NES commercial!
I so miss those much happier times
@@westfield90 As do we.
For me, seeing a movie at the theater was as much about the darkness, low-light setting, as it was about the movie itself. I had the same mysterious feeling in a theater with friends as I did when the school had open house at the school in the evening, an evening orchestra or band concert in the school auditorium, or an evening football game or football dance. The novelty of 3D movies wearing those red and blue lens disposable glasses was also fun. It was the experience of growing up together and experiencing new things with each other outside of a well-lit school classroom with the sun shining through the windows (and cooking us alive, we also didn't have AC in the school, but the movie theater did!)
@@danielkaiser8971 Yes! That feeling like you were trespassing… not supposed to be there, but there you were! It took on a different air.
Brought back a lot of memories for me. I'm not kidding when I tell you I have all my ticket stubs from late '80s early '90s up till the last time I started going to the theater. People really ruined it for me as well as cell phones. Talkers. People that put their feet up and take their shoes off. Kids running around rated R movies because their parents just drop them off in the theater. Constant eating with their mouth open. People just treated movie theaters like they were sitting in their living rooms so I haven't been to the theater since 2013 I think.
I know people will say just drown all that out, but it's kind of hard when you're all in the same room together. Even if I go to a matinee anymore it's filled with like 60 people that just won't shut up. I'll just keep my memories of the good old days
@@redmist78 It’s understandable. Theaters have leaned hard into that very feeling of being home, with recliners, food delivered to your seat, etc.
This guy gets it.
@@vortexoverdrive9385 All too well. 😉
I was lucky enough to experience movies in the 90s. The Disney Renaissance and while I didn't get to see Lion King in theaters I did get to see it a big screen TV in are cafeteria.
I probably saw every single animated movie you can think of in the nineties in theaters. 😅
For anyone curious, the era during Dumbo and Bambi was the Golden era, the second was the package films during world war II, then you have the silver age which is like where Lady and the tramp and Peter Pan is, then you have the bronze age after Walt Disney's death which includes the aristocats all the way up to Oliver & company, you have the Disney Renaissance or the second golden age from about 1989 all the way to 99. Then you have what might be known as the experimental age from 2000 all the way to 2009. 2011 was the last time we got a traditionally animated movie with Winnie the Pooh. From there we're going to go from 2010 to about I would say 2017 with Coco I'm not sure exactly what we would call it maybe the third golden age. Right now we would technically be in another slump as far as Disney movies go
You experienced probably the best time for Disney animation. Hit after hit, and all traditionally animated!
What a delightful video!
Such great memories of some great mid-tier original movies back then that we just don’t get now in the age of sequel and reboot of BIG IPs … The Last Starfighter comes to mind
Thanks Jon and gang
Glad you enjoyed! (I love The Last Starfighter).
@@tedadamgreen Yes! Studios don’t take risks anymore! If it isn’t a guaranteed blockbuster with a built in audience they don’t want to give it a chance.
Ah the days of stepping into a theater room and trying to avoid getting sticky candy from the floor onto your shoes, and getting yelled at for spilling the expensive popcorn that was to be shared.
AH, now there's a detail I missed in the script! The sticky floors! :-p
@@Benjamillion You spilling that buttered popcorn is what made the floors sticky BEN! 😆
At least at my local Regal, the experience is still largely the same as it ever was and I wouldn't have it any other way. I go to the movies as often as I can and for me it's like going to church.
That’s awesome that the experience still has the same magic for you!
I was a supervisor/projectionist at AMC Metro Village 6 in Phoenix AZ from 89-96. One of the funnest times of my life.
Back when you had to change reels and actually do other physical things to get the movie up and running!
Going to the movie theatre and mall are still my two favorite things to do, and I'm 54 years old. I go with my hubby all the time. Today, we're going to a M Night Shyamalan movie (Trap). I get the hot dog, nachos, and cherry icee every time. My hubby gets popcorn and sneaks in his candy. We stream movies, but it's just not the same experience as going to a theatre. We belong to the Cinemark club, so we get discounts.
@@sylviarippey6488 Went to a Cinemark today to watch Deadpool & Wolverine! You’re so right… going to the theater is just a better way to experience certain movies.
