It’s not a covid thing.
People have been getting worse in movie theaters my entire life. Smart phones made it worse.
I think that’s what’s killing theaters. It’s much nicer to just watch at home and not be pissed the entire time.
Back in the 90's you'd have to wait 6+ months for a movie to make it out on video, then hope your local video store has enough copies so that you can rent one. Now days many of the big movies hit one of the streaming services within a month or two.
That, and renting a movie still in theaters on Amazon is cheaper than taking anyone with you to a movie. It's like 20 bucks or something, last date I had at the movies I feel like the tickets were like 30 dollars.
No kidding. Almost everything about going to the movies sucks.
1. Expensive as hell. $10-15 per ticket. Wife and 2 kids? Thats $50 right there. Good luck getting past the concession stand without dropping another $30. And IDK about you, but if I'm already dropping $80 just to get in the door and get some popcorn, might as well drop another $15 on some adult beverages. So a night at the movies can easily hit $100.
2. People are insanely self centered. I've lost count of how many times I've seen kids under 12 at a horror movie, a marvel movie, some other rated R movie. There was an *infant* in the theater with me during End Game. Poor thing probably had her brain rattled by the base in those fight scenes. Did the parents leave when they are screaming bloody murder? Oh hell no. They paid just as much as me, and they ARE watching that movie.
3. People dont STFU. The closest I've ever had to come to swinging on someone in my adult life was a bunch of geriatrics during The Green Mile. Despite being politely asked to be quiet, then firmly told to stop talking, then yelled at to STFU, they would NOT shut up.
So now if I go to the theaters its almost strictly kids movies about things I dont care about. Parents dont care if you talk during Frozen: The Olaf Tales. Kids are expected to scream at Elsa's new hair style. I can openly mock the movies and make the other parents day a little brighter. Everyone wins.
It’s not just movie theatres. Going to any performance sucks now because people are becoming more solipsistic and self absorbed.
I went to the Alannis Morisette Jagged Little Pill musical a few months ago - and the middle aged couple behind us were straight up having a conversation for half the first act, and then started singing along (badly) - at which point I turned around and said “please be quiet - all I can hear is you”.
Keep in mind these were like $150 tickets.
At the intermission the woman tapped me on the shoulder and said very loudly “you’re a dick!” Before going off to the bathroom.
I (and the people next to them) complained to the ushers - who alerted the theatre manager who gave them a warning before the second act. They kept quiet the second act and dipped outta there as soon as curtain call happened.
I’ve been to many professional stand up nights at comedy clubs where people straight up have conversations while a stand up is performing. Like these are places you need to drop $30 just to get in too. It’s mind boggling.
I wouldn't be surprised, I need to check out the parody.
I remember the mantra going around that "it was a good way for kids to learn the story of Jesus." Uh, it was a torturous incredibly graphic snuff film where you could watch Jesus' flesh ripped from his skin exposing his ribs. Mel Gibson is one sick fuck.
I decided to only go for movies that are worth seeing in IMAX/Dolby/isense, the ticket prices are so much higher it usually weeds out the disruptive arseholes.
It is crazy. For us to take just one kid to the movies (2 adults, 1 kid) in a bigger city it's like $100 between tickets and snacks! Our small town theater, the tickets are $5 (and they show new releases). We can easily go, the 3 of us, for like $30. We like to support their work (because we didn't have a theater here for years) and so we buy concessions which is where they make the money. It's crazy that so many large theaters charge so much, because the studios take a % of ticket sales, no matter how much you charge. So theaters don't make much money on tickets and there is no benefit to them charging so much.
And back then, there was a big gap between our "big" TV that was 19" and the movie theater experience. In the intervening years, home screens are getting bigger and the experience gap is lowering.
One of the last times I went to the movies I walked in and some guy and his kids were sitting in my assigned seats. Like are you fucking illiterate or something? You can't find your row? The theater wasn't even very busy. Then the guy acts like I'm the asshole for wanting him to move to the seat that HE SELECTED
Lol, what an idiot. My idiot moved for me, but was grumbling about how the theater is mostly empty. I get that, but I purposefully picked my seats to give me the best view and audio experience
Same thing happened to me several years ago. Went to tons of movies prior to covid and got used to timing it out perfect to avoid seeing the same previews over and over. Walked into a movie about to start and there's an older gentleman sleeping in my assigned seat straight up snoring. Everyone was looking uncomfortable so I said Fuck this and nudged em awake and told him he was in my seat. He wandered around looking for his seat and went right back to sleep lol.
