Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: it's Christian Seger. And let me tell you I love
Speaker 1: going to the movies, but I have often experienced that
Speaker 1: awkward moment when you walk into the movies with friends
Speaker 1: and you all kind of have a quick discussion. It
Speaker 1: can sometimes get heated about where you want to sit
Speaker 1: down to watch the film. Now, everybody has their preference.
Speaker 1: Some people like to sit towards the front, some people
Speaker 1: towards the back. The good news is that most modern
Speaker 1: theaters are built in such a way that almost anywhere
Speaker 1: you sit, you're going to have a pretty good experience.
Speaker 1: And it actually starts with the seating because it's way
Speaker 1: more plush than it used to be. If you go
Speaker 1: to an older or discount theater, sometimes you'll still feel
Speaker 1: the hard seats that fold down and they're not super
Speaker 1: comfortable to spend two hours in. But most modern theaters
Speaker 1: have really plush seats, and their backs are higher, the
Speaker 1: armrests can fold down or up. You have to put
Speaker 1: your cup there. Sometimes they even have trays that slide
Speaker 1: out like that like you're on an airplane or something.
Speaker 1: Their stadium seating, though, and that has really changed things
Speaker 1: because theaters used to be built with a grade of
Speaker 1: about fifteen degrees from the front to the back to
Speaker 1: theoretically give you a good view over the heads of
Speaker 1: other viewers, but now it's actually terraced so that it's
Speaker 1: a rise of about twelve to fifteen inches per roh.
Speaker 1: So no matter how many fools are coming into your
Speaker 1: theater and sitting down with giant hats or big hair
Speaker 1: dues and sitting in front of you, you're still going
Speaker 1: to be able to see pretty well. But aside from comfort,
Speaker 1: the really big thing that you want to take into
Speaker 1: consideration is sound. We live in a time when theater
Speaker 1: sound has been amped up to super digital magic. Really
Speaker 1: the best place is going to be about two thirds
Speaker 1: back from the front and toward the middle. The sound
Speaker 1: engineers balance out a theater, and the way they do
Speaker 1: it is they will sit in that exact position and
Speaker 1: balance out everything from that spot, so that if you're
Speaker 1: sitting right there, it's completely balanced and you almost get
Speaker 1: a neutral sound. But if you shift just a seat
Speaker 1: or two left or right, you're actually going to get
Speaker 1: a more dynamic, stereo kind of sound. But if you
Speaker 1: just want to sit wherever you want, look that's cool,
Speaker 1: but just know you might not be getting the best
Speaker 1: possible sound experience, so pick your seat and have a
Speaker 1: great time at the movies. Check out the brainstuff channel
Speaker 1: on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands of
Speaker 1: other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.