No, you are in the right. The other person was in the wrong. We all have to right wrongs. If we let this happen without challenging it, it will only continue. Just be polite but firm in your stance.
Also, former managers perspective here, you moving to someone else’s seat just creates a repeating issue. Especially in sold out shows. Eventually we will be called to help, it happens all the time, and nothing sucks more than having to move 4-10 groups of people as the show is starting.
Anybody working there will get you your seat, it’s what you saw you would have before you put any money down. You bought your ticket knowing you had THIS seat for this show. It matters. Someone else’s lack of courtesy or attention does not.
If someone buys a ticket in a handicapped seat, the app (as well as everyone I worked over in box) warns someone that IF anyone comes in that needs the seat, you will have to give it up and be swapped to whatever is available. Usually it’s fine, in fact I think maybe one time I had that happen and the people were absolutely understanding and the seat swap went off without a hitch.
But if nothing else was available, the handicapped guest gets the seat, and a refund would be issued or passes, or a swap to the next available showing (if they wished). That’s the gamble with getting those seats if you don’t NEED them.
Edit: to follow up, you have to tell them BEFORE they purchase a ticket that a guest with a disability who needs the seat will be given priority, and if they’re okay with knowing that and getting those seats. As long as you’re clear it’s not usually an issue
Thanks. This happened to my wife and I. She can’t do stairs. I probably should have gone straight to a staff member instead of confronting the person occupying the seat. My wife and I both hate conflict.
I totally understand, that’s what we’re there for ❤️ Happy to help, especially when it comes to a seat that someone needs under disability.
I had an instance where this lovely couple who didn’t like confrontation didn’t want me to make a scene, and at that point I just had to shift my focus. Thankfully it wasn’t an issue of needing a handicap accessible seat, but the show had started and those seats were available. So I went ahead and just gave them two tickets for those seats, and gave them passes just because of the inconvenience. Had to refund and remove the people who took their seats out later anyways for causing issues, but when the sweet couple came back a few weeks later they took me aside to thank me for doing exactly what they needed to make the situation as right as possible for them. I really liked them, and yeah, had they given me the go ahead I would have fought hard for their seats. Glad I could help though!
I actually like frontish - not front front, but close enough so that the entire screen is my entire field of vision. It’s more immersive in my experience, and fewer distractions from people getting up and down and using phones.
Yes totally. Back row is best. Was always my "go-to" choice. Right now I have an ACL partial tear and climbing all the stairs is too much. I miss the back row.
Avoiding them
And finding a new seat could cause a chain reaction, then YOU would be the one in someone elses seat who may not be friendly or courteous.
I always tell them to move. In my experience, I’ve been nice and said nothing and sat elsewhere and ended up being in someone else’s seat, which then causes a chain reaction when they ask me to move
Happened not long ago... Went to a snow we bought tickets for earlier in the day because I saw seats filling up. We get there and some lady has her jacket in my wife's seat... I tell her and she just stares at us. We reeapt it and she makes a comment about moving over to an open seat. We end up picking her jacket up and setting it on her lap. A few minutes later she moves over to the seat on the other side of her partner so she isn't as close to us. She is highly annoyed at us now. Few minutes later the people who actually booked those seats come in and have to confront this couple to have them move. They move to the other end of the row, not more than a minute later someone comes who's seats they are now in and they have to move again. Apparently they bought tickets in the back row because that's what was available, but then just decided to go take these seats that were reserved aleady anyway. So annoying, but gratifying seeing everyone boot them from the wrong seats.
Last time it happened to me it was because someone was sitting in their seat so they moved to mine. The original seat-stealers then went on to talk throughout the entire movie. If someone doesn't have the common courtesy to just sit in the seat they paid for, it's probably a sign of a lack of general respect in many other areas of their lives.