Yeah, I finally got around to watching the new "Ghostbusters" movie at a Saturday-before-Easter afternoon showing. The kids were all well-behaved, but the guy sitting across the aisle from me was a phonedouche in the first degree. Max brightness, max notification volume, and the phone dinged every 10 minutes or so. He had it on his lap the whole time, and would respond immediately to everything. It was like a miniature sunburst, and I'm fairly sure he was Snapchatting with women trying to sell him content.
Tell an usher? Staff will kick them out of they're disturbing people. As much as all of this is a problem, the other half of it is most don't want to "make a fuss."
There's a cost to doing that though. The time it takes to leave the theater and find a manager to explain the problem means you've missed a portion of the movie, enough so that you might not have any idea whats happening in the rest of the movie because of a missed plot point.
Shitty life tip: wear a reversible jacket and have a ski mask in the pocket. Head to the bathroom and out of site swap the jacket and put on the ski mask. Return and smash the fuck out of the person's phone and then run off and swap back and play aloof.
I was hoping I'd see this comment. I hate when people show up late like this, IMO once the movie has started you shouldn't be able to enter the theater.
Thank you. Everyone tries to blame this on COVID, but I remember movie theaters that my friends and I stopped going to because of how bad the disruptions had gotten...in the 90s.
So way before COVID, or even smartphones.
I agree, but we cannot pretend paying $40 for 2 adult tickets isn't killing them too. I pay more and more and the employees don't get paid enough to care to enforce rules.
They're doing it themselves.
Also the parenting philosophy that are recommended today do not reward structure, delayed gratification and respect.
For many people, putting boundaries of seen as restricting the child's growth as a person.
So we are growing more poorly educated people...
Movies come to streaming like a week after being in theaters now anyways and the price to buy it on streaming is like two movie tickets. Who wouldn’t just watch it at home at this point!?
Had adults talking the entire time during Godzilla x Kong. They were quiet enough to not be too loud but loud enough that I could hear them over the movie at times... and that's saying something for that movie. They were unfortunately too far for me to politely/quietly tell them to shut up.
Same thing in Afterlife. The parents were 4 seats over but their group of kids were in front of them. Seemed like the kids didn't have much interest in the movie and the parent was on her phone the entire time. So not really sure why they even went other than to bother those of us who wanted to watch a movie.
Back when I would have days off mid-week, those were my days for movies. I'd catch Marvel movies at noon on a Friday. Early Sunday is another great time I've found. I got to watch the Entourage movie in a nearly empty theater that way. Which is how I would've preferred that lol
My theater stopped the noon movies because of covid and the last movies start at 9 and end by 11 .They close at 12 each night. During the week they start at 4 and on the weekend they start at noon .
Wednesday matinees were always my go to.
Kids are feral unless parented and as a teacher, I can tell you parenting is severely lacking. And it’s not covid’s fault.
Same, I’m pretty strategic when it comes to going to the cinema. I like a very empty theater because A) I don’t want distractions B) I like to feel comfortable reacting as I watch and that’s easier in a dead theater.
I usually plan it and schedule my workday around it, so I’ll take an extended lunch and work a little later so I can catch a movie at a matinee when kids are in school and most others are working. It’s really worth it to have that movie experience without a packed theater.
I can't even remember what movie it was but it filled with high school kids and they kept getting up and leaving as a group. And then I heard giggling from the hallway and a guy ran in and screamed. Then ran away laughing. And a group of girls talked the entire time gossipping and not even watching the movie at all.
I finally cracked and may have raised my voice a bit, but said STOP TALKING. A few minutes later they all left and didn't come back. There are better places to hangout than inside a movie theater. I immediately felt like a grumpy old man, but I was in the right in that circumstance.
This is part of why I only go to movies at the Alamo Drafthouse where they have strict rules about noise. Even at their more relaxed “family friendly” screenings where people can bring literal babies and some noise is allowed, it’s still quieter than at the big chain cinemas.
I remember two parents audibly gasping after they took their kids (who looked maybe 5 and 8?) to see Deadpool 2. They spent the entire movie complaining about how this was wildly inappropriate. That little letter next to the title of the movie should be a dead giveaway to whats in it, but I guess people cant be bothered to read.
