Where Do You Sit in the Movie Theater?

Middle Middle. The "True Neutral" of movie theater seat preferences I suppose.
OP is more like Neutral Evil.

You, sir, are a psychopath. I always sit about halfway up as close to the center as I can get.

Distance from screen: 1/2 to 3/4 back (2/3 back being ideal)
Horizontal position: as centered as possible

As an acoustic engineer who would tune movie theaters, 2/3 of the way back in the center of the room. If it is a Dolby certified theater there will be a chair with a small plaque that is where the measurements are taken and the room is tuned to that seat.

Center seat, about a third of the way to the back. This is where we setup to calibrate the surround systems back in the 90s and I'm not aware of any change to this so I still sit there.
- Dolby standardized to 2/3 in 2005 and everyone copied them.
  
  Thanks for the info, I'm going to have to start sitting farther back.

I prefer to sit on the chair.
- I prefer to sit on my butt.
  
  Gross.

Edge seat nearest the door. A lot of the movies I'm willing to spend money to see are over 2hrs and I typically have to piss somewhere in that time. A quick convenient exit lets me get in and out with no fuss. I wish movies still had intermissions.
Bonus: Bit-o-Honey, just stick a few in one of your pockets. The body heat warms it up so it's not rock hard. No loud wrapper, not particularly messy.
- Do you have the RunPee app?
  
  Not who you replied to but this is awesome. My old man bladder thanks you. Installed.
  
  Flip phone, so no apps. Just pick my dash spot by need and feel.
  Most movies have a 2-3 min slow spot I can dash in. Then I do my best to peel porcelain.

Very back row, dead center.
Unless it's a huge movie on opening night, I usually have all the leg room my tall ass needs, have a perfect view of the entire screen so I can take the whole movie in, sound is usually the best there, and there's just something about the back row and having all of that free space for activities. I can use set my bag down, get up and stretch without interfering with other viewers, and something about it is just very soothing for me. It's like a comfort thing.
Same feeling I get when I go camping and have everything within arms reach in my tent, or in my car on a roadtrip. Something about that feeling just does things for me. Most comfortable feeling in the world lol.
- Life is good when we make it good.

havent been to a theater since 2019, but i used to go for center of the rows. My main reason being that the sound is "centered" there, so it isnt behind you like in the front row, or in front of you in the back.

Regular theater: in the center, about 1/3 back from the screen.
IMAX: in the center, very back row against the wall.
- why very back in IMAX? wouldn't that be too far?
  
  The screen is giant. Giant isn't even the right word for it. And with stadium seating, you don't have to worry about people sitting in front of you.
  It reminds me of how the movie screen seemed to me when I was 5. If I'm too close, my field-of-view won't include the edges of the screen.

Way in the back, on my couch at home.
- Even for Oppenheimer.
  
  I'm going to the late showing of Oppenheimer. Probably sometime in November.

Right behind the crossing lane and the never-used handicapped section so I can put my feet up. It's six rows from the front. Only downside is every yahoo with a tiny bladder that insists on parking on the far side of the theater from the exit has to parade back and forth constantly in the movie, breaking the emersion.
Bonus: a couple of airplane bottles to add to my coke and some raisinettes from the drug store where they cost 1/5 as much. Just carry them in my bag. No one working in the theater gives a crap if you bring in your own food.

Ya'll can afford movie tickets?
- The theater by my house is only $11. That's worth it to me.
- For $25/mo I can see all the movies I want. That's like a single IMAX ticket where I am, so even one movie breaks even.

The entire theater is designed around the center seat. Anything else is objectively wrong.

Way at the back, for 2 reasons. First, it’s easier on my neck. Looking up when sitting in a lower section is hell for me. Second, I really dislike people sitting behind me.
- Rear-center sitters unite! There's literally 2 of us!

The ideal viewing position is the center about 2/3 of the way back.

Wherever is easiest to get up and out and go pee because I snuck in beer and I have a small bladder.

Usually about halfway between the back and the front.

- Oh hey I also have a bad left eye so I also prefer to sit on the left side if I can. I like to be more in the middle though, having the screen be most of my vision. I had to see Oppenheimer in the furthest row since that was all that was available at our screening and I felt like it took me out of the experience a bit being able to clearly see the borders.
- So you pay extra to go to the largest screen possible, then sit as far away as you can to make it small enough for you to see? That seems... suboptimal.

More or less in the middle.
- Same. Middle kind of meets OP’s need to be “in the movie” while still being far enough away the you’re not looking up throughout the film. Middle == Goldilocks

Always in the back. I get a better view that way. I've tried sitting in the front before, but I always had to have my head tilted up. I've tried sitting in the middle before and my eyes had to zoom around the screen still to try and catch everything.
So, the back it is for me.
- I've tried the back and hate it due to you get a view of the entire audience and all the yahoos who refuse to not light up their phones mid movie. We live in a society of entitled twats. Getting this confirmation a half dozen times during the movie I paid for just makes my BP go up.

Very back row and centered. Can't stand getting my seat kicked (though with the re-designed rows and reclining chairs its not so much a problem anymore). I also just hate hearing people talk behind me. Would rather have a worse view with peace than a great view and hearing chattering in back/front of me.

The acoustic sweet spot… obviously.

