Regarding your second point there, while I don't personally applaud at movies, I always feel that people who do applaud are doing it not for the benefit of those who worked on the film, but as an appeal to their fellow audience members to recognize that what they just experienced together was something great.

I guess the thing that best fits this is when I was so disappointed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze after loving the first film and enjoying the silly TV show as a kid, but I will always remember the first time I felt like a movie actively insulted my intelligence: when I saw Armageddon with…