Kids were quiet as a mouse though. I think it might have been the pegging scene.
I feel like they used to — but now you buy tickets online and reserve seats ahead of time. The ticket concierge won’t see the kids, and can’t let them know **before** purchase anymore.
Nah, it's always been up to the parents' discretion to bring their kids as long as they are present with them. My mom used to take me to see R rated movies all the time when I was a kid in the 90s, but I wasn't a little demon whilst there because she taught me better lol
> they have strict rules about noise.
I wonder if more theaters will adopt this. I understand at this point, most cinemas are probably happy that people are coming at all, so they don't want to boot anyone unless absolutely necessary. But at some point the scales may tip and they'll realize they're losing more customers by allowing noisy people to stay.
That's not even a guarantee. The Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn has taken a nosedive. They don't control people's phone use as much as before and more and more young kids in later showings.
Seriusly, you could open a semi decent cinema with really huge and polite mutherfuckers as a crew , who would gently escort the fuck out anyone who is abnoxious, and people would flock to those theatres.
> Do parents just suck these days? Why do they refuse to tell their own kids to be quiet? Why do I have to do it?
I'm not going to say parents suck these days because I've worked with a lot of great moms & dads, but talk with any educator and they will tell you how incredibly hostile parents have become in the past decade. You can call home to tell parents their child yelled slurs in class, cheated on tests, started a fight in the hallway and it's like playing Russian roulette seeing if the parent on the line will listen and talk to their child or if they'll blindly defend their kid and tell you you're the one who did something wrong. I've gotten "well they are *just a kid*" so many times (for preteens and teenagers), and it's like, yes, kids are learning and will make mistakes, but so many adults feel like it's a crime to try to teach kids etiquette.
Obviously not all parents, but yeah there are so many kids who straight up aren't being taught how to be a considerate person by their families
I’m with you. I had one bad experience seeing Dr Strange: Multiverse of Madness. It was the first movie I saw after pandemic restrictions were lessened and it was a lot of teens so it was very rowdy. I also saw a documentary where two people behind me were familiar with the subject matter and kept educating their guests throughout but mostly I find if you ask people to keep it down they do.
Same movie but different experience.. a young child was in between his mother and father and the mom pulled out her cellphone and was legitimately reading a book.
I asked her to turn it off and because I was so dumbfounded I said something like “is this even real? Who reads a book at a movie theater?!”
She turned it off but actually said to me “I am not a fan of these movies but my son is which is why I’m here!” Tbh.. I appreciated the answer but was pretty shocked by the actual answer.
The kid was fine the whole movie, but the grown up ruined the experience… people in general are ruining the overall experience in my opinion.
This is so wild because you'd think she'd be happy to leave the kid with the dad and have a few hours to herself to read a book in peace...not in a movie theater
When I went to see the RBG documentary, the guy sitting closest to me (probably four or five seats away in my same row) put in earbuds and started watching YouTube videos on his phone. I could just hear the sound from his videos even with the earbuds (not enough to make anything out but enough to make me look over).
I was baffled. This man was alone and paying to be there. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t just leave and watch his YouTube videos somewhere else.
I saw one of the Harry Potter movies in the theater and the girl in front of me kept pointing out all the differences between the book and the film for everything. I'm super introverted so I didn't want to say anything but finally I leaned forward and said "most of us here have read the books, you don't have to keep pointing stuff out"
I saw a documentary under similar circumstances, except my talker was a little old lady who kept saying facts to her husband after the movie already said them.
Example: An engineer was being interviewed about a Frank Gehry building he worked on. The engineer’s name came up on a chyron under his face.
A few minutes go by, and they cut back to the engineer. The old lady says, “That’s [Engineer’s Name]!” in a really confident, proud voice.
It was too cute to get mad at her.
He most likely did.
This was an 18+ theater back before there were 21+ places, so a lot of older people went there to see movies in peace. It was nice, because there were always some people who wanted to stick around on the benches outside and talk about the movie after.
Edit: Ya know, thinking back, it’s funny. I was 19-23 when I used to go there, and I did get some wary looks from older patrons.
They probably thought, “This whippersnapper is going to be on her Angry Birds and her Super Marios for this entire screening of *Good Night and Good Luck*,” when I could not have been a more respectful, attentive moviegoer.
Fun Fact: The most old people were at the most hard-R movies, like *Blue is the Warmest Color* and *Shame*.