@RetroDaze we saw that on Thursday and it was packed! Today's movie was packed as well. They didn't have any hot dogs and the nacho cheese was lukewarm 😕 I whispered something to my husband and the guy next to me shushed me!!! I was like WHAT?!?! 😬 Anyway, hope you had a good time.
@@sylviarippey6488 What? Geesh. No dogs, lukewarm cheese, and movie Karens?
@@RetroDaze lol 😆 right?!?
Man, making me nostalgic for the Carmike Cinemas in my small southwest GA hometown. You might be a bit jealous of mine, as I also had pinball tables to play. Was one of the first times I ever saw the odd pinball/video hybrid "Baby Pac-Man". Hot DAMN, was it brutally-hard. The ghosts literally beeline to your position (meaning you HAD to flee to the pinball half on Game Start), and also EARN the Power Pellets and such from there.
@@NightSprinter Theaters with pinball AND arcade cabinets were the cream of the crop!
We have an old theater here in Knoxville- it's so small but I love it!! Too bad it doesn't have 1980s prices!! 😅
I remember going to the 7-11 before the theater!!! We got soooo much candy for $5- a lot!! Then the night time movie was $5 for a ticket- them expensive it seemed ($10 for both- oh to go back in time.... )
Previews were awesome. Saw Ghostbusters 4 times in the theater.
First movie memor: I was 3 and my parents took me to see Jaws 😂. I'll never forget that experience- but got over it.
Less learned: NEVER sit in front row. Hard on the neck.
Love your videoes!!!!
@@staceyl.thienel1499 Thank you so icy Stacey, and thank you for sharing those memories with us!
You described exactly how I felt for many years when going to the movie theatre. I wish you had commented on that moment when Batman appears for the first time and says "I'm Batman". How the crowd cheered!
@@mdruben It’s too iconic a moment to put into words. 😉
@@RetroDaze Goosebumps!
You guys picked the perfect movie for this... BATMAN!
@@ECTOERICSARCADE Few films had the hype prior to their release that Batman had. It was huge! Batman everything. Batmania!
@@RetroDaze yes I remember going to see it 3 times in 1989. The line was wrapped around the theater. I was wearing my large batman face graphic tee, yellow bicycle shorts, batman converse, and a glorious moused mullet! Ahhh I love the 80's!
Yeah, there was this whole thing about everyone making fun of Michael Keaton when they first found out he was going to be Batman, saying he wasn't buff enough, would be a terrible Batman, etc etc. Then the trailer hit theaters, and the public was floored. Totally turned the narrative around.
@@AnthonyJRapino they were definitely wrong. Keaton was definitely the best Batman.
@@ECTOERICSARCADE Heck yeah!
I've seen Batman at the General Cinema in Griffith, Indiana. It was on the day that it opened. You can't go wrong with Tim Burton's Batman.
I walked into Blizzard Beach at Disneyworld. It is the last example of the 90's warm fuzzies left for me, in any of the parks. It's pure beautiful 90's aesthetics.
@@Sparty-pi3jq Taking a boat across to Tom Sawyer Island in the Magic Kingdom is a real step back in time as well. It feels untouched since it opened in the early ‘70s!
Enjoyable episode. I still routinely go to the movies. But oddly enough I was recently thinking about how it was when I was younger. They are still there, but I used to get so excited to walk the hallway looking at the movie posters to see what movies would be coming out.
Agreed! Nowadays it’s so easy to know what films will be coming. We know even before they start production. Back then, you were surprised when you saw the ad on TV or a poster or trailer in the theater.
Thank you. Was a fun ride
@@blueskies25 We’re glad to have along!
Love this--you got every detail perfect!
Thank you Megan! So glad this brought you joy.
Thanks, that means a lot! 🙂
70s the Drive-In. Sandwiches and Kool-aid from the cooler in the trunk. Pinball at the concession building and a playground under the screen.
80s movie theater that converted the balcony to a second theater. Popcorn, hotdogs and soda. Some arcade machines in the lobby. Smoke clouds catch the projector light.
90s the multiplex with bigger and bigger screens. Still not as big as the Drive-In. More popcorn and soda and an arcade filled with games and pinball. Theater managers mistake loud as good and crank speaker systems to 11. Movies got louder. Multi-channel speaker system wars begin.
