This is probably the best place to put this. The true answer is either of the multi-hour waits for the Hollywood sneak preview of
The Shining or the original release of
The Phantom Menace.
Growing up, the first theatres I went to were the Compton, Lakewood and Bellflower Drive-Ins. My parents would take my brother and me, and we'd watch some adventure films or comedies. When I got older, they'd drive us to the local walk-in theatres. The two in my neighborhood were the Arden in Lynwood and the Allen in South Gate. I found an image of the Arden Theater.
This is the theater where I saw a rerelease of
Ben-Hur (1959) and the original release of
2001: A Space Odyssey. It had 940 seats, but it's been torn down for quite awhile now.
I couldn't find an image of the Allen. My brother and I would see lots of dubbed horror films (
Blood and Lace, Reptilicus) and some Disney flicks (
The Love Bug, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes) at the Allen. Heck, I even saw the Chuck Heston
Planet of the Apes, Patton and the first R-rated movie I ever saw at a theatre,
MASH. It wasn't quite as old or grand as the Arden, but we didn't care as long as we were at the movies.
30 years ago, I had a variety of theatres to choose from. I lived in the city, but it's not like Los Angeles. All the cities in Orange County blend together. There really wasn't anything like "downtown" around there. However, there were at least 100 different screens in several complexes within a ten-mile radius of my house, the closest one being less than a mile away. However, if I wanted to go to a large theatre, I'd have to drive about 15 miles to Fashion Island to the Big Newport.
It was originally a two-screen theatre, but they added more screens over the years. The Big screen is 40' x 80', and the auditorium has 1,108 seats. I've had some of my all-time favorite film experiences at the Big Newport, including all of the first three
Star Wars films (now called Eps. 4-6), a "Back-to-Back-to-Back" screening of the three
Back to the Future films,
Alien, Apocalypse Now, Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus, etc.
I believe I've posted some of this info in another thread about theatres.
There was also an IMAX theatre about 20 miles away at the Spectrum in Irvine. We've seen
The Return of the King, Beauty and the Beast (animated Disney) and
Fantasia 2000 there. Excellent.
Now I'm in Los Angeles, but since I'm bedridden with a stroke, no more lines for movies.