Movies You Wish You Saw In The Theater

[The Burgomaster]

Oh I forgot Jaws! I bet that would've been a fantastic experience.

* THE EXORCIST - Saw it at the drive-in, so I'm sure I didn't get the full impact.  But you could hear people in other cars making comments and gasping during various parts of the movie.

I saw The Exorcist in the theatre when they rereleased it a few years back. It was an absolute blast. I'm pretty familiar with it, but seeing in in the theatre was another experience all together. There was a girl in front of me who jumped up throughout the movie whenever there was a scare, and the now infamous "spider walk" scene went over really well with the audience.

I saw the re-release in the theater too, but it was nothing like seeing it during the 1970s.  When I saw the re-release, many people in the theater were laughing during the swearing, puking, and head-spinning scenes.  And there were some teenage girls in the row behind me who kept talking on their cell phone.

[WingedSerpent]

The New Star Trek movie.  Never got around to seeing it myself, but everyone I know who saw it loved it.

If I could travel in time I would see every Ray Harryhausen movie when it was in theaters.  I think the only one really released in my life time  was Clash of the Titans and I was way too young at the time.

[RCMerchant]

Return Of The Living Dead

I was fortunate to have seen it at a drive in....and at a run down movie house! All in the same week!
Some I would have loved to see in a theater...

.LAWRENCE OF ARABIA-Just beacuse it's such a BIG movie. As in the desert was big,the batlle scence are big....just wonderful.
.The original 1933 KING KONG
.TORA! TORA! TORA!
.The GOOD,the BAD,and the UGLY.


Some I have seen on the big screen already mentioned...
.2001
.the EXORCIST
.JAWS
.STAR WARS
.CLASH OF THE TITANS (and about 3 other Harryhausen films)
.Lotsa B movies and diasaster films of the 70's.....
.PLANET OF THE APES (60's version)
.SNOW WHITE

[Andrew]

Also, I wish I could have seen Braveheart in a theater in Scotland.

I saw "Saving Private Ryan" in a theater near Washington DC with some friends from the Marines and Navy.  The ending credits rolled - and nobody had moved yet.  Then the lights came on, and still nobody moved.  I looked around.  The theater was filled with older men and their families, with a scattering of young military types like ourselves.  Quite a few people were crying quietly.

Counterpoint to that was when I saw "Mystery Science Theater 3000:  The Movie" in a theater in Boston.  The place was packed with MST3K fans, and the crowd was excited.  When each character appeared the audience cheered!  There were times I wished that we could pause the movie, because everyone could not stop laughing.  You know how it is when a bunch of people cannot stop laughing?  Soon as you get under control, you look at somebody else who is still laughing, then you start all over again.  Imagine a theater full of people like that.

[Mr. DS]

Put me down for Jaws, Planet Of The Apes and Empire Strikes Back.  For Empire and Planet, I would have loved to have gone into it not knowing the twist at the end. 

[Doggett]

Also, I wish I could have seen Braveheart in a theater in Scotland.

Me too.

Cos we win at the end !
Being English we gotta take all the wins we can !

[Jack]

I wish I would have seen Halloween in a theater when it first came out.  Everyone says it's such a great slasher, but I didn't see it until many years later on TV, and so I missed out on the whole mystique of that movie.  To me it's just a very average slasher.

[JaseSF]

Hmm this thread reminded of how much I really, really enjoyed seeing certain movies on the big screen. Jurassic Park, which is mentioned at the very start of this thread was one I did catch that way and it really was an awesome experience. It's one of the few movies I sat through with an audience gasping and people screaming at its more exciting parts. Also glad I caught Terminator 2, Star Trek: First Contact, The Matrix on the big screen as something is definitely lost in that translation to the smaller screen IMO. Ones I really would loved to have caught in a theater:

JAWS
STAR WARS
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
RETURN OF THE JEDI
ALIEN
THE ABYSS
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
QUATERMASS AND THE PIT
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS
PLANET OF THE APES (1968)
THE OMEGA MAN
SOYLENT GREEN
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

I'm sure there's more but those come to mind pretty quickly.