I figure it's because we want to feel extremes of emotion briefly, in a controlled way. No one actually wants to be scared for their life or suffer a tragedy ..

I figure it's because we want to feel extremes of emotion briefly, in a controlled way. No one actually wants to be scared for their life or suffer a tragedy ... but we enjoy feeling fear and sorrow briefly in a movie or the theatre. Having our emotions amped up makes us feel alive, I think. Afterwards we also feel good that we've avoided a similar fate.