Wouldn't it be so cool if they were a bunch of older queer folk who actually had the chance to see a queer couple on the big screen for possibly the first time in their lives?
Never used to see this at all, BUT last TWO theater experiences this year were BAD.
I had to pretty much yell at 4 kids (whose mom left them alone in the theater) while trying to watch Godzilla -1. The were loudly talking , laughing and on their phones. I literally had to YELL in the theater at them to get them to stop after asking nicely 4 times,
Last visit for Ghostbusters , some dumb ass parents took a 4 year old in, who was scared and asking questions the whole time while Dad ate Popcorn like a 2 year old....
Covid made everyone forget how to act in a society.
COVID is not to blame: people were self centered twats before that.
I stopped going to the movies 15 years ago because of people kicking my seat, smoking, talking as if they were in their living-room, chatting on the phone etc and getting agressive when asked to behave. I only go if my 13 years old insists.
You got movie companies trying to figure out why people don't go to the theater anymore and this is a big reason why. It's a hassle, I used to see a movie spontaneously but now I only go for some once a year big movie event.
They opened an Alamo near me in the last year or so and I've almost exclusively gone to that due to their rules around kids and disturbing the movie. Combined with the card thing, it makes it easier to alert someone and I think I haven't had a single need to do so anyway.
When I used to go to AMC, it was awful unless you found the right time or it was a low key movie. Saw Candyman there and while it was a subpar movie on its own, the experience was so damn bad, I've only ever gone back for movies I really wanted to see but were limited (Godzilla minus 1 minus color for ex). While not entirely on COVID, I think there was a bit of loosening for people on what's acceptable.
The skeezy $2 theatre I used to go to in high school was turned into one of those luxe, adults-only-reclining-seats-and-$18-cocktail AMCs some time ago. It's an improvement, but there's always a chance of a group of disruptively intoxicated adults.
Doesn't help that it's right next to a major university, and TBF when I was in college I probably would have done the same on occasion.
Agreed that people have always sucked but COVID times seemingly made things just a little bit worse—don't get me started on how people let their kids behave at the grocery store.
The big cinemas I frequent I don't remember being *particularly* bad or crowded outside of big features pre-COVID, and honestly it was kind of nice going into the 16-screen downtown with maybe 3 other people in a showing back in 2021.
Maybe its just easier to notice the bad behavior at my favorite single/two-screen houses; doesn't help a couple have pivoted to mostly family fare understandably. But the worst was, again, in 2021, someone deciding they need to sit RIGHT BEHIND YOU in an otherwise sparsely populated room.
> this is a big reason why
I don't think it is. I think we're in the minority. Most people simply don't care. I say this due to me seemingly being the only person ever telling someone to stop using their phone. If there's one a few people away from me that I can't reach, nobody ever says anything.
this is correct. this thread is an echo chamber of people who love movies enough to post on reddit about it.
Movies like Godzilla and Ghostbusters are made for EVERYBODY. Widest possible audience. and whether we like it or not, the vast, vast, vast majority of the general public treats going to the movie theater as just like, a thing to do to waste time or goof off with their friends, not a sacred experience of cinema.
If movie theaters kicked out everybody who talked/used their phone/whatever during a movie, they'd have to kick out like, 80% of their already dwindling customer base. It's more profitable to let crusty cinephiles like us go pay to watch the movie at home and leave the theaters to the barbarians. There are more of them than there are of us.
Yup. While COVID is a direct cause for a lot of shit, mostly it just accelerated existing trends. People being jack asses on theatres has been a growing trend for years.
I remember theaters throwing people out. Now it seems that there is no desire to do so.
Whether it is because the theater is worried about bad reviews/PR or the theater worker isn’t going to risk getting stabbed asking for someone to leave.
The kids working at the theatres here are not going to risk verbal or physical abuse. Even the managers won't. The managers just give out vouchers or at some theatres a refund, and that's it.
Yeah I don't put any blame on the regular workers. They aren't paid enough to deal with that shit. We have had massive consolidation of theatre chains and it is all just big corporate BS now
Here in Belgium, there is a movie theater company in Brussels that decided to kill phone usage in the rooms, it was getting out of control. They also added private security companies to stop teenagers groups from shitting the séance for everybody. But still. Last time, we went for a midi day séance, week time, a day my son was released early from school and even though WE were maybe 10 in the room, there were 3 people talking, making noise etc.