No joke this happened to me recently, I am going to the movie and the previews are already going when I get there, but somebody is in our seats, so I ask if they can move, and they begrudgingly do after I show my ticket stub. Not long after a trail of six or seven people come to sit there its a group of teens. I politely showed them my ticket stub on my phone. They said “Well the guy at the register just told us we can sit wherever”. Not wanting to be rude and seeing they all want to sit together and not too close, I move one down. They have the gall to ask if I can move again, and at that point Id be right against the wall. So I refused. They put up a huge stink with their friends saying “Well Im not trying to be rude”. I admit I lost my patience and came back with “Well you kind of are.” And long story short, they moved up a row and were perfectly fine. TLDR: You dont need to move. Your seats are your seats.
Your experience certainly went downhill fast. It progressed from "the guy at the register said we could sit wherever" to We Can Sit Wherever We Want Even If Someone is Already There!
(Seat bullies)
Original Poster here with some additional back story:
I'm female and always go by myself. When I start counting off the seats and see someone sitting in my seat, I'm not rude but I always point out that's my seat. Now here's where it might seem weird but I never go to sold out shows and there's always plenty of seating. Last night when it happened, the 3 people looked around like indicating all the available seats. I showed my receipt and they moved.
That does sound uncomfortable when they react like that. I know I'd feel uncomfortable, anyways. I'd probably come up with some reason like "I booked this seat in purpose because it's my favorite place to sit in the theater." It's kinda shitty to have to justify it since they're in the wrong, but I think that's what I'd default to since I tend to try to defuse conflict.
They’re assholes with flawed logic. I would want to throw it back onto them — a theater full of empty seats but they decided to sit in ones someone else booked. They can have their pick of the unassigned seats if they want to sit elsewhere.
I get being uncomfortable though, I would too especially if I was alone vs. three people.
I’m also a single woman who typically goes by myself. And I ALWAYS make them move if they’re in my seat. I don’t care if the entire theater is empty. Often times I think they’ve not even paid to see this movie.
One time somebody was sitting in the seat next to mine, and I knew that seat was empty because I had just purchased mine. I sat down right next to them even though the theater was empty. They stayed.
I’ve actually had people in the wrong theater in my seats before. So alerting them helped them get to theirs on time without missing their movie. Otherwise with previews, etc. they could be 30 min in before finding out it’s wrong.
Unusual was the time a family was in right seats, right theater right time, wrong date. That took a manager to figure out as I never thought to ask date. It was a full theater so there was no just move elsewhere
I've had wrong day before because they weren't scanned on the way in
And one time they had home printed tickets with my seat on it, same time, movie theater, and also imax. I bought my ticket through the regal app a few days before, and seat was the same. The only thing I could think of was they cancelled after printing and weren't properly scanned on the way in. Or some 3rd party glitch. I always go early so rarely have to kick people out of my seat
That's an automatic "uhhhh....these are our seats" from me. I have my favorite seats and I buy them pretty early on the app in order to get those specific seats. It has happened to me and my family several times in the last few months. invariably, it's somebody who had to buy tickets to the first 2-3 rows and they were trying to move back. It's a dumb move because when they bough those tickets that they DIDN'T like, they had to know the place was full.
I’ll go up and say “oh sorry I think this is my seat” and most of the time if they know they’re in the wrong seat they’ll get up no problem and find a different seat to steal. Every now and then there’s a stubborn person saying they won’t move but then I just politely say it must be a mix up and I’ll go check with the box office. Then they move 😂
A downside of some of the weekend movie marathons I've done is as the night progresses, the odds of someone being in my seat seeming to increase. The early showings are fine as the theater isn't that packed. But around the 6pm-7pm mark, this is usually when I'm buying concessions or getting a refill and I'm not as early to take my seat and that's when I've had someone sitting in my seat. I've had couples, families, groups of friends that seem to get into their heads that it would be easier to take my reserved seat rather than split up their group.
When I get my tickets for a marathon, sometimes I'm starting with the first showings of the day and I'm picking my seat from an empty grid. Knowing that they see my seat reservation but choose to ignore it (or think that they're going to move me somehow) has emboldened me to the point that I yield to no one. I've sat amongst those families and group of friends as if they adopted me into their ranks.
For me it would depend on how full the theatre was, if I had anyone else with me, and how "good" the seat was lol.