@@reyluna9332 Thank you for sharing that journey through movie experiences in the ‘70s, ‘80s, & ‘90s! That was great. We are definitely considering doing another video just for Drive-Ins!
@@RetroDaze Considering!? Heck, I'm halfway through the script ;-)
People respected the experience and remained quiet throughout a movie. It was a great time.
Theater etiquette did seem to be taken pretty seriously, though it certainly wasn't ALWAYS the case. LOL
The old theaters here used to be be Kerasotes theaters, but now those are gone, replaced by the AMC Theaters. They used to be cheaper back then too.
We had a couple family owned single and double screen Cines, and Wherenberg theaters. Kerasotes muscled in during the early 2000's and quickly ruined all their atmospheres with remodels and jacked up prices.
That’s what the AMC theaters have done here, though I don’t know when that happened. Meadows Theater, however, was the only theater left that was, as far as I know, locally owned and operated, but it failed to be able to compete with the competition and closed.
@@ChibaMitsurugi19792 Basically if it is in a heavily populated area, a theater is almost guaranteed to be one of the big companies. Only in smaller towns do you still see locally owned or family owned theaters.
i remember we used to have a little mall that had two things open a sears photo taking place and a second run dollar theater!!! i and my old school pals saw some of our first movies without adults there!!! spirited away, Napoleon Dynamite and the incredibles among others sadly it closed in 2007 and though we have our big multiplex still there, i will never forget seeing movies there and some saturdays bringing half my class because it was only a dollar good times!!!
The smaller, independent theaters just had a charm and character that the big theaters couldn't match.
Hi, Jon. Thank you for bringing me back to the 70s, 80s & 90s theatres with that. I had goosebumps all over again with that Batman intro as if I was watching it in the theatres for the first time.❤
That is awesome Johnny! Just exactly what we hoped for. Just want to bring back a tiny sliver of that old magic.
Any way you look at it, going to the movies back in the day was just an all around better experience. And had I known then what I know now, I would have gone a lot more often... I miss seeing the giant marques outside with all the movie titles and times. Trying to read as many as I could as my mother or dad drove past..... Something about the popcorn was infinitely better than making it at home too.... Any kids reading this, please stay a kid as long as possible... It all goes away faster than you think...
That is so true. It seems impossible for so much time to have passed. Yet, here we are.
@@RetroDaze Honestly, I don't think we Gen Xers would be experiencing the kind of longing for the past that so many of us have, if things today weren't so DRASTICALLY different. If you had told me back then what was gonna be going on with politics and this cancel culture crap, and all the PC stuff we've had to endure, I would've pissed myself laughing... And our younger generations that didn't live through it will just NEVER understand why we hold our convictions and nostalgia so close to our hearts. It's not just a "my generation is better than yours" thing. The 80's and 90's were TRULY a magical time to grow up. I don't think any other generation after X is going to look back on their childhoods and teenage years the way that we do. Technology and the Internet have all been wonderful things. But it's also robbed kids of their innocence so early in life. I dunno... I just really appreciate channels like this and how you and others keep our memories just that. OUR memories. We lived it, and it all helped make us the adults we are today... God bless...
So well said. There is definitely something to that. Our experiences growing up as the last generation to not have the internet, then to grow old witnessing all the ways it has changed us… it makes perfect sense that we would be so nostalgic. Nothing has changed us in recent history the way the internet has, for better and worse.
Fun Dip and popcorn! Seeing Spaceballs with my Grandmother! She had no idea what she was getting into! I've lost the bleeps, I've lost the sweeps, and I've lost the creeps!
“We’ve been jammed!”
For some inexplicable reason, I can remember nearly every movie I've seen in theaters the first 20 years of my life, and in most cases, the exact theater, and in some cases, the exact auditorium. (I must be getting old, because I can't remember half of what I did last week lol.) Clearly I'm a movie guy; grew up watching and renting movies with my dad, who also let me make my own movies on his VHS camcorder (what a heavy sucker that thing was for an 8 year old). My first job was at a movie theater, a position I held for 17 years and only then because the place closed and I was starting a family at the time. My all-time favorite movie theater experience was watching Scream 2 opening night -- sold out show with an audience that was completely into it, much like the opening scene. Anyway, thanks for the great video. (Can I recommend doing one about book stores of the 80s and 90s?) Things have been nuts in life lately, so I've been binging your videos to take my mind off things. Thanks for letting me reminisce.
