Yep, like the other response said, in this scenario, try to sit in the aisle seat if you can (or on the edge of the group where you have some free space on the other side of you (assuming the theater isn’t full and there aren’t strangers sitting next to you.

Since these are new friends, it sounds like it might be worthwhile to find a time/way to let them know you are a little touch averse and sometimes need some extra space. It sounds like your other friends know and respect that. And I bet these new ones will too. But I know that can be difficult too and isn’t always a great conversation to have to have… There’s some people I see fairly infrequently that I haven’t bothered getting in to it with for various reasons and just try to get through those situations and interactions, dealing with the close proximity and touching the best I can. (That ended up not going so well the last time I tried to do that because I was on a date with a guy I’d only known for a couple weeks and he wanted to get close and cuddle during the movie and I froze up and when I finally got home, I broke down and cried lol.) But for anyone I see more often, I typically end up having that conversation with them because it is a need/boundary. And that’s okay! We get to have those! And if they are good friends, they’ll understand.