ANY important line that was uttered after one of Hudson's rants was completely lost thanks to the audience laughing (myself included)
Worst Offense: Bishop says he'd rather not go, he may be synthetic but he's not an idiot. Never heard that line until the VHS came out because of what preceded it: Hudson saying, about Bishop being the only one qualified to remote-pilot the dropship, "hey that's right, Bishop should go ... GOOD IDEA!"
That line, plus Vasquez looking disgusted, brought the house down.
Best part to me: Gorman pulling out the grenade & arming it, with the close-up on Vasquez. Never had the same impact on a smaller screen.
It was a pretty intense experience. I was only twelve at the time, and it was possibly my first rated R movie at the theater. My late aunt took me. She liked horror movies.
The only theater experience that might measure up to Aliens, for me, was Moonraker or For Your Eyes Only, but I was really young for those films. And i saw Star Wars and TESB in original releases.
I saw it twice in successive weeks in the Odeon Leicester Square. It was awesome. There was gasps and "oohs" and when Ripley walked out in the Loader, there was a real cheer after her line.