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Comment by chrisseaton | Hacker News Reader

You can watch all these anytime on streaming - why do you need a cinema to see them?

There is a remarkably different experience between seeing Clint Eastwood 20 feet tall versus 25 inches tall

The angular size of Clint Eastwood is or can be made the same, by adjusting your distance from the screen. The difference is everything else about the experience, everything except the apparent size of Clint Eastwood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter

Your brain can perceive the difference between a 25 foot tall figure and a 25 inch tall one even if the angular distance is the same. Just like you can tell the difference between a giant ant striding through your neighborhood and a tiny ant on the wall in front of your face. One is impressive, the other isn't.

It's a lot more complicated than distance from the screen. My brain is pretty good at telling the difference between a small screen up close and a big screen far away at the same "apparent size," due to binocular vision and the effect focal distance (of both our eyes and the camera) has on the end result.

Some movies benefit enormously from a shared viewing experience, and the more people the better (to a point). Here's an example of a recent movie which such a moment (there's actually a lot of audience reaction videos to just this singular moment in this movie, which is telling as to how many people feel the same way).[1] This specific example likely wouldn't be quite the same in an older movie where people knew to expect it, but I doubt it would be entirely absent.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_klBA8Dvcs

I think this type of behavior happens only in USA. I can't imagine hearing more than a gasp during movie in my country.

On the other hand think of the reaction people had when watching the First Star War Prequal when the opening crawl started on opening weekend(we didn't know yet), Avengers: Endgame when Tony got the Gauntlet. Watching all of the Doctors show up at the climax of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Episode simulcast in theatre. Its a communal experience then. the first glory shot of the Enterprise in 2009, The cheer of the crowd knowing everyone else is feeling the same as you are is a amazing feel you cant get at home watching you 80 inch flat screen.

There’s also the community aspect. Being in an audience that’s actively engaged in a movie is like being at a sports game vs watching the game on TV.

I guess that’s cultural then - here it’s polite to stay quiet in a cinema.

Why do people go to the cinema at all? Because the experience isn't the same. The screen is way bigger, the sounds often better.

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