With so many great upcoming movies in 2025, a sizable number of people will presumably make their way to a theater in the coming months. As such, it’s time for a “State Of The Union” of sorts on the current state of a night at the movies. More specifically, I was shocked to see a “hot take” about seating on X that wasn’t as controversial as I expected. It turns out there are a good number of people who dislike recliner seating.
As someone who has often written about improvements movie theaters can make for the sake of audiences, I consider recliner seating to be one of the greatest advancements in cinema history. Apparently, though, there’s a community of people who are very much against that, as @alejandroxpadi found a lot of support after making this statement on X:
Hot take, but I actually very much prefer this style of seating in movie theaters over recliners.
thrilled about innovations in movie theaters when it comes to seating. But, apparently, there are naysayers. Stadium seating with standard chairs is the way a good chunk of people prefer to watch movies. Needless to say, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the variety of people weighing in and badmouthing the wonderful world of first-run movies in a recliner:
@kiki_soccer70
Of course, there were more than a few people in the replies saying this was a wild take to have, but I’m still shocked at the amount of support for stadium seating over recliners. To me, that’s about as unexpected as saying people prefer sitting in a sloped theater compared to stadium seating or that we want to go back to the days where it was a free-for-all with no assigned seating before a screening. People laying down several personal items to hold seats remains one of the rudest things people can do in a movie theater, in my mind.
Now, is this post on X the end-all be-all in saying a majority of people prefer stadium seating to recliners? I don’t think so, as X only represents a small percentage of the population. Also, social media users tend to engage more with content they support or strongly disagree with. I took a small poll with the staff of CinemaBlend, and more were in favor of sitting in recliners compared to standard stadium seating.
With so many great movies in 2025 for audiences to see, I do hope that whatever the readers’ preference is, they’re making a point to hit up their favorite local theater and see one of these films on the big screen. I know it’s tempting when so many of these hit films are available on a variety of streaming services, but there’s just no beating the theatrical experience, in my humble opinion.
I know I have plans this weekend to kick back (literally) and recline while I watch Ballerina this weekend, and it won’t be the last time I’m at a theater either. That said, I am waiting for Sinners‘ arrival on HBO Max as well but, for the record, I also have a recliner in my living room.