@@justinf9934 Thank you Justin, for sharing those fun theater memories with us. You can absolutely make suggestions! We crave suggestions! Speaking of book stores in the ‘80s and ‘90s, we cover a few of them in our ‘Ultimate 1980s Mall Experience’ video. You can see it here: The Ultimate 1980s Mall Experience
th-cam.com/video/Eiu-R5xOxUo/w-d-xo.html
You can also step back in time to the School Book Fair in this video: Scholastic School Book Fairs of The '80s & '90s
th-cam.com/video/46l_7BkjhwE/w-d-xo.html
Thank you for joining us on our little trip to the theaters of yesteryear!
Thank you sir for having this channel often think about the the 70s and 80s when I was a kid be honest with you on there's nothing like it I know that finish line today's times follow the technology and everything that they got nowadays I'm not knocking it I mean I guess some of it's good if I could go back to the 80's my bags would be packed ty again ..... Home sick for the 80's🤘
You are so welcome Vince. We truly love celebrating our childhoods and just want to bring a little of that magic back. Thank YOU for joining us.
I recall the smell of popcorn as a child going to the movies in the 70’s.
@@Piwork69 The popcorn smell mixed with all the other distinctly “theater” odors make for a very memorable mix. 😆
@@RetroDaze Exactly. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. But 1970,s moviegoing had an old time movie theater smell. Even the ones in the shopping centers or mall parking lot. There were no 30 screen multiplexes. Back then it was 2 -4 screens at a time.
Imagine what some of the big blockbusters of yesteryear would have made if they had so many screens!
@@RetroDaze It definitely would have been easier. For the first year, one had to drive into Hollywood to see Star Wars.
I miss the theaters of the 80s. There are a couple of movies I remember so vividly: Ghostbusters (first horror movie as an 11 year old I got to see in the theater with my then 14 year old best friend)
Goonies (saw it with that same friend)
Flodder (Dutch soft sexual comedy movie), that I saw as a 13 year old with a class mate in a sleazy small theater in a junky ridden super mall. That was an eye opener for me, seeing the junks at 11pm preparing their shots around a planter with fake plastic plants. Naive me thought initially they were caring for the fake plants for so weird reason.
Crossroads I saw as a matinee, skipping school. And I was just starting guitar so hearing Hack Butlwr (Steve Vai) do that run my friend and I had to hear it again and hid behind the cut outs until the next showing began. Because it was a sleazy theater with incredible sticky floors, cleaning was barely done between showings. So we were safe behind the cut out.
I joked just now watching twisters 🌪️ that they didn’t need to worry about being sucked into the twister from the theater floor. Because they used to do sticky that no EF5 would lift you up 😂
Road House, my friend a d j weren’t allowed in (too young). So we bought tickets for another movie and snug into the theater that road house played. When we came out the ticket booth guy stood at the door. He saw us and grabbed us called the cops. Because he thought we snug a double feature (that was a year prior with cross roads buddy 😂)
So the cops called our parents at 00:30 on a Thursday. Which made it even worse, because they didn’t know I snug out. At 15 I wasn’t allowed out after 22:00 on school nights. So my mum wasn’t amused. Even though the cops concluded no crime was committed.
I slept again with our matras and blankets on the floor. (My parents’ favorite punishment. Under pants, floor no blankets, luckily it was a warm night that night 😂)
And Last Crusade for my little brother’s (rip) 11th birthday party. What an awesome movie that still is.
Oh and in the 90s it was Basic Instict where I was with a new girlfriend. And she did a really naughty thing to me during the movie 😂So naughty that I couldn’t even get drinks during the break (we used to have a break in a movie here in the Netherland), because I had some wet stains on my jeans.
She was a true nymph 😂But I wasn’t complaining and back then not a whole lot more constrained than she was 😂
@@CallousCoder 😂 Wow! Now those are some VERY interesting memories!
Glad to have sparked some nostalgia for you with this video, and we appreciate you sharing all that.
Crazy to think about how strict theaters were then about making sure we ended up in the movie we paid for. Is that even a thing anymore?
