Going to the movies on Christmas Day

[RoJoHen]

I've learned over the last few years of knowing various people that there tend to be two groups. The first group goes to the movies on Christmas Day (not necessarily every Christmas, but often enough). The second group of people is shocked to learn that movies theaters are open and can't even fathom going to a movie on Christmas Day.

The second group surprises me, especially because Christmas Day actually tends to be one of the busiest days of the year for movie theaters. Every showing of every movie is almost always sold out (at least around here).

My family tends to finish up Christmas around noon. We eat breakfast/brunch, then we open presents, and then...well, we usually sit around being bored, so we go to the movies! My family is small, and we see each other often enough throughout the year already that Christmas Day doesn't really require any extra bonding or celebrating or anything.

This year we saw Sherlock Holmes. Two years ago we saw AVP:Requiem (a hilarious Christmas movie for the family, btw). We've seen others as well.

So, what is your opinion?

 

[T'Baio]

The second group of people is shocked to learn that movies theaters are open and can't even fathom going to a movie on Christmas Day.

The second group surprises me, especially because Christmas Day actually tends to be one of the busiest days of the year for movie theaters. Every showing of every movie is almost always sold out (at least around here).

This wasn't always the case. My friends and I have made a tradition of going to the movies late the night of Christmas Day since early high school 16 or 17 years ago. When we started doing it, it was only because we wanted to get away from all the annoyances of Christmas and had nowhere to go, until we found out the theaters were open. Let me tell you, back then, theaters were empty on Christmas day. We were surprised they would even open.

We enjoyed this for many years, until about 8 to 10 years ago, when all of a sudden, theaters started selling out on Christmas day. We've all been very pissed ever since that you people have ruined our peaceful Christmas tradition.

Leaving for the late showing of Avatar in about 45 minutes!

 

[RoJoHen]

Honestly, though, I've found that Christmas Day is one of the only days that you can be in a packed theater where people aren't acting like total douchebags. I'm not sure if they just have the Christmas spirit, but nobody talked during the whole movie today, and I didn't once see a cellphone light up.

 

[TrekNut87]

My mother's side of the family is far too large for this sort of thing. We find it much easier to enjoy each other's company instead.

We have done it a few times on my dad's side though. His side is much smaller so it's a lot more managable. However, we don't do it very often, as we find plenty of ways to keep ourselves entertained. We'll go maybe every 2-3 years or so.

 

[TheLonelySquire]

RoJo-

I used to go quite a lot when I was single. Now, not so much since we have a young baby.

Anyway, Merry Christmas. Was Sherlock Holmes any good?

 

[trampledamage]

Cinemas are open on Christmas Day? Wonder if they are here in Canada too...

 

[RoJoHen]

Anyway, Merry Christmas. Was Sherlock Holmes any good?

We all enjoyed it.

Cinemas are open on Christmas Day? Wonder if they are here in Canada too...

I actually think it's kind of funny that people are unaware of this considering Christmas is often Opening Day for movies.

I mean, Star Trek was supposed to open Christmas Day last year before it got pushed back to May.

 

[Arrqh]

I'm sort of shocked to see that people are shocked, to be honest. The joke is always that we Jews go out for Chinese food/see movies but there's a large basis in fact there. I have seen quite a few movies on Christmas eve/day... not all of us celebrate and we need stuff to do too!

 

[trampledamage]

Well it's only on reading the BBS that I know that there's the tradition of going for Chinese food - guess the cinema thing had passed me by

 

[auntiehill]

We usually all go to the movies the day after Christmas,but once or twice we have gone Christmas Day, usually just so the kids will get out of the house and leave my parents in peace.

 

[Goji]

My family wanted to go to the movies today, but it's just too hard. We have too much to do and it never fits into the schedule. But we are planning to go tomorrow, to see the Sherlock Holmes movie. Mostly because my mom like Robert Downey Junior a lot.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I'm not shocked that movie theaters are open, but I am shocked that anyone would actually want to leave the house on Christmas day. It is the ultimate lounge around in your pajamas playing board games, video games, and watching DVDs day. I can't imagine getting dressed let alone going out in public.