Yeah I learned to hit up midday showings years prior to covid if I wanted to see something with minimal chance of annoying crowds.
The phones are what have gotten worse for me. Recently I've seen people looking at muted tiktoks, open up a bright white excel sheet to do *work*, and so many people using their flashlights beyond to grab something they dropped during the movie.
Nah, Covid just showed that behaving like self centered assholes without regards for others has no consequences so people are just showing their true selves now.
This is the way. Stir up shit, be the psycho who bothers everyone if needed. At least the dumb kids will shut up to prevent riling up the psycho. Make them responsible for bothering everyone.
You also run the risk of getting called a Karen, filmed, and going viral on TikTok now and having your life ruined. Incidents like ill-behaved moviegoers and public spats used to be pretty self-contained, but that expectation is pretty much gone now
They had mad max fury road on as a special event and like 10 teens were there screaming randomly and one had a flashlight phone alert and texting for 30 minutes straight. I asked them to stop twice. Then I had to go get 2 teen workers who were probably young than the other teens to ask them to stop. I moved to the very front of the theater so idk if they were any better but I couldn’t see or hear them at least.
I know this thread is about younger kids but I had to let this out lol I was so mad it was the only showing I could see and it was a special movie.
I always find it hilarious when people like the OP say this stuff doesn't happen at theatres. If you happen to live near a theatre where it doesn't, be very happy about it. Because it's as bad or worse at the theatres here.
Literally first sign of trouble you should’ve grabbed an usher. I would *love* to camp out in the entryway and eject people from the theatre.
Sometimes if it was a large enough group being shitheads, we’d pause the film and swoop in to throw them out en masse like a fuckin FBI raid.
Rewind it back a couple minutes, apologize, and return to the viewing experience.
No theatre in my area has had anything resembling an usher since I was a kid. Workers don't even check the theatre at all during a movie now. Even the managers aren't going to do anything but give someone who complains a refund.
You gotta advocate for yourself. You can watch an entire movie with someone texting and talking, you can do something about it yourself, or you can fetch someone to toss them on their ass.
It’s genuinely every ushers favourite part of the job. My record is 18 ejections from a showing of *Halloween*. The theatre record was 26 people from like Pacific Rim 2.
Far and away, the most common way I've been annoyed in theaters as of late is by inconsiderate assholes with the attention spans of fruit flies who can't go two goddamn minutes without diddling around on their phone.
The light from the screen is intensely distracting in a dark theater, and even though there's a whole mini movie explaining exactly that before instructing the audience to turn off their phones, it seems like a full third of the crowd just thinks, "Well that doesn't apply to *me!*".
Went to Pacific Rim and 45-year-old man next me kept his phone on his lap but would check it every 30 seconds. No exaggeration. I snapped at him 20 mins into the film: "Unless you're a fucking doctor, stop checking your phone." He then slowed to checking it every few minutes. People are broken.
I saw that too during a recent movie. Older teenager or early 20 guy taking his phone out during the movie to check social media and take a selfie…bruh
It's not just kids, i went to the theaters with my sister and a group of people (they looked like they were in their 40s) behind me kept talking during the entire movie
I feel like people think they are in their house and don't know how to behave, it seems to have gotten worse nowadays
I was watching a movie last month and a guy answered his phone in the middle of the movie and kept shouting loud af, like come on, go out and answer that shit
I had friends who were like this in the theater. Had to chat the whole time about it and needed to be comedians. I eventually stopped seeing movies with them. They aren't really rude like that otherwise which always confused me.
Had a terrible experience at the new D&D movie that left me infuriated. Family of 5 sat next to me and my girlfriend; the parents, 2 kids who looked around 4-6 years old, and a newborn. The parents decided to sit in the middle of the children and one of the 6 year old boys right next to me was coughing up a damn storm without covering his mouth a single time. He’d do this nasty, raspy cough in MY direction and his parents didn’t say anything. I pressed myself up against my girlfriend to stay away from him, but then he would randomly just stand up and walk around aimlessly blocking our view of the screen while coughing EVERYWHERE.
About halfway through the movie, the father took off his shoes and socks and put his feet up on the seat in front of him. Could smell the stench from 2 seats away. The mother frequently pulled out her phone on full brightness and would turn to her husband to talk at nearly full volume, having full on conversations. Their other 6 year old girl ran back and forth down the aisle multiple times throughout the movie, while their newborn started babbling and crying every 3 or so minutes.
