This weekend, I was given a harsh reminder of why I can’t go see movies on an opening night weekend.  Some friends wanted to see X-Men: First Class at the Regal Atlantic Station and since I wanted to see the flick again, I came along.  What followed was like a checklist of everything crappy about the moviegoing experience*.  For starters, multiple people had to go and track down an usher because the dumb projectionist had forgotten to turn the pre-show projector off so you could still see it on top of the trailers (which had no sound).  Then there was the requisite crying toddler (family film!), the clown who must share his humorous commentary with the theater, and finally, the texter.

I could see the guy texting, I politely asked him to turn off his phone, he laughed in my face, I had to go to guest services, they had to get security, I had to bring security to the seat, and they had to give him a warning.  If I hadn’t already seen the movie, I wouldn’t have done any of this and would have to suffer silently with another patron’s dickish behavior.  If you want to get into the mind of someone who is that fucking selfish, hit the jump for an angry Alamo customer (as she stresses) complaining that they kicked her out for texting.  There’s also an awesome new Mondo poster you can check out.

If you’ve been hanging around the site for a while, you know that we tend to post a lot of content throughout the course of a week. From interviews and reviews to general entertainment news, set visits, and niche stories, we always do our best to provide you the reader with a wide spectrum of coverage. Nevertheless, our front page only holds fifteen stories at a time meaning that some of our most interesting content has a tendency to fall through the cracks.  In an attempt to bring these stories back to the forefront, we are introducing this weekly “Top 5″ feature which we hope will prevent readers from missing out on the best Collider has to offer.

In this, our inaugural week, we’re bringing you a recap of Brendan’s mathematical breakdown of dueling Snow White films, our look at dimly lit 2d theater projection, a possible R-rated Riddick, Michael Sheen reading Twilight fan fiction, and Jack Black discussing with Steve where not to use body soap. Check out the quick recaps and links after the jump.

While theater owners moan and make empty threats in response to the studios’ premium VOD Service, they’re doing nothing to make the moviegoing experience any better for patrons.  The Boston Globe’s Ty Burr discovered that theaters are bringing the poorly-lit experience of 3D to their 2D movies.   Theaters are misusing their digital project equipment and leaving in the 3D lens when they should be swapping it out if they’re showing a 2D movie.  Burr found the issue not only at the AMC Loews Boston Common on Tremont Street but also at Regal Fenway where regular brightly lit 35mm prints of Water of Elephants and Madea’s Big Happy Family where playing against their own poorly-projected versions.  The problem across theater chains appears to be Sony’s new 4K Digital Projectors and leaving them on when playing a 2D film

Hit the jump for more on how theaters are taking your money and not giving you the quality picture you paid for.

Later this month, Universal, 20^th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and Sony plan to launch a premium video-on-demand service that is causing much consternation among theater owners.  The service would shorten the theatrical-to-home-entertainment window to two months and allow rental of semi-new releases for around $30.  Since I’m silly and naïve, I hoped that theaters would make positive chances that would lure consumers out of their homes and back into auditoriums.  Instead, Deadline reports that Regal Cinemas is planning to retaliate by cutting the trailers and posters of these studios just as blockbuster season is upon us.  Studios would then be forced to make up the difference by heavily marketing on TV, which is expensive and doesn’t have the benefit of a captive audience.

Hit the jump for more on this intriguing development.