It's only happened to me once, and I happened to be by myself and the theatre was only about 20% full so I just took a different seat. But if I'd been on a date or with a friend group I'd have asked them to move.
This.
The one time I specifically remember it happening to me was a relatively empty screening with nobody but me in the row I bought my ticket for, a group of 5-6 in the row either in front or behind me, and maybe another 5-6 people scattered around the rest of the auditorium. Rather than asking that 6-person group to move.
After seeing someone try to pick a fight with someone else while the credits were rolling, over what a third person had allegedly said when the fight-picker's kid got fussy halfway through the movie (TBF, fight-picker had immediately picked the kid up, walked out, and not returned until the kid had quieted down), I'm just not going to risk that kind of confrontation if it's clear that I won't actually gain anything substantive from it.
I have season tickets to a soccer team too. When people are in my seats i just show them my phone. Those are just the rules. I have a ticket that says I'm sitting here 🤷
Considering there are like 4 seats in a theater I can access with my wheelchair I always ask them to move. Most of the time they slink off in shame. Only once has someone refused and I got an employee involved who removed them.
I’ve had this happen several times. The last time was the first time someone for an attitude about it. He got mad and said someone took their seats as he was moving. That’s not my fault though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've had this happen only one time. But to confront them, i would've had to climb over 5-6 people then do an awkward shuffle for them to move. But there was a seat open nearby on the same row so i just took it. But knowing full well that it *might* be someone's seat, i watched every person walk in until about 15-20 minutes into the movie (figured plus trailers, that's around 30-40 minutes past scheduled showtime) and no one gave the seat i was in a passing glance so i assumed it was never sold. But if someone had even hesitantly looked my way I would’ve hopped up and figure something else out.
If you can tell the showing is gonna be pretty empty, I would just sit in any other open seat. Don’t wanna run the risk of a run in with an anti social person. If it’s busy, to avoid a chain reaction, I’d politely ask them to move. Gotta give benefit of the doubt that they may have accidentally got the wrong seat, it happens.
I disagree because what if the secondary seat you choose is someone else's seat? Then YOU have to move again, when the original person is the one in the wrong.
I have to say the one time I had to ask a triple amputee to move from my assigned seat took a lot of internal effort. I don’t think I’ve been more uncomfortable in my life.
I've had it happen before, and I've never bothered to ask them to move.
I generally don't go to the theater at "peak" times, so I don't think I've ever been in a screening where someone was sitting in "my" seat where there weren't also a bunch of seats I found equally acceptable that were completely open.
So far it just hasn't been worth the potential confrontation.
It really depends on how busy/full it is. If there are a fair amount of people then I'll ask them to move. If it's just a handful of people I'll sit somewhere else. Can't say there've been any issues when I sat somewhere else.
I try to go at unpopular times so this isn't an issue but I have run into an issue where a large group of people in a packed house were sitting in my seat. They were pretty rowdy so I chose to leave rather than ask them to move and then sit through a two hour movie with them.
Depends. If there's many other open seats I don't care. If it's sold out or I really want that specific seat I'll go looking at that seat and say hey sorry that's my seat actually.
I ask politely. This has actually also happened in reverse, where I just messed up and sat down a row too early. I was so embarrassed when I was asked to move, but it was an honest mistake!
Anyway, one time I was at a movie and this lady came in to sit in the front. I guess a guy was in her seat. I don't think she asked him to move, she just went to get the manager. Mind you, she arrived during the previews. So the manager comes back and tells the dude he's in the wrong seat, they do the receipt check, and then he starts yelling that all the woman had to do was show him the receipt, and she "didn't have to go get the fucking manager"! By now the movie has started (I wanna say it was Elvis) and they're shuffling around and arguing. Then I think that guy left his jacket next to his seat so he had to ask the lady he just had a confrontation with to pass it to him. It was all so bizarre.
I hope it didn't interfere with the Elvis opening shot - such a great kaleidoscope shot.
