The Death of Theatre Etiquette
I went to watch Sonic 3 at a 9pm showing on Boxing Day and genuinely had high hopes that for the first time in 5 theatre viewings I wouldn’t see a light up phone screen in the rows in front of me. Unfortunately, a group of 5 teenage boys sat in the row right in front of me and a few of them were on their phones the ENTIRE movie. When the lights dimmed and the movie started, I tapped him on the shoulder to politely ask if he can get off his phone (as well as his friend), only for his friend to turn down his brightness and go, “is this okay?”.
After not heeding my warning, I just decided to get up and get a staff member. At first, the staff member was going to leave them with a warning, but when their other friends found out what was happening, one started clapping really loudly to cause a scene. They told me “it’s not that deep” and when I reminded them that people pay money to be here, they responded with “we only paid two dollars to be here!”.
My question is: why has it gotten this bad? Every single showing I have been to (ex. Wicked, Laufey’s concert showing, TMNT, Spiderverse, etc), I have had people shamelessly recording the movie, pulling out their phones to take a photo of the opening title screen, or just using their phones to scroll. Theatre goers have all gotten less considerate for people’s viewing experiences.
I miss the old days during End Game where we would all enjoy the movie watching experience together without the distracting illumination of someone’s phone screen.
EDIT: to people who disagree with what I had said or to those who are telling me that I should expect this because Sonic 3 is a movie for kids:
- The no-cellphone rule has been implemented since forever (Tommy Texter)
- The kids were amazing during the showing that I went to and I had absolutely no problem with. What I’m talking about are teenagers who went to a movie they had no interest in watching just to scroll the entire time. Also, they left before the movie even finished. Why should I, someone who pays to go watch the movie I want, stay home and wait months for a digital copy instead of those uninterested in actually watching?
- This is a universal experience that people are having in not just movies for kids. Teenagers are teenagers and kids are kids. The kids weren’t the ones on phones.
- The teenagers were literally sitting in the seats directly in front of me. Low brightness doesn’t matter when it’s in your direct line of vision to the screen. Of course I’m going to say something LOL
- What I mean in terms of the End Game thing is what I miss is a genuine solidarity in movie watching experiences. Laughing at jokes all together, etc.
Overall in my post, what I would like to highlight is the lack of accountability/consequence society is slowly moving towards as they were genuinely surprised I told an employee about their behaviour. Teenagers are not the only ones checking their phones during a movie. I went to watch Suzume in theatres a year or so ago during a late screening and even then adults were disrespectful (a guy was full out having a phone call the entire movie). Have a happy new year everyone!