Probably middle middle as well, maybe a bit higher than middle depending on the theater.
I don't have perfect vision so I can't seat super far back

All the way to the back since i had had bad experiences with people kicking my seat in the back even after you ask them multiple times to stop. In more than 2 movies btw. So i rather avoid it and go all the way to the back. Its kindda annoying since every time some ashole takes their digiclock or phone out i get my face blasted with their brightness. But it has been becoming better as time passes, since when cinemas where reopened just after the pandemic, people where real jerks by talking loudly, having their phones out constantly be it for recording parts and posting them or whatever else, having their hellspawn (children) playing with their phone/tablet all movie long with the sound on, and some asholes even goin as far as taking selfies of their own fugly faces with multiflash on. But as i said its been getting better ever since, theres still some asholes but way less now.

I've been going to the same theater for the past 15 years, the largest/best equipped one in my city. I always sit about half way back from the screen (row 6 of 13), in the center of the room. Rows 5 and 7 work too, but 5 is slightly too close and 7 too far. My SO still thinks I'm weird for having a favorite row and seat, and I keep trying to explain why it's important.
Will be seeing Oppenheimer in my favorite seat today!

I’ve always sat in the center seats way in the back. I feel like any closer and my neck and eyes will start to hurt. Plus I don’t have to worry about people behind me being annoying or disruptive.

One or two rows before the last one, in the middle, I thought it was the preferred position, I guess I'm wrong.

High up in a corner where people mostly never sit. Though I don't go to theaters and movies by myself. Never. So I just suggest it to the person going with me.

Always in a seat, never on the floor
- You sit where you're assigned, peasant!

Between the sticky Coke spill and the teen giving TikTok movie updates, and right behind the dystopian row of popcorn shrapnel.

As a kid and most of the way through my 20s, I pretty much always wanted to be in the back row of a stadium seating theater (although the long, sloped plane theaters 🤮 I definitely didn't sit at the back because you were a mile away from the screen).
But over the last few years I've reevaluated my "always in the back" stance, and found that I, like OP, am happiest when the screen completely fills my view. Both of our theaters have leather recliners. At one of our premium/large format screens, I'll sit in about the 4th row of 30 because the recline is so substantial that I can sit so close without craning my neck to see the screen. In any of the other standard screens at that theater, I'll sit in the front half for sure.
We've also got a theater with two IMAX screens - one of them is so enormous and the seats are so vertically stacked that I've been pushing further and further back in the theater, almost to the back row. Because the screen is almost 80 feet tall, it positions you basically in the center of the screen and the recline in the chairs is very limited, so sitting too close means you are craning your neck.
- I want to add - I think a LOT about this topic, and I'm pretty sure my wife couldn't care less. But if I'm spending almost $30/pp to see a movie in the massive IMAX theater, I want to make sure it's the best possible experience for both of us.
- > We've also got a theater with two IMAX screens
  Which theater is that? I've been looking for one but there isn't one near my location, apparently there are only 30 of them? EDIT: Clarification, only 30 in the entire world that project 70mm. I was looking for one to watch Oppenheimer in.
  
  There are only 30 theaters that project 70mm IMAX film. There's plenty of others that do digital IMAX.
  
  Unfortunately, both of my IMAX screens are digital projection - I did look into it and saw that I had a 70mm IMAX screen around 4 hours away, but never could make it work with my work schedule. But my premium format IMAX screen was incredible all the same, no regrets!

Middle on one of the edges. Best distance to screen but also easy to get up for the bathroom.

Usually right around the middle. I had a friend who'd want us sitting in the very front row and I'd always exit the theater with a stiff neck.

You sit in the absolute middle (middle of the middle row) of course. Why would you sit anywhere else?

Middle row, left side.
- I'm curious, why left?
  
  The movie wasn't very good.

About 4-5 rows back, next to an aisle if it isn't too off-center. If the row is deserted I will sit in the middle.

My local cinema with small screens has two rows of reclining seats at the front, so I always try to grab one of those as close to the centre as possible. If the only seats are too far to the edge though I’ll sacrifice the comfort to be further back but more central.

Farthest back row, dead center. The screen still feels huge, I don't have to move my neck, and most importantly I have no one behind me.

I like to choose seats where theres nobody near me...usually try to go super late and if it is packed the front corners right by the screen...

I haven't seen a movie in a theater since... forever. Probably 20 years.
I do watch a lot of plays though. Would throw money for that any time.
- Then where do you sit?
  
  At the plays? There are ticket numbers here, you don't just get to pick where you sit, you sit where the ticket says you should sit. You can't always pick and choose, depends if the play is sold out or not, but if I get to pick, middle, 5th, 6th row, not too far, not too close.

Anything on the left next to the aisle.

Wherever there's an empty row.

We like to sit on the end of the middle row so my wife doesn't have to sit next to anyone else (her preference), and we can easily get up if needed without bothering anyone else. That said, it's why we prefer cinemas with fewer seating so our viewing angle isn't bad; unlike large theaters where end seats are too far to the side. Thankfully the IMAX in our city has the last 2 rows shorter than the rest, so seating at the end puts you close to the center; so we don't need to sit at the very side of a huge theater.

My agoraphobia says "not between people". So first or last seat in a row. Distance to the screen is irrelevant.

Middle back third

Far away where I don't have to pay to have my experience ruined by screaming teenagers

I invented a superhero called Molten Man who jizzes molten rock from his molten cock. I live in perpetual fear of Molten Man hiding above and/or behind me and getting hit by that spicy butter. Top, center, farthest back, in plain view of all exits.

The screen size doesn't change depending on how far or close you sit to it though.
- But the angular perspective does. It "looks" smaller the further you are away.
  I really hope this doesn't need to be explained...