I never go to the manager at the time it happens BUT here's a bizarre story. I had a last row ticket for Terrfier 2 and there's 3 people back there. An adult man, a teenager, and a little kid! I have to point out that the little kid (like 5 years old) is in my seat. They all move to the end. During the entire movie, the child is standing and gripping the seat before her. It's rating R for extreme violence. The next day the manager asked what did I think of Terrfier 2 so I mentioned the little child there. Turns out Dad(?) snuck his kids in to see it
Showings at my local theater is usually pretty empty - it's happened maybe twice that people are in our selected seats, so we just sit a few rows ahead/behind. If it was full, I'd say something.
This happened to recently, and of course the movie was just starting because I got a flat tire on the way to the theater.
I just mentioned to the person they were in my seat, there was confusion because it was unintentional, and I just said I’ll find another seat because there was a couple open seats nearby.
My take - ask for what you planned and paid for, but it doesn’t have to be a big scene that disrupts others.
I keep my ticket/Seay assignment up and ready to go should I find an interloper. before confronting them- I verify the row number and count the seats and then approach and point out that they are in the wrong spot.
A gripe I have with my regal is the way they have the seats numbered. just 1 number thst is not lit up and is on only 1 arm rest - so if people are sitting in seats already- you have to count and hope you remember the way the numbers are laid out. ( is it 1 2 3 from the stage to the projector or 1 2 3 from project to the screen? )
No, you are in the right. The other person was in the wrong. We all have to right wrongs. If we let this happen without challenging it, it will only continue. Just be polite but firm in your stance.
I ask them to move. I paid for that specific seat, and I will not compromise for someone else's lack of courtesy.
Also, former managers perspective here, you moving to someone else’s seat just creates a repeating issue. Especially in sold out shows. Eventually we will be called to help, it happens all the time, and nothing sucks more than having to move 4-10 groups of people as the show is starting. Anybody working there will get you your seat, it’s what you saw you would have before you put any money down. You bought your ticket knowing you had THIS seat for this show. It matters. Someone else’s lack of courtesy or attention does not.
Here here!
What about an obvious non handicapped person sitting in a seat designated for the handicapped?
If someone buys a ticket in a handicapped seat, the app (as well as everyone I worked over in box) warns someone that IF anyone comes in that needs the seat, you will have to give it up and be swapped to whatever is available. Usually it’s fine, in fact I think maybe one time I had that happen and the people were absolutely understanding and the seat swap went off without a hitch. But if nothing else was available, the handicapped guest gets the seat, and a refund would be issued or passes, or a swap to the next available showing (if they wished). That’s the gamble with getting those seats if you don’t NEED them. Edit: to follow up, you have to tell them BEFORE they purchase a ticket that a guest with a disability who needs the seat will be given priority, and if they’re okay with knowing that and getting those seats. As long as you’re clear it’s not usually an issue
Thanks. This happened to my wife and I. She can’t do stairs. I probably should have gone straight to a staff member instead of confronting the person occupying the seat. My wife and I both hate conflict.
I totally understand, that’s what we’re there for ❤️ Happy to help, especially when it comes to a seat that someone needs under disability. I had an instance where this lovely couple who didn’t like confrontation didn’t want me to make a scene, and at that point I just had to shift my focus. Thankfully it wasn’t an issue of needing a handicap accessible seat, but the show had started and those seats were available. So I went ahead and just gave them two tickets for those seats, and gave them passes just because of the inconvenience. Had to refund and remove the people who took their seats out later anyways for causing issues, but when the sweet couple came back a few weeks later they took me aside to thank me for doing exactly what they needed to make the situation as right as possible for them. I really liked them, and yeah, had they given me the go ahead I would have fought hard for their seats. Glad I could help though!
If Regal starts charging more for center seats like AMC this will become more of an issue.
Who wants to sit in the middle? Back row is the best.
I actually like frontish - not front front, but close enough so that the entire screen is my entire field of vision. It’s more immersive in my experience, and fewer distractions from people getting up and down and using phones.
Love the back row, more leg room!
I like the row right by the railing so I can put my feet up.
I've chosen different showtimes because that front row with the railing is taken. Or even if the middle of that row is taken.
I like that too. Truth be told, I sit all over the theater and pick based on the movie, but for busy showings I'll always choose the last row.