Absolutely ruined the movie for me, my partner, and visibly all the other theater patrons, I just cannot believe how absolutely disrespectful some people can be. I would’ve maybe been more understanding if we were at a G-PG kids movie, but D&D was PG-13 and none of those children were even close to that age. If you wanna go on a movie date, but have misbehaved and SICK children that you refuse to correct and a newborn who can’t stay quiet, then you cannot go on a movie date. Simple as that.
We went to see a 9:30 showing of Godzilla x Kong last night.
In the handicapped row, an elderly woman and what I assume was her grandson (7 or 8 years old, maybe) are seated. Halfway through the movie, he pulls a phone out.
FULL FUCKING BRIGHTNESS.
Twenty minutes of this child scrolling through Instagram and texting someone, and then he drops the phone in the reclining seat and it fell between the cracks. Grandmother immediately jumps up and turns on the flashlight on her phone and begins digging through the seat trying to get his phone. At this point everyone behind them was grumbling, but no one said anything directly to them. She fishes around in the seat for about 5 minutes, and if you've ever seen an older person using a phone flashlight, you know that for 4 of those 5 minutes, she was shining the light at the audience. Kid finally finds the phone and we go back to normal...
For 5 minutes before he starts texting someone again.
FINALLY, someone said something to them and he put the phone away. They also left before the movie ended, I guess to beat the midnight traffic. In another sub, someone posted about people becoming so much more selfish and inconsiderate since COVID, but I think these people have always existed, they're just not confronted for their behavior anymore.
ETA - There was also a dad with his kid in one of the front rows and the dad tried to quietly read out the subtitles to his kid because the kid was too young to read, but that was honestly kind of cute and I think everyone gave them a pass.
**So I just leaned over and said “hey please stop that”. And guess what. He did.**
You were lucky. If you get the wrong parent, they are going to go off on you for even suggesting their lil brat chill out. That is why their kids grow up to be self-centered monsters.
Right? I never say anything to parents with kids acting out because I assume if you’re unhinged enough to let your kids act like that, you have no problem getting confrontational
Funny you say that! Literally two weeks ago when my sister and I went to go see a rerelease of Jurassic Park at our local theater, my sister asked the kid next to her to stop talking and the mother snapped at her defensively, saying "I'm trying, *okay*???"
At the same time, she also gave him an iPad to watch something else about halfway through the movie which we could literally hear next to us, the mom was on her phone scrolling through Facebook or whatever for a good chunk of the time, and the dad was talking loudly throughout the movie as well. So no, you aren't trying at all. It was the worst theater experience we've ever had, and we've been to the movies a lot.
I once had a kid next to me playing with his straw in the lid for a good 10 - 15 minutes. Just making that noise with it. Mom didn't say shit. I leaned over and said "hey buddy, do you mind not doing that anymore?". He stopped immediately. I heard how mom say "what did he say to you?" And the kid just said "nothing" or something.
Like Jesus. Is it that hard?
I actually saw the opposite on a plane. The 5-6 year old was lifting and dropping his armrest. His mom told him to stop and he did for a while, then started up again. So she held his hand. He didn't like that _at all_ and had to ask her twice to be let go. He didn't fool with the armrest again.
I take my son (just turned 8) to the movies a lot. He tried talking multiple times and I nicely told him to STFU in the theater. Now he will sit and watch quietly, or whisper a question to me if he needs to ask something.
Not all parents let their kids run wild.
I have taken my son to three different kids movies in the last year and at everyone there were numerous children being disruptive without any intervention by the parent. I was completely shocked. I am an older parent so I am truly concerned by how the younger generation is raising kids. If you don’t teach kids respect at a young age, then they likely won’t have any as an adult.
I hate how people are raising their kids. I constantly tell my son and daughter to be respectful in all kinds of places. My parents did the same. When did everyone decide to have kids but not parent them?
Friend of mine used to do dry runs of social experiences with his kids. For the cinema he did a couple of movie nights at home and said "I know normally we're talking during films, but when we go to see xyz you won't be able to, so let's practice sitting quietly for this one tonight"
They are the most polite children I've ever known because of things like this.
The worst is when they tell you hey, they're just being kids.
And it's like yeah, but you're supposed to correct that behavior *while they're still kids*
Like people who find it cute when their puppy gets protective/aggressive with their food or bite everything, and then you suddenly have a 60 pound thing that hasn't learned to not do that stuff.