Plus going to the movies is expensive for a family of six...I sure as heck ain't paying for myself, and I know my parents don't want to.

 

[Tribbles]

I went with my cousin to see The Princess and the Frog today. It was a 9:55 PM showing, and we expected the theater to be relatively empty because it's a kid movie and a late showing.

Oh, how wrong we were!

Teenagers packed the theater, literally ran up and down the aisles, talked on cell phones, stood at the entrance and yelled at people on the top rows. A cop came in twice and talked to them, but no one was ever kicked out. I think it was a good movie, but I didn't really get to pay attention to much of it.

While I enjoy capping off my Christmas day with a trip to the movies (a fun excuse to wear the new clothes you got that morning!), I don't plan on doing it again next year. It's become a bit too popular of a Christmas night activity in my area.

 

[Daneel]

Cinemas are open on Christmas Day? Wonder if they are here in Canada too...

Well, they certainly are in my part of Canada.

I didn't do it this year, but I've been known to in years past. A few years ago, my mom and I went to a Christmas night showing of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. A couple of years ago, I either went with my sister to see Sweeney Todd or with my father to see Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (I can't recall exactly, I saw them very close together... I think it was AvP:R. And I agree with RoJo, that is an odd one to see on Christmas ).

We talked a bit about going out to see Sherlock Holmes or Nine, but my mom and sister went out to see It's Complicated instead. So my dad and I stayed in and watched my favourite Christmas movie on DVD: Die Hard.

Good times.

 

[WillsBabe]

It'd never occur to me to go to the cinema on Christmas Day. I don't even know if cinemas are open on Christmas Day. It amazes me when anything is open on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. I think I'm still stuck in the Christmases of my childhood. In the 1970s in the UK nothing was open on Christmas Day, virtually nothing on Boxing Day, and the whole week between Christmas and New Year was pratically shut, too!

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Never been to the movies on Christmas day. I noticed that were open here yesterday. I might in the future, but generally do other things on Christmas day like sleep after the feast.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

We went to see 'Avatar' after the family party was over. Must have wandered into the wrong theater though, because I think we saw some kind of weird animated feature crossover instead.

It looked beautiful though, and the big battle where John Smith and Pocahontas organized their animal friends to kick the Smurf out of Gargamel while he was trying to destroy Grandmother Willow and conquer Ferngully was just amazing.

Usually we try and see a movie after the family party if we're not too tired.

 

[Gepard]

We went to see 'Avatar' after the family party was over. Must have wandered into the wrong theater though, because I think we saw some kind of weird animated feature crossover instead.

Oh, come on. The CG wasn't perfect, but it was better than that.

It looked beautiful though, and the big battle where John Smith and Pocahontas organized their animal friends to kick the Smurf out of Gargamel while he was trying to destroy Grandmother Willow and conquer Ferngully was just amazing.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

We went to see 'Avatar' after the family party was over. Must have wandered into the wrong theater though, because I think we saw some kind of weird animated feature crossover instead.

Oh, come on. The CG wasn't perfect, but it was better than that.

Oh no, I didn't mean it like that. I meant it was like an animated crossover in terms of the plot being extremely reminiscent of several animated films (and many live-action ones as well for that matter).

The CG was great and the depth of the world creation Cameron did was amazing. Plus, kudos to him on including massive numbers of CGI characters, animals, vehicles, and backgrounds without it ever once devolving into a clusterfuck where you couldn't tell what was going on like in Transformers 2.

From a technical standpoint the movie was outstanding, but it was probably one of the most predictable and derivative plots I've seen in a movie in a long time. I get that there's only so many basic plot outlines you can do, but this borrowed pretty heavily from a lot of sources, not the least of which was Cameron's own films. I mean, I was sitting there saying to myself "Hey look, it's Vasquez and Carter Burke!" and things of that nature on several occasions.

Hell, James Horner even reused bits and pieces of some of his old movies scores (like the ominous horns from 'Enemy at the Gates' every time the bad guys were kicking ass). But then again, he's done that before, and while there's nothing wrong about borrowing from yourself, if there's a lot of it going on it takes you out of the movie.

 

[Gepard]

Ah. I see. (And agree, but it was still a fun movie-going experience anyway.)