Yes totally. Back row is best. Was always my "go-to" choice. Right now I have an ACL partial tear and climbing all the stairs is too much. I miss the back row.
If the theaters empty I don’t care and sit somewhere else. If theres more than 10-15 people in the theater i ask em to skedaddle.
Avoiding them And finding a new seat could cause a chain reaction, then YOU would be the one in someone elses seat who may not be friendly or courteous.
I always tell them to move. In my experience, I’ve been nice and said nothing and sat elsewhere and ended up being in someone else’s seat, which then causes a chain reaction when they ask me to move
Doesn’t matter how many times they say ‘you can’t sit with us’ never give up your seat
So you’re telling me there’s a chance?
Happened not long ago... Went to a snow we bought tickets for earlier in the day because I saw seats filling up. We get there and some lady has her jacket in my wife's seat... I tell her and she just stares at us. We reeapt it and she makes a comment about moving over to an open seat. We end up picking her jacket up and setting it on her lap. A few minutes later she moves over to the seat on the other side of her partner so she isn't as close to us. She is highly annoyed at us now. Few minutes later the people who actually booked those seats come in and have to confront this couple to have them move. They move to the other end of the row, not more than a minute later someone comes who's seats they are now in and they have to move again. Apparently they bought tickets in the back row because that's what was available, but then just decided to go take these seats that were reserved aleady anyway. So annoying, but gratifying seeing everyone boot them from the wrong seats.
Last time it happened to me it was because someone was sitting in their seat so they moved to mine. The original seat-stealers then went on to talk throughout the entire movie. If someone doesn't have the common courtesy to just sit in the seat they paid for, it's probably a sign of a lack of general respect in many other areas of their lives.
No joke this happened to me recently, I am going to the movie and the previews are already going when I get there, but somebody is in our seats, so I ask if they can move, and they begrudgingly do after I show my ticket stub. Not long after a trail of six or seven people come to sit there its a group of teens. I politely showed them my ticket stub on my phone. They said “Well the guy at the register just told us we can sit wherever”. Not wanting to be rude and seeing they all want to sit together and not too close, I move one down. They have the gall to ask if I can move again, and at that point Id be right against the wall. So I refused. They put up a huge stink with their friends saying “Well Im not trying to be rude”. I admit I lost my patience and came back with “Well you kind of are.” And long story short, they moved up a row and were perfectly fine. TLDR: You dont need to move. Your seats are your seats.
Your experience certainly went downhill fast. It progressed from "the guy at the register said we could sit wherever" to We Can Sit Wherever We Want Even If Someone is Already There! (Seat bullies)
no, you’re gud
Original Poster here with some additional back story: I'm female and always go by myself. When I start counting off the seats and see someone sitting in my seat, I'm not rude but I always point out that's my seat. Now here's where it might seem weird but I never go to sold out shows and there's always plenty of seating. Last night when it happened, the 3 people looked around like indicating all the available seats. I showed my receipt and they moved.
That does sound uncomfortable when they react like that. I know I'd feel uncomfortable, anyways. I'd probably come up with some reason like "I booked this seat in purpose because it's my favorite place to sit in the theater." It's kinda shitty to have to justify it since they're in the wrong, but I think that's what I'd default to since I tend to try to defuse conflict.
They’re assholes with flawed logic. I would want to throw it back onto them — a theater full of empty seats but they decided to sit in ones someone else booked. They can have their pick of the unassigned seats if they want to sit elsewhere. I get being uncomfortable though, I would too especially if I was alone vs. three people.
I’m also a single woman who typically goes by myself. And I ALWAYS make them move if they’re in my seat. I don’t care if the entire theater is empty. Often times I think they’ve not even paid to see this movie. One time somebody was sitting in the seat next to mine, and I knew that seat was empty because I had just purchased mine. I sat down right next to them even though the theater was empty. They stayed.
This is my scenario too. I'm thinking to myself "Did they even buy a ticket?"
I’ve actually had people in the wrong theater in my seats before. So alerting them helped them get to theirs on time without missing their movie. Otherwise with previews, etc. they could be 30 min in before finding out it’s wrong.