@@RetroDaze they didn’t care about getting to the right movie, except when it was age restricted, the weren’t allow kids on their own to go in. And it was just that he saw us come out of road house, and remembered not selling us the tickets because we weren’t yet 16. So he thought that we snug in after seeing some other movie, in effect stealing a part of the movie.
The weirdest was that the cops took it that seriously and took us with them. The cop that literally spoke to us why there are age restrictions and tested if we actually saw the whole movie was done on 5 minutes and let us call our parents. Because a minor here in The Netherlands has to be picked from the police station by a parent or guardian.
That’s when it went wrong for me having snug out of the house. My mom didn’t like that at all. Especially that I had done a lot of stupid things before. And my parents weren’t strict but the few rules we had we had to follow to the letter. And that would be in bed by 11pm on a week day (as 15 y/o) and not being outside after 10pm on a week day. Well I broke two rules already 🤣
I also didn’t have the guts to tell her that a year before we did actually steal a movie because we watched a movie twice and that it was during school hours 😂
It’s beyond me how I got my school and college diploma. I was more often not in class than I was 😉
@@CallousCoder Surprised the theater didn't have a "WANTED" sign of you hanging in the lobby. 😂
@@RetroDaze 🤣well they never found out about the double feature of cross roads, that’s the only real crime 🤣Road House movie rating only off by a few months, who cares. The guy from the theater didn’t even care about that, he was more concerned us having watched 1.5 movie and not paying🤣🤣🤣
But if it soothes you, we had what is called a community cop. He would be assigned to a neighborhood so he knows the people and can instruct officers to keep a special eye out. He knew my friend and my name and birthday by heart🤣 And I knew his first and last name 😂
But it was always petty stuff. Underage drinking, smoking weed, playing music too loud, souping up mopeds (they didn’t like that very much).
The odd fist fight between some other neighborhood hoodlums.
You know, the usual teenage boy stuff.
I would say most cops would be GRATEFUL to only have to deal with that kind of behavior.
What an awesome video! Thanks for talking about The Wizard, I haven't heard about/seen it so it's now on my list of must-see.
I haven't been to a movie theater lately, but plan to soon. I usually go to AMC theaters (since there's several locations I can go to) and Horizon Cinemas. You're completely right about Goobers, chocolate candy goes great with popcorn! There's nothing like going to the movies, especially when they're a theater within a mall.
Before or after a movie, my family and I would shop around to kill time. And of course eat out at the food court or restaurant, talking about the movie we just saw.
@@tyneishalewis9917 Yes! Mall theaters are the best! Catch a movie, shop, eat, all in one building. Thank you Tyneisha!
Great trip down memory lane! Mobile phones pretty much ruined the whole cinema experience for me. Ppl taking selfies in the middle of Indy 5 was the final straw.
Jumping in the time machine and clocking Double Dragon, grabbing a choc-top, popcorn and Coke and watching _Police Academy_ at the awesome Academy Cinema City (which closed in 2007, damn.)
Legit wagged school to see _Batman_ back in '89 lol
Awesome memory! Thanks for sharing that. Though I think I might have been more entertained by someone taking a selfie than watching Indy 5. Uhg. 😆
Thanks for taking me back Jon. You did a great job describing the experience.
Thank YOU for coming along on our journey Brian!
god that was great! I miss that time
@@mattm1686 So glad you enjoyed it Matt!
Hi, Our local theater is on Historical Registry. 108 years old. Occasionally shows old, and classic movies. Strand Theater. Ohio.
@@sandymcnair7152 A fellow Buckeye! (Producer Tony here)
We have a few old theaters down here in the Southeast as well.
@@RetroDaze Hi, That's awesome.
Didn’t theater hop very often because of the time factor. Places to go, that kind of thing. But sometimes we’d buy a ticket for 1 movies and go to another. Mostly the theater didn’t care but other times they’d call you on it if you tried to get into a R rated movie if they thought you weren’t old enough. Why take the chance, better to apologize than ask for permission.
Ha! This is true. The worst that could happen is they kick you out. No crimes committed.
Yup. As long as you were being stealth and not loud and obnoxious about it, you were good.😂
I hate that movies are all digital now. I miss the old days where the projector was flickering. I miss actual film. You could see the small dust and hair particles on the screen. Movies just aren’t the same
Agreed. My local drive-in shows real films, all old stuff too, mostly horror but often other retro movies. Last night was a double feature of The Goonies and The Monster Squad.
