Do enough people buy tickets in advance now that this really indicates anything of value? I'm old and have never pre-purchased a movie ticket in my life. I assume a lot of people do, but the few times I've been to the movies lately, it seems people are buying tickets at the theater.

I'm "old" (mid-40s) and cannot remember the last time I didn't pre-purchase a movie ticket. The movie theater I go to the most (Alamo Drafthouse in San Francisco) rarely has anyone in line at the box office when I walk through there. That box office is usually only staffed by one person, which should tell us something about how many people need in-person service.

I'm finding that more and more, when I impulsively go to the theater and try to buy tickets at the door... I always find the only tickets available are horrible, like in the front row to the side. You want like F-6 and F-7 and get A-2 and B-2.

And if I even accept this, the people in the choice seats invariably show up right when all the trailers are wrapping up.

so - people buy tickets ahead of time, and it might be the only way to watch it from a reasonable seat.

This probably doesn't apply to off-hours like tuesday afternoon or whatever.

Do people really just show up and hope for the best anymore?

The "box office" is not even really a thing anymore at most theaters. And the single person you talk to inside that is the "box office" just uses the same system you can reserve seats yourself on your own time?

Pretty much every theater is reserved seating these days. Why would I risk showing up last minute on a whim and end up in a horrible seat near the front of the screen?

For theaters with reserved seats, if you don't buy early, you only end up with the worst seat.

That said, for "general admission" theaters, if you want to get good seats, you'd have to show up early and waste time watching all those trailers.

I don’t remember the last time I bought a ticket at the cinema. I like picking my own seats online.

> I'm old and have never pre-purchased a movie ticket in my life.

I’m old and have always pre-purchased tickets, even in the 90s, as that’s the way to get better seats.

I'm the same way, as I'm terrible at scheduling and often don't arrive on time for things I book in advance. So, I'll tend to show up at the theater and see whatever looks good that's coming up soon. But, I get the impression a lot of people do buy in advance these days.

But, I love the idea of a theater almost entirely to myself.

Last time I was in a US theater the tickets where not numbered and you could sit anywhere. There was no point in pre purchasing a ticket because if you wanted a good seat you needed to show up early either way.

In Switzerland the seats have always been numbered and even if the cinema is empty people wouldn't dare move into another seat. People do show up right before the film starts and try to avoid the ads. Some also hang in the lobby until the film actually starts.

I assume everyone is using something like MoviePass because it’s way cheaper than paying full price. And they don’t allow you to pre-purchase tickets.

A mix. Prebuying is useful for your Barbie or Oppenheimer. Also good idea for kids birthday parties.

Same here, gen-x, in what concerns cinema, sometimes I do reserve if it is in high demand, but that is about it.

I exclusively buy tickets online, and whatever seats show up as empty online are empty when we show up.

I haven’t bought a seat at the theater in over a decade

And the online process shows you which seats are already filled and I base my decision on that when there is assigned seating. One thing peculiar is that the theatres are not often as filled as the seat map shows, makes me think that an even newer generation of the movie ticket subscribers (AMC A-List) are reserving seats and changing plans

Quite a bit in the early showing for good movies. Project Heil Mary has continued to sell all the good seats out and I’m bad at planning ahead for entertainment. It usually isn’t obvious because most of the movies have been atrocious in the last several years.