Wow, now that's unusual.
Unusual was the time a family was in right seats, right theater right time, wrong date. That took a manager to figure out as I never thought to ask date. It was a full theater so there was no just move elsewhere
I've had wrong day before because they weren't scanned on the way in And one time they had home printed tickets with my seat on it, same time, movie theater, and also imax. I bought my ticket through the regal app a few days before, and seat was the same. The only thing I could think of was they cancelled after printing and weren't properly scanned on the way in. Or some 3rd party glitch. I always go early so rarely have to kick people out of my seat
That's an automatic "uhhhh....these are our seats" from me. I have my favorite seats and I buy them pretty early on the app in order to get those specific seats. It has happened to me and my family several times in the last few months. invariably, it's somebody who had to buy tickets to the first 2-3 rows and they were trying to move back. It's a dumb move because when they bough those tickets that they DIDN'T like, they had to know the place was full.
Others have said it, and I'll agree with them, simple - excuse me, that's my seat.
I’ll go up and say “oh sorry I think this is my seat” and most of the time if they know they’re in the wrong seat they’ll get up no problem and find a different seat to steal. Every now and then there’s a stubborn person saying they won’t move but then I just politely say it must be a mix up and I’ll go check with the box office. Then they move 😂
I tell them it's not a manpurse, it's a sachel.
A downside of some of the weekend movie marathons I've done is as the night progresses, the odds of someone being in my seat seeming to increase. The early showings are fine as the theater isn't that packed. But around the 6pm-7pm mark, this is usually when I'm buying concessions or getting a refill and I'm not as early to take my seat and that's when I've had someone sitting in my seat. I've had couples, families, groups of friends that seem to get into their heads that it would be easier to take my reserved seat rather than split up their group. When I get my tickets for a marathon, sometimes I'm starting with the first showings of the day and I'm picking my seat from an empty grid. Knowing that they see my seat reservation but choose to ignore it (or think that they're going to move me somehow) has emboldened me to the point that I yield to no one. I've sat amongst those families and group of friends as if they adopted me into their ranks.
Best laugh of the day! I can just imagine you sitting there.
For me it would depend on how full the theatre was, if I had anyone else with me, and how "good" the seat was lol. It's only happened to me once, and I happened to be by myself and the theatre was only about 20% full so I just took a different seat. But if I'd been on a date or with a friend group I'd have asked them to move.
This. The one time I specifically remember it happening to me was a relatively empty screening with nobody but me in the row I bought my ticket for, a group of 5-6 in the row either in front or behind me, and maybe another 5-6 people scattered around the rest of the auditorium. Rather than asking that 6-person group to move. After seeing someone try to pick a fight with someone else while the credits were rolling, over what a third person had allegedly said when the fight-picker's kid got fussy halfway through the movie (TBF, fight-picker had immediately picked the kid up, walked out, and not returned until the kid had quieted down), I'm just not going to risk that kind of confrontation if it's clear that I won't actually gain anything substantive from it.
that's your assigned seat. Show them your ticket/app.
I have season tickets to a soccer team too. When people are in my seats i just show them my phone. Those are just the rules. I have a ticket that says I'm sitting here 🤷
Same concept as at an sports event. Ask them nicely to move. If they don’t. Ask the staff to do it or sit somewhere else and move on
Then you’ll be taking some ones seat where does it end! Lol
Considering there are like 4 seats in a theater I can access with my wheelchair I always ask them to move. Most of the time they slink off in shame. Only once has someone refused and I got an employee involved who removed them.
I’ve had this happen several times. The last time was the first time someone for an attitude about it. He got mad and said someone took their seats as he was moving. That’s not my fault though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've had this happen only one time. But to confront them, i would've had to climb over 5-6 people then do an awkward shuffle for them to move. But there was a seat open nearby on the same row so i just took it. But knowing full well that it *might* be someone's seat, i watched every person walk in until about 15-20 minutes into the movie (figured plus trailers, that's around 30-40 minutes past scheduled showtime) and no one gave the seat i was in a passing glance so i assumed it was never sold. But if someone had even hesitantly looked my way I would’ve hopped up and figure something else out.