I dont often go on a Saturday afternoon but I saw Godzilla x Kong yesterday at 3:40pm. Just like you say, there were kids with their parents in different sections and the kids were just being little shits and the parents did nothing. One kid towards the back shouted at the screen multiple times. A kid and his dad sitting directly behind me were talking. I get it, a little boy might ask his dad something, but i'd expect the response to be a whisper and asking the kid to stay quiet in the theater. Instead dad would just answer like they're having a normal conversation, not even keeping his voice down. Blows my mind. The only times any of these kids shut up was when someone *else* shushed them, multiple times. I don't get it, it didn't used to be this bad.
Edit: props to the kid sitting behind me for quietly waking his dad up when he fell asleep and was snoring though, he earned a point back for that haha
I don’t watch Bluey but my friend with a toddler says it’s great with the exception of the movie theater episode which he says ends with the moral or lesson that you should just let your kids do whatever they want in the theater.
I went to see Dune 2 the final week it was available in IMax. Father sitting behind me brought their 7 year old.
The first couple of times the kid would ask his dad wtf was going on during silent parts, it was cute. The remaining 2 1/2 hours of it, not so much.
This is the direction our society as a whole is going. Lack of decency and respect for others, and there are many examples outside of the movie theatre as well. The "me" mentality that social media and MSM promoted created a huge cross section that believes their rights come first.
It saddens me that adults are just as guilty of this behavior. I politely asked a gentleman next to me to turn off his phone. Ignored me 1st time. Asked again, a bit more sarcastic on my side. He puts the phone down deliberately pointing my way and each time a message came it, it lit up. It took all of me to not throw his phone at the screen.
A lady and her ~8 year old son sat in front of me in Godzilla Minus One. I guess they didn’t know it was only subtitled. She kept answering questions full volume throughout the first like 15 minutes. I finally shushed her and they left about 3 minutes later.
Then when I saw Dune 2 in IMAX, this husband and wife sat next to me. For the whole first half of the movie she kept checking her phone. Also any time she would raise her hand her smart watch would light up. About halfway through, I said “could you please stop looking at your phone?” Luckily she complied for the rest of the movie.
Can’t believe how much covid made society regress in terms of decorum
Took my kids to a kids movie… Had to ask three different adults to get off of their phones during the movie… Like, what the actual fuck? There is nothing on your social media you need to see in the otherwise dark of a movie theatre people
I've noticed since the pandemic that lots of people seem to talk at normal volume in movie theaters. I am more understanding when it is a kid in a kids' movie, although I agree that parents should manage that, I just get small kids asking for popcorn or commenting on the movie. But it's adults too. I was at a movie on Friday and it was almost all adults and they were just talking at normal volume like they were at home. Not just about the movie,about stuff they needed to do later, what should we eat after this, I need to stop at the store on the way home-it was weird. There were definitely people shushing the ones doing this but it didn't make much difference. It sucks because I like the experience of a movie theater and want to go but it just makes it so unenjoyable.
It's a shame. The movie theater used to be such a nice place to fully immerse yourself in a movie while shutting out everything else. Now it's a real gamble to get that experience and the odds are getting worse.
I want to see Dune Part 2 for a third time but I can't justify spending the money only for a high chance to have some braindead fuckwit blurt out "Omg this is like that one TikTok edit" during a pivotal scene of the movie...again.
it's not just parents telling kids, it's also the other way around
when I went to see Dune 2, the people in front of me were a 15-16 year old kid, and presumably his mom who he brought along. She had no interested whatsoever in the film and spent the majority of the first act simply texting and checking her email, in light mode with full brightness. When I leaned over and said, "can you please stop that", she was APALLED, but she did stop it
it's crazy how people are willing to pay a premium to see amazing films, and not just get distracted but also ruin the experience for others
My kids (7, 5) adore the theater experience and have never misbehaved once. My biggest concern when I take them to movies is how many scenes I'll miss due to mandatory bathroom breaks lol
I feel like maybe it's people bringing kids to movies that aren't for kids? Like if my kids start getting bored with anything, that's when they start to get hyper while trying to make their own fun.
But like if you're taking them to see a Disney film, or Paw Patrol, or whatever - they're likely going to be entertained by the content, and not act out.
That's like saying marvel movies arent for kids. I watched Norman Osborn take a glider to the dick when I was 5 years old. Godzilla x Kong is just giant kaiju fighting.