@@nowhereman4217 Yes! There is a certain charm, a feeling you get, from an actual film reel. Something even a bit mysterious.
I also wanted to add: I more so, went to the movies in the 80's but, in the 90's food venues were way (in the 90s) i have to admit better and, they tasted better..I would always get Taco Bell..Popcorn..you could get a soft pretzels 🥨 & a coffee, frozen yogurt ☕ Occasionally I would get KFC..& don't forget Nachos. And, Junior Mints 🍃 Do you remember getting Trubte magazines, all about upcoming movies & interviews, games..ect 🎥
Right! Can’t forget all the collectors magazines for upcoming movies.
I've been driving for 21 years. I go to the theater a lot, and I think in those two decades, I've bought my ticket at the box office maybe 5 times. They always have it closed and just sell the tickets at the concession stand (though in the past several years, I've been buying online and just picking them up from the kiosk). They don't even tear them anymore. They either just check it and give you the whole thing back, or they don't even bother checking, just letting people walk past. I assume they saw me print the ticket and just can't be bothered, but it still seems like it would be easy to just not buy a ticket. Hell, I could probably print off my ticket for Blazing Saddles (a September showing) today and walk into some other movie.
@@theotakux5959 Kind of miss those days of ACTUAL tickets not just thin pieces of paper.
I miss the celluloid presentation
@@watching..........6494 Agreed. Something about the imperfect picture and sound of the reel… it’s strangely comforting.
A little nugget of knowledge in the movie the wizard, the truck they hitch a ride on is the truck that staking drove in over the top.
Really? Nice! Thanks for that.
@@RetroDaze Yeah I also only found out about a year ago. Now I can’t unsee that orange truck.
Wouldn’t mind having the prize truck from the film!
@@RetroDaze oh man that white one that Hawk won, you mean?! Pfew I don’t have a truck license never even drove a truck but I the day after I would have my first lesson for sure. Although… this American trucks and our small European roads don’t really mix well… but who cares 🤣😁🤣
@@CallousCoder Well there is that. 🤣They would have to widen the roads just for you.
Over here in Pensacola, we had one theater outside a mall that three screens, and one of them was extra large, AT LEAST as big as what some theaters call IMAX these days. And it didn’t cost any more to see it on that particular screen. Sigh….
Oh wow! That would have blown our minds back then… a screen like that.
Howdy neighbor!
Ok I'm 45 now but me my mom and my older brother would go to the movies in the early 80s and I can vaguely remember an intermission in the movie were u could go get snacks or use the restroom
It was a thing in the midst of being phased out in our youth. Too bad really.
I would have loved to go back to the 90s or the early 2000s, and check out the movies I never got to see you as a kid. As for the movies I did see as a kid in the theaters, while I barely remember most of them, the ones I do remember include The Lion King, A Goofy Movie, the Rugrats Movie, and my personal favorite, Pokémon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back.
@@AutisticPhantomOtaku Thanks for sharing that APO.
Haha! Also, I must add:
The very real fear I always had when ‘loudly’ opening an illicit can of Coke in the theater! 😂
LOL. Perhaps if you brought two, you could offer the usher your second one as a bribe.
Sounds amazing
@@candacecherry2846 Glad you could join us!
I vividly remember 5:13 seeing Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Ghostbusters-2 like it was yesterday. All the other movies are kind of foggy in my memory LOL. I was going leave the channel a tip on the comments but it's not an option? I thought I left a tip last week? If you didn't activate the THANKS button on the comment section try to activate it. You could get some tips heading your way. This channel is in my top 5 on Y.T. These videos are just magical if you where around in the 80's - 90's. Thanks to everyone involved in the making of the videos, I'm probably biased lol but the quality is OUTSTANDING!🤘🏻👍🏻🇺🇲 EDIT- I DID TIP LAST VIDEO, THE THANKS BUTTON IS JUST NOT THERE ON THIS VIDEO?
Many of those memories of certain movies kind of blend together it seems.
As for the tip, thank you for that ZMan! This video, however, could not be monetized… which explains the issue.
