2025 Moviegoing Superlatives
my year at the movies
Happy almost new year! I started 11am Saturday and the 15 Questions series over two years ago (!) in hopes of meeting more people whose favorite (sometimes only?) past time is going to the movies, and stumbled upon a community beyond my wildest dreams. I made so many wonderful friends and even reconnected with old ones through the love of going to the movies and talking about it. I’m so grateful for everyone who’s a part of it, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please join me in taking stock of 2025 the only way it makes sense, through experiences at the movie theater.
Allow me to be vulnerable for a second and reveal the number of movies I saw in theaters in 2025. Before posting this I asked approximately twenty friends if the number feels too low for me. 71 movies in theaters means I saw more than one movie per week; that’s considering the year started out horrifically, summer is usually slow for new releases, and there are stretches where nothing good’s in theaters. BUT, it still feels like I should have seen more? It feels like I’m at the movies every day of my life? Please feel free to either validate or shame me in the comments. If anything this will motivate me to purchase even more tickets in 2026.
The First
A Complete Unknown on a (very) extended layover in London at Gate Picturehouse. Weekday matinee with a dozen senior citizens and came out to freezing cold and dinner plans with an old friend. Perfection.
Most Needed
Taste of Cherry at Vidiots in March when the world seemed extra, extra bleak. I know it sounds corny but that screening gave me a whole new outlook on life that I desperately needed at the time.
Best Snack Situation
Iced Americano and croissants from a local French bakery snuck in for a matinee of Lurker in August with Emily.
Best Audience
Our Substack meet-up at Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning at the AMC Americana in May! I really hope we get to do more of these in 2026.
Honorable mention for Weapons at AMC City Walk, collective screaming at jump scares made that movie 100x better.
Worst Audience
The intolerable Pride & Prejudice re-release audience that inspired this piece.
Furthest Drive
The 1h45m trek for Frida Cinema’s excellent Back To School triple feature of Easy A, She’s The Man and 10 Things I Hate About You with Ilana. We somehow snuck a whole pizza box in between two movies.
New Discovery
Ojai Playhouse is everything my dream local theater would be and I can’t wait to hopefully go back this year.
Randomly Very Intense
Eddington at AMC City Walk in August where I had my first (and minor) anxiety attack in a theater, leading to discover I have some Covid/2020 trauma I had no prior awareness of. Very weird experience!
Largest Theater
The Virgin Suicides screening at the Academy Museum’s gigantic David Geffen Theater that also dramatically transformed a low-on-serotonin day.
Would Have Seen It In a Theater
Did I meet a programmer recently and suggested a marathon of The Pitt at their movie theater? Maybe! Famously I have a hard time watching anything at home unless it’s Emily In Paris with my mom or Real Housewives of Salt Lake City in the background while I work. But The Pitt held my attention in a huge way this year, so much so that I just finished my third rewatch ahead of the new season (coming January 8th!). More on this later.
Other notable experiences include taking my parents to see Superman over the summer, going to my first midnight screening for One Battle After Another, attending two premieres— one for Train Dreams (thanks Emily!) and for The Testament of Ann Lee, setting an alarm to get a ticket for No Other Choice the second it went on sale, getting to watch Nancy Meyers grill Noah Baumbach about his prohibition of chairs on his sets after a screening of Jay Kelly, anytime I run into friends outside the theater without knowing we were just at the same movie, and the list goes on.
Would love to hear about your favorite moviegoing experiences if you want to share. Once again, thank you for being here and keeping me company. May 2026 be kind to movie theaters and horrible for streaming <3
For me, I have a feeling nothing is going to top the NYFF secret world premiere screening of MARTY SUPREME for a loooooong time
I love this sooooo much!!! 71 feels high in my opinion but that is probably just my envy of your dedication slipping through… personally all of my favorite theater experiences this year were at the imax theater at amc lincoln square. both Sinners and OBAA in 70mm imax were ELECTRIC.