Reserved seating. What's the point?

I’m not sold on the idea of picking your own seats when buying a ticket at the local bijou. Increasingly, however, theatres are having customers pick their own seats. My first encounter with reserved seating was at the Maple Theater in Bloomfield, MI. a couple of years ago. At first, I thought this was pretty cool – hey, pick your own seats, especially if you arrive early, and you get dibs on what could be some of the better seats in the house! But in a theatre like the Maple, an old-line theatre without stadium seating, even if you pick your seats there’s no guarantee someone taller than you, or more talkative, won’t sit in front, beside, or behind you. Now Windsor’s Cineplex and Imagine theatres, which have stadium seating, have also launched reserved seating. A couple of weeks ago I was waiting in line on a Tuesday night at Silver City to buy a ticket to see The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers). It was a relatively short line so I didn’t bother to buy a ticket at a kiosk. The problem was the line just wasn’t moving quickly. Finally, when I got to the ticket counter the cashier pointed me to a computer screen and said I could choose my seat. Ah ha, I thought to myself, did having customers choose their seats cause the line to move slowly? After all, a customer has to spend some time deciding exactly where they want to seat. They have to figure out where the screen and exits are, what seats have been chosen, and where – just where – they want to sit for optimum viewing. Then, last week, at Lakeshore Cinemas to see Motherless Brooklyn (Edward Norton), a theatre I hadn’t been to in about a year, there is no more box office with a human ticket seller; instead there is a row of ticket kiosks. Again, the customer is asked to choose their seats. And, like at Cineplex, all seats are stadium seating and really offer no comprised views. An argument for reserved seating is that customers may want to sit in their favorite areas or not on the sides, but if the seats have already been chosen what difference does it make? And with reserved seating, ironically, you’re more limited. If you arrive at your seat and there is a group of talkative people behind you, you now have limited choices about where to move, especially if the theatre is crowded. Sure, you can move but then you may be occupying someone else’s seat. So, reserved seating? Unless you do it online hours before a popular movie to ensure you have seats I don't see the point.