@@RetroDaze The movies do blend together. It doesn't seem that long ago to me but unfortunately it was along time ago. OK that explains the tip button, there's always next Saturday. Have a great rest of the weekend.🤘🏻👍🏻🇺🇲
I saw them too... On VHS. I wasn't alive in 88 😂
You’re a Spring Chicken! 😆
I wasn't able to go to the theater on my own or with friends until the 1990s and it was 1996 when I felt like there were too many good movies to chose from at one time.
That’s a good problem to have! Too many good movies!
Independent films do original film.
I wish I could go back to those carefree years and watch a movie. Movies of today really suck. They're all reboots or sequels. Hollywood has lost their imagination.
@@villain68 It’s true that studios just don’t want to take risks anymore. How many great screenplays could have become great films but were lost into obscurity because of the studio choosing ANOTHER sequel to something instead.
Movie goers are as much to blame. When they do make a risky original, nobody goes to see it. It bombs and is forgotten. Moviegoers are afraid to risk wasting their time. Why do you think Friends and The Office are always among the most streamed shows. People are afraid to step away from the familiar.
Not just movies😢
Tv, video games, cartoons, comics, they're all not what they used to be 😭
@@NWAWskepticNice thing about the old days, films that didn’t hit it big in the theater could find their audience in the video rental store. Think of how many classics (cult or otherwise) made bank and found its fan base in video rentals.
@@RetroDaze yeah. Home video elevated so many under the radar hits. Theaters are just becoming obsolete. I still enjoy an occasional trip but overall they are a huge commitment of time and energy. And socializing is a deteriorating skill in itself. Especially in person.
my movie theater closed where i live so that sucks but i do have one like 35 to 40 minutes away so thats not to bad but when u don't have a car to get it that makes it alot harder to get there
And to get a Lyft or Uber to it would be pricey!
@@RetroDaze yes it would be for sure then plus the ticket and food and snacks and u are out alot of money
I loved, LOVED the movie the Wizard!! I also remember going to see Roger Rabbit, Ghostbusters 2 and Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989) I also liked Mac and Me, not really well received 📹
We have a healthy appreciation for Mac and Me! Was it great? No. But it holds a special place in our hearts.
@@RetroDaze I love Mac and Me..because back then you didn't see people with disabilities, in movies as much. I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread..& I thought..it also needs a second look because it can teach people something..I used a wheelchair ♿ as well. But, this was big back then..thanks for the reply :) ☺ 👋 Thanks again
@@NikkiDeJonge Well said. Back then we didn't really get to see things from that perspective as much as we do now (though it could still improve).
The one theater in the town where I grew up was often shut down by the board of health, and sometimes you’d have rats run across your feet.
@@kudukilla What!? No way would we ever go back! 🐀
@@RetroDaze when it’s the only place in town……..
A few years later some nearby towns opened theaters, and the local one closed down.
You can actually see the outside of it in the movie Powder.
Cineplex Odeon in Brooklyn, NY (80's/90's)
Mine was the Loews Oriental on 86th Street in Brooklyn, mainly because I lived only a few block away. 🙂
Don't get me started i grew up on grindhouse experience of 70s 80s new york double & triple features for $5 (not to mention midnight showings of "the rocky horror picture show" and "dawn of the dead" in Greenwich village) it was completely bananas! 🍌🙃🍌
Oh wow! A different experience from the era than the one we discuss here. Thank you for that!
Dawn, the dead oh my God, was one of my favorites!
God, we all miss the 80s!
Fun stuff, brother!
Born in 1974, so the real core of my own childhood is age 5-12 (1979-1986).
After that I was far too interested in girls and music and learning how to play bass guitar. (Did I play D&D and watch old and new movies on tv and video? Of course! But, I wasn’t “a kid” anymore. lol)
My (then, no more) small town of Fayetteville, GA (Hollywood studios and productions are now right at our doorsteps these past 15 years or so, here! Fairly quite literally! It’s not unusual to randomly run into a celeb in Fayetteville, neighboring Peachtree City, Newnan or Senoia) had a tiny, three screen theater when I was young. The lobby was almost as dark as the theater. Heheh.
I didn’t really often see a huge, colorful lobby until I was in high school (1989). The first ‘big and modern cinema’ as you described didn’t show up here until a Cinemark opened with TEN!!! (Haha) screens when I was a sophomore in 1990.
We later got a 24 screen AMC in the mid ‘00s.
