I often plan to see a movie on its opening day.
I seldom end up seeing a movie on its opening day.
It will take something serious, probably something apocalyptic, to prevent me from seeing the first part of the new version of Dune on its opening day, if nothing else for sentimental reasons.
My recollection is that I defied my parents' "you may drive this far and no farther" rules perhaps three times as a high school student.
I got caught once -- told my parents I was "going to see a movie" (the implication being that I'd be at the one-screen, gets-em-weeks-later theater in town), then parked my car at that theater, hopped in a friend's car, and went to see Ghostbusters in Springfield, Missouri 60 miles away.
Another time, I went to visit a friend who had moved. Didn't find him.
The third time, I skipped school with that friend and one or two others to see the 1984 David Lynch version of Dune on release day. And I was glad I did. By the time it made it to my local theater a month later, it was closer to 90 than 137 minutes long, hacked to pieces and nearly unintelligible. Even at 137 minutes, it could really only barely hit the high points.
Unlike (seemingly) most people, I think Lynch did a hell of a job. Maybe a little too over the top in some respects, and casting Sting as Feyd Rautha was clearly a marquee cachet decision, not an artistic call, but the last time I watched it (a few years ago), I thought it stood the test of time pretty well.
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