The movie-going experience

Dileep Rao's TED Talk was probably one of the best I've ever seen. Not because it was it was about anything life-altering (it wasn't), nor because the message was politically motivated (it wasn't).

Nope. I loved it because it gives us an explanation behind why we choose to pay extra money, eat life-shortening snacks, and sit amongst sweaty and probably diseased strangers in a dark room to be entertained.

This got me thinking about an experience I've long enjoyed, but has somewhat diminished in Southern Utah: the midnight movie premier.

A while back, our local movie theaters were owned by Westgate Theatres. Their projectors were crappy, their staff was rude, and their management had a personal vendetta against me (the regional manager once called me on my personal number and chewed me out because I gave the theater a bad review in a publication). But despite all its shortcomings, they still premiered all the biggest movies on Thursday night / Friday morning at midnight.

I looked forward to heading over to the Pineview Stadium 10 every Thursday night to stand in line for installments of "Harry Potter," "The Avengers" and "Hunger Games." I was such a midnight premier addict that I even agreed to accompany my friends to a midnight showing of "Breaking Dawn: Part 1." (I was informed later that I wouldn't be allowed to go with those friends to the second one, because my incredibly audible sounds of disgust were too distracting ... and rude.)

Did I want to see the movies? Well, with the exception of "Twilight," yes. I was looking forward to all the movies. But waiting in line with other superfans, talking about book adaptations and casting choices, quoting lines from previous film installments, making predictions for post-credit scenes, laughing and gasping with the crowd, and cheering when the movie is finished are just as much as, if not more, of a reason to go to the movie than the movie itself.

Just like Rao said in his talk, we can get the movie at home. But we can't get the movie-watching experience.

After all, we have the ability to listen to our favorite artists on our iPods. But most of us have or would be willing to see that artist in concert. And why would we do that? Especially since we can't rewind the live show and listen to a song again. We can't drive or clean or do homework with a live show playing in the background. No, it's the experience of seeing the performance.

For those of you who are a little more high-brow culturally inclined (like I pretend to be), you can look at an image of the Mona Lisa any time you want on your phone or computer or table. So why would you ever want to see it in person at the Louvre in Paris? It'd cost a fortune to get there and back, and besides, I've heard the size of the Mona Lisa isn't that impressive anyway. But I'd jump at the opportunity to see it up close. Why? The experience, of course!

Sadly, the new owners of our local theaters have all but done away with the midnight premier. They've stopped decorating the theater to reflect the movie being premiered. They've stopped dressing up like characters from the film.

Yes, they still show movies on Thursdays, but they're usually at 9 or 10 p.m., and the films are all finished by midnight. The theater darkens, the staff go home, and the patrons are all in bed so they can be up for work on Friday morning.

The super film fans like me see the Thursday movies, without waiting in lines anymore (because our seats are assigned). We leave our silly movie-related costumes and props at home.

Midnight premiers are going the way of celluloid. And if you don't know what celluloid is, then that illustrates my point exactly.