If I went on your journey, I’d be at a tiny, dark theater….to see Close Encounters, Reurn of the Jedi, The Last Starfighter, Commando….and play Dig Dug….probably only that. Limitations.
If I only had “a few minutes” til showtime….might as well play Galaga…because that’s as long as my 8 or 9 year old self is gonna last anyway! 😂❤
Ahh. A fellow '74 baby (Producer Tony here). We would be glad to fit in one of those movie selections on our journey, and Galaga... well that was my jam! Especially Saturday nights at the skating rink.
I loved going to the movies in the 1900s and early 2000s, but movies mostly suck now. Also, I always saved my ticket stubs but nowadays, the stubs look like grocery receipts and the ink fades over time. Somewhere in all my junk is one of my 1977 Star Wars ticket stubs.
Now THAT ticket is precious for sure! Very cool that you have held on to them. We agree that these paper ‘grocery receipts’ tickets need to bite the dust.
There were probably a handful of really big multiplexes that had Predator, Full Metal Jacket, Robocop, and The Lost Boys all playing at the same time but, realistically for summer 1987, I feel like The Living Daylights, La Bamba, or the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves 50th anniversary rerelease (plus any number of less-fondly-remembered 1987 films) would probably have pushed Predator (June 12th) out of most multiplexes by the time The Lost Boys (July 31st) arrived on screens.
I did see Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (plus UHF) with my family as a 14-year old but I don't think I saw anything on the big screen in 1987 or 1988; my problem with seeing movies on the big screen for much of the mid-to-late 1980s was that I was a tween and then a young teen but I had younger siblings and the movies I would have been interested in seeing weren't necessarily the movies that they were interested in seeing and I was just a hair too young to go to the movies by myself. (Another problem was that I lived in a small town just outside of Montreal and the closest cinema to me playing movies in English was a good 20 minute to half hour drive away.) One exception was that I did see Ferris Bueller's Day Off in 1986 as an 11-year old with my parents but I think my younger siblings either were at a different film or doing something else that day.
Oh man. You were right at the worst possible age it seems. Also, given the choice, any sane person would make room for a viewing of UHF on their time travel journey. ;)
@RetroDaze 1989 was also the first year that I started watching movies at the cinema by myself. For the longest time, I thought my first "solo" movie was Back to the Future Part II which came out soon after I turned 15 but it may actually have been Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, which came out shortly before my 15th birthday. (I'm about 60/40 on whether or not I saw the first Bill and Ted on the big screen.)
Oops, I was mistaken, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventrue came out in February 1989, not September 1989 as I had misremembered. I guess I didn't see it until the VHS release (unless they did a September 1989 theatrical re-release) so Back to the Future Part II remains my official first "solo" movie.
Couldn’t really ask for a better film to go solo on for the first time!
I miss the cheap $1 cinema.
@@davidbrian8336 Yes! There are still small theaters out there playing films not in the big theaters anymore, at a cheap price. But not $1.
Ha! Good luck finding a VCR that works if you find VHS tapes!
@@jwgreek8606 Even harder to find… working BetaMax players.
Hm.
Still have my VHS collection and a working VCR.
I even still own the very first VCR my family ever bought. A Panasonic top-loader bought by my dad in 1984.
It’s not that hard to find still-working, quality 4-heads from the 90’s and 00’s on eBay. 🙂
Cheers!
I still have a VCR that works perfectly fine. 😊
@@jenniferhansen3622 what brand is yours?
@@jwgreek8606 It's Sanyo
I saw Batman at the theater and in fact, saw it 3 or 4 times at the theater. I have not seen a movie at the theater more than once in the last 10 years. I did want to see Godzilla Minus One Minus Color (sort of seeing it again, I guess) but circumstance and the short run time made it not happen.
Batmania was so prevalent at the time that you felt like you were missing out if you hadn’t gone back to at least do a second viewing.
@@RetroDaze think of how kids felt about seeing star wars the first event film
Wish I would have been old enough to go and appreciate that.
Slim Jims are biting into grease for me its buttered pop corn 🍿 with Coke Cola and chocolate covered almonds or Raisinettes chocolate covered raisins you got caught up with upcoming trailers
@@christinaluna2055 Raisinettes are awesome! Also Cookie Dough bites, Lemonheads, and Sno Caps!