I was recently able to achieve the Pinnacle of my movie going career with a little planning ahead. Went and bought tickets to Evil Dead Rise, then it ended with enough time that if we waited for the credits to roll most of the way through, we could walk right into the Mario movie, and then did the same into John Wick 4.

And because the theater will let you choose your seats, all you have to do is check before you go how full they are and if you really want to know, check maybe thirty minutes before the next movie starts, and see what seats are available. They're usually static web pages, so you can just have a tab open and refresh it. Then there's no conflicts... you just walk in and sit down in seats you know are empty.

Theater employees don't give a fuck, they're too underpaid to care.