I was one.
Book:
http://geeksteronmovies.blogspot.com/p/the-geekster-guide.html
Votes: 3,622

It was the summer after I was liberated (graduated) from high school. I was going to buy a poster and bring it to my reuinion (along with other movies that were released that summer.

My iMDB profile
http://www.imdb.com/board/24297325/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

I was 12. Saw it in the theatre.

I was 4 years old.
me too! i was born in nov of 1982 oppps i just saw what month it came out, i guess i was going on 4 lol
"CONDOMS ROSE CONDOMS CONDOMS CONDOMS!!" Bea Arthur AKA Dorothy Zbornak

I was 4 years old.

I bet it is.

Also one of my favorites. In 1986, I was around 7 or so. We went to a movie theater in Waco, Texas to see it during a midnight show. My Dad never cared much for ratings and used a little known thing known as "parental experience" and knew I was old enough to understand, comprehend, and enjoy the story with no adverse affects.
True enough, watching this movie and even sitting through the end credits because we loved the music, is one of my best memories. I remember it being one the very first times I watched any movie all the way through from the first preview of another movie to the last credit screen, this was long before Marvel movies made sitting through credits a thing.
I was really into 50's cars and music, even at age 7, and I still am. So, this movie was a boon to me at that age.
Great memories, great times, great film.

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I was born in '87 so I saw it many years later. It's one of my favourites though!

I was 21.

I was 7 when it came out, but I doubt I saw it in the theater, so I was probably a few years older when I saw it for the first time.
I can remember watching it over and over after I taped it off TV. I had the biggest crush on Keifer Sutherland, so some days when I didn't feel like watching the whole thing, I'd fast forward to just his parts. Gotta love VCRs

I knew two people who walked out of the theater during the vomiting scene. I didn't see the film until it came out on VHS. Glad I did because it was one of the best films of the year. Wil Weaten lived around the corner from me at the time (Sunland). Didn't know him well but knew he was into science fiction stuff.

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I was 9 when the movie hit the theatres, but for some reason (I really can't explain it) have never seen it until today - finished it half an hour ago to be exact.
I've seen the Ben E. King's video with Wheaton and Phoenix (and scenes from the movie) thousands of times in the late 80's, perhaps I've seen a couple of scenes when it ran on TV (I do vividly remember the scene with leaches on balls and when they run from the train, but nothing else), but have never seen the film from the beginning to the end until today. Weird. Perhaps I missed it at that time as a kid, and always mistakenly thought of it as a 'kids' movie when I was a teenager and later on, I knew of its cult status as one of the best movies of the 80's, but for some reason I never had had the wish to see it.
Great movie. Really loved it. I gave it 9 stars here at IMDB, the highest mark I've given so far.

I was 11, around the same age as the kids were. I was going through the same things they were going through, so the movie hit me pretty hard. Still does.

I had just turned 15 a few days before this came out, but I didn't see it in the theater. A friend of mine rented it a few months later and we watched it there.
The line about having friends like you did when you were 12 (or in my case, 15) rings so true to me today now that I'm 45. I spent the better part of 4 years with my crew, literally almost every day hanging out with them, playing every sport, going to the movies, or just sitting around shooting the breeze.
Eventually, I met the girl who ended up being my wife and I just sort of started to drift apart from them, but some of them went down the wrong road in life. 2 of my good friends passed away, including the one whose house I saw this and many other rented movies in, and others just started doing drugs, while some of the others just went down a better path.
I have since reconnected with most of them via Facebook and I am happy to see that some have families of their own and even the ones who had some struggles seem to have overcome them and that makes me feel good but nothing can ever replace the times we had back during the carefree days of being kids. Funny how people you spend almost every waking hour with for several years can just no longer be in your life.

I'm guessing you were born in 1973 and yourself turned 18, graduated from high school, and began college in 1991. I'm I correct?
And we were watching the Gulf war from our classrooms. With tv sets just like this one:

I definitely was. In fact, I turned 18 in 1986 (March 5), graduated from high school (June 7), got my driver's lisence (August 6), and went off to begin college (August 22). And I have thought about the year 1986 a lot since then, because it was a very significant year for me (because of the above reasons), though unfortunately not a particularly good one. But as I said I have thought about it a lot in the years since, and even more so this year because it's the 30th anniversary. And you said you first saw it because your older sister took you to it. Well I first saw it because my younger sister brought it on VHS in 1989, which led me to see it several times on our VCRs. And I too miss the old VHS machines, and in some aspects prefer them to the current dvd players. And since you were 13 in 1986 I'm guessing you were born in 1973 and yourself turned 18, graduated from high school, and began college in 1991. I'm I correct?
"I happen to be a vegetarian". Lex, from Jurrasic Park

This came out just before our senior year in HS. Stand By Me was our class song - and during graduation week they showed this in the gym Seems like yesterday, yet seems like a lifetime ago I am now 47 and Steven King, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas are living heroes to me! Peace and River - out

I was 13 when I went to see this at the cinema, me and 3 of my mates, it used to be 50p to get into the cinema, but one of us would pay to get in and then go to the fire exit round the back letting our other mates in.
I also remember paying to see movies then sneaking into the 18 rated movies, me and my mates got caught in Predator, the lady shining a torch onto us and putting us back into the original film we had paid to see, lol.
I remember seeing this film and there were only about another 4 or 5 people in the theatre at the time, loved this film when it first came out.

I was 10 years old when this film was released, but didn't catch until the next year on HBO. It was a favorite from the very first viewing and still is. I love the short story too, but I actually enjoy the film more. Those four guys were my "friends" when I was 11-12 and going through a rough time at school.

I own the dvd of SBM and watch it around once per year, it's still among my top few movies of all time and I doubt if anything newer will ever out-exceed it.
I felt the same way. Saw SBM dozens of times over 30 years. Still is my Favorite. I even made a trip to Oregon and California just to see some of the filming locations, including the train trestle bridge in Burney Ca.
Now I just saw another amazing film this summer, " Sing Street". See it on DVD now or streaming. Its now my second favorite film of all time just under SBM.

I was 25 in 1986 but didn't watch SBM until early 1988 when I rented it on vhs.
Due to the selfishness of a minority of cinema-goers I rarely if ever go to watch a new movie in public because I cannot bear the murmuring, food packet rustling or general presence of others around me while 'sharing' a movie experience.
I almost always wait until the dvd is available and watch it at home to avoid things such as earlier poster Doug1967 had with a kid mock crying in the cinema and spoiling the showing for him.
I own the dvd of SBM and watch it around once per year, it's still among my top few movies of all time and I doubt if anything newer will ever out-exceed it.

I was 13 when it came out. I honestly cannot remember how I saw it as I did both a lot of movie theater movies, pay TV movies and VHS movies in the 80s.