I've done both alone before, but prefer to have company. Following the stated conditions, I'm more adverse to dining alone than watching a movie alone. I can't imagine dining alone and getting a table in any sort of hosted eatery. I'd get a spot at the bar, or find someplace to eat where I'm not going to be occupying a table that a whole group might use. Honestly, it's more about being rude than about being self conscious about being alone. Obviously, this does not apply to diners, lunch rooms, etc. But the question was about seated/hosted tables, which those are generally not. I suppose something like Denny's late at night when it's not busy, I might take a table/booth, but then that's not really a mid level restaurant either. Even when I'm traveling, I'll usually just get takeout or room service rather than sitting down somewhere. Hotel bar/restaurant being the possible exception of course, but I'll usually try to sit at the bar if there is one in that situation as well.
As to movies? While I tend to prefer to go with friends, I will go see a film I'm really interested in alone if timing doesn't allow for a group of us to go. It seems like films go in and out of the theater a lot faster than they used to, so it's honestly tricky to schedule to see them sometimes. There's lots of films that come out and a couple friends will all be like "OH! Let's all go see that together!", but not this weekend, because of X, and the other person can't go the next weekend, because of Y, and by weekend 3, it's only showing in like 5 places, and if you don't get there on week 4 you're waiting for it to come out on DVD. So yeah, sometimes I'll realize that if I don't just drive to a theater and see it myself right now, today, this minute, while I've got a few hours of free time, I'm not going to see it in the theater at all, with or without other people.
Of course, I just realized that the tiny little theater that's right near where I live has been remodeled and it's
this thing now. I knew they'd been redoing it (and all the other stuff in that mall area, making grocery shopping a pain sometimes *waves cane*), but hadn't actually tried going there since they finished. Someone was raving about this new super-luxury theater, and I'm like "that sounds cool, where is it?", only to realize it's like 3 blocks from my house. Hmmmm... So does it count as eating out by yourself if you go in there and order food? Do we need a separate category for this?
Edited, Apr 30th 2012 1:41pm by gbaji