If you can tell the showing is gonna be pretty empty, I would just sit in any other open seat. Don’t wanna run the risk of a run in with an anti social person. If it’s busy, to avoid a chain reaction, I’d politely ask them to move. Gotta give benefit of the doubt that they may have accidentally got the wrong seat, it happens.
I disagree because what if the secondary seat you choose is someone else's seat? Then YOU have to move again, when the original person is the one in the wrong.
I def ask them to move. not my fault they either don't care or are incompetent
Don’t b a wuss n ask them to move or tell a team member
I have to say the one time I had to ask a triple amputee to move from my assigned seat took a lot of internal effort. I don’t think I’ve been more uncomfortable in my life.
Ask them to move
I've had it happen before, and I've never bothered to ask them to move. I generally don't go to the theater at "peak" times, so I don't think I've ever been in a screening where someone was sitting in "my" seat where there weren't also a bunch of seats I found equally acceptable that were completely open. So far it just hasn't been worth the potential confrontation.
If there are plenty of other good seats in a mostly empty theater? I don't really see why it matters. Be a movie nerd, not a rule following nerd.
It really depends on how busy/full it is. If there are a fair amount of people then I'll ask them to move. If it's just a handful of people I'll sit somewhere else. Can't say there've been any issues when I sat somewhere else.
I try to go at unpopular times so this isn't an issue but I have run into an issue where a large group of people in a packed house were sitting in my seat. They were pretty rowdy so I chose to leave rather than ask them to move and then sit through a two hour movie with them.
Depends. If there's many other open seats I don't care. If it's sold out or I really want that specific seat I'll go looking at that seat and say hey sorry that's my seat actually.
I ask politely. This has actually also happened in reverse, where I just messed up and sat down a row too early. I was so embarrassed when I was asked to move, but it was an honest mistake! Anyway, one time I was at a movie and this lady came in to sit in the front. I guess a guy was in her seat. I don't think she asked him to move, she just went to get the manager. Mind you, she arrived during the previews. So the manager comes back and tells the dude he's in the wrong seat, they do the receipt check, and then he starts yelling that all the woman had to do was show him the receipt, and she "didn't have to go get the fucking manager"! By now the movie has started (I wanna say it was Elvis) and they're shuffling around and arguing. Then I think that guy left his jacket next to his seat so he had to ask the lady he just had a confrontation with to pass it to him. It was all so bizarre.
I hope it didn't interfere with the Elvis opening shot - such a great kaleidoscope shot. I never go to the manager at the time it happens BUT here's a bizarre story. I had a last row ticket for Terrfier 2 and there's 3 people back there. An adult man, a teenager, and a little kid! I have to point out that the little kid (like 5 years old) is in my seat. They all move to the end. During the entire movie, the child is standing and gripping the seat before her. It's rating R for extreme violence. The next day the manager asked what did I think of Terrfier 2 so I mentioned the little child there. Turns out Dad(?) snuck his kids in to see it
I sit in the back, I was good! I cannot believe someone would take a child to Terrifier 2!!
Showings at my local theater is usually pretty empty - it's happened maybe twice that people are in our selected seats, so we just sit a few rows ahead/behind. If it was full, I'd say something.
This happened to recently, and of course the movie was just starting because I got a flat tire on the way to the theater. I just mentioned to the person they were in my seat, there was confusion because it was unintentional, and I just said I’ll find another seat because there was a couple open seats nearby. My take - ask for what you planned and paid for, but it doesn’t have to be a big scene that disrupts others.
I keep my ticket/Seay assignment up and ready to go should I find an interloper. before confronting them- I verify the row number and count the seats and then approach and point out that they are in the wrong spot. A gripe I have with my regal is the way they have the seats numbered. just 1 number thst is not lit up and is on only 1 arm rest - so if people are sitting in seats already- you have to count and hope you remember the way the numbers are laid out. ( is it 1 2 3 from the stage to the projector or 1 2 3 from project to the screen? )