What’s Up With Couple Seating In Theaters? (2024)

Want a seat to yourself? You get the worst viewing angle.

Several of the theaters in my area have been revamped with the new fancy seating that seems to have taken off in droves these days. Comfortable seats for movies that are now sometimes 3 hours are great!

Except when it isn’t.

The theaters around my area have gotten the bright idea to make ALL the new seating selections “couple seats” aside for a few lone seats at the very edge of the rows. Plus, the number seating has been more than cut in half from what used to be available. And don’t get me started on being forced to reserve seats.

Anyway, back to this disaster of couple seating. As an INTJ I absolutely hate that theaters have chosen to make all the prime viewing seats for couples. If you haven’t seen this brilliant *sarcastic sigh* idea come to life in your own theater, couple seats are those that do not have a full armrest in the middle of the two seats and some have none at all. These seats also recline.

Airlines are bad enough. Now we can feel too close for comfort in overpriced theaters too.

So imagine, you’re a single person going to a movie only to find that you’ll now be basically sitting in a loveseat next to a stranger with barely any personal space. Traditional theater seating didn’t give you much space either, but if they’re upgrading, why not make them all single loungers? I don’t know about you, but it feels very awkward to stretch back in a chair and put your feet up when a stranger is inches from me in the same two-person seat.

Airlines are bad enough with feeling like you’re sitting on top of a stranger, but now I have to feel this way in a theater too? WTF!

At least before you could leave a courtesy seat open between you and others, but now with much less seating overall combined with forced reservations, it makes it more difficult to do so. I can choose one half of a couple seat, but someone else may choose the other and from what I’ve seen, most theaters are sold out with the less seating available. So, most likely, choosing a couple seat will get you sitting next to a stranger.

Granted, depending on which seating arrangement your theater chooses, you may end up with more space than the traditional and uncomfortable seating choices. It just confuses me why a theater chain would assume a majority of their visitors would want couple seating throughout instead of the larger loungers that allow for a center armrest to be moved out of the way.

I guess I’ll have to stick with the sh*tty side seats where the viewing angle isn’t that great if I want a seat to myself from now on. Yay! I get to pay even more for my seat plus have a less comfortable experience than before.

Anyone else boggled by 99% couple seating in theaters these days? Let me know your experience. Was it as bad as it sounds being single person in a couple space?