Thursday, October 12, 2006

theater audiences in Madison

Last weekend I was in Madison to see a Badger game. The night before the game we decided to go see Scorsese's new movie, The Departed. I was amazed at how into the movie the audience was. Not only did they laugh at every line of dialogue that was remotely amusing, but they actually cheered when one of the antagonists got shot and gave the film a standing ovation when the credits came on. Also, NOBODY left the room until all of the credits finished rolling.

This wasn't a small arthouse theater either. It was just a basic Marcus Cinema by some mall. What surprises me about all this is that films don't get anywhere near this type of audience interaction in Milwaukee and I found it fascinating that there is such a stark difference between Madison crowds and Milwaukee crowds.

1 comment:

michael said...

Sounds like you found yourself a dream audience, Max. It really makes a difference in your experience of a movie when the audience is into it. This is part of what people like about going to film festivals--the atmosphere created by big, enthusiastic crowds.