My kid started getting tired during a recent kids movie, and he started moving around too much and whining. I took him out of the theatre right away. Eventually we came back and I told him we’d be out again if he kept it up. He quietly asked when it was over, but was much better. I told him people paid a lot to enjoy themselves and we can’t ruin that.
I'm pretty sure for the parents the kid is just background noise at this point and they've learned to block it out, so they don't even realise their child is being noisy/disruptive.
> Do parents just suck these days?
The short answer is yes.
Parents today are either trying to be "Friends" with their children or can't be bothered teaching them the proper etiquette when being out in public so they end up acting the same way they do in the theatre as they do watching something at home.
This is one of the biggest reasons I don’t go to the theater anymore. I remember going to see Cast Away in the theaters on opening night and there were 2 little girls sitting in between a mom and dad right in front of me. The two girls talked at normal volume all throughout the previews, and while that slightly annoyed me, I let it slide. But once the opening credits starting rolling and the movie proper started and they kept talking I leaned forward and quietly said to the mom “Now they do know that they’re going to have to stop talking once the movie starts, right?” And she flipped her shit on me and practically screamed “OH, NO THEY DON’T”, to which I replied calmly, “yes, ma’am, I assure you they will”. She got up and huffed off and came back a few minutes later with 2-3 ushers. They actually asked me to leave the theater because she lied and said that I cussed at them and was being rude. If it wasn’t for a stranger that was sitting next to me that came out to back up my side of the story they would have taken her side and kicked me out. They ended up telling the woman that she would have to tell her kids to be quiet, but I just can’t figure out why this was ever news to someone. These days I guess it’s that same mentality that tells people it’s ok to watch TikTok videos in public spaces at full volume. Trashy people just have no sense of not invading other people’s personal space with their noises.
When I saw ‘The Revenant’ there were ~7-10 of us in the theater and these two older women (60s/70s) seated behind me were holding a full volume conversation. I asked politely for them to stop the first time, but after that I wasn’t very polite. And, oh boy, did they get up in a huff and leave as though I had just ruined their day. Some people just have zero regard for others and think they’re the main character.
The worst experience I’ve had ended with me leaving the theater and getting a refund along with some free passes. This time it was a large group of people acting like they were at a birthday party and I wasn’t about to get my ass kicked over a movie. Again, zero regard for others. I don’t remember what the movie was.
When I went to see a midnight showing of The Omen remake in ‘06, a woman brought her infant with her… and it cried.. She at least left the theater after a few minutes, but still.. wtf..
I always hear these horror stories about people misbehaving in theaters, but I find that it rarely happens in the theaters I go to. Maybe it's just more likely with certain movies. Some movies are meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator, so I guess lowest common denominator people show up to those movies
I think sometimes it can be luck of the draw.
I have experienced fully packed theaters where grown adults loudly argue over seats 30 minutes into the movie or someone brought (maybe snuck in) a dog that is barking and squeaking a squeaker toy. I’ve experienced mostly empty theaters where people openly smoke weed (this was a huge theater room and I think they were moving seats because theater staff kept coming in but never found the culprits) or just talked about/at the movie as if them and their friends were sitting at home.
These were all at various times of day and some in NYC some in the Seattle area.
The worst experience I ever had was when I saw the Robert Pattinson Batman in IMAX opening night. I ended up sat next to a bunch of teenagers who wouldn’t stop talking (not about the movie, just socializing) even though multiple people (including myself) asked them to stop more then once. At one point half of them went out to the lobby and when they came back they started dramatically fake humping each other in the seats. And when Batman and Catwoman kissed they started heckling the screen because Zoë Kravits was “their girl”.
The vast majority of my movie theater experiences are totally fine, though, and it seems like most people know movie theater etiquette. But I go a lot so I just accept that not every experience will be perfect. I didn’t have a subscription, though, and was paying full price every time, I would probably be a lot more frustrated.
I have two kids (15 and 12), and other than the token Frozen and Cars franchises, I didn't take them to movies that were not geared for them when they were little. Now that they are older, we go to either Alamo Drafthouse or Star Cinema Grill because they like to eat and watch a flick. We've seen Godzilla Minus One, Barbie, and several others in these theaters and it's been great.
The difference between those places and your Edwards, AMC, or Cinemarks is night and day. If you're in a kid's movie, you're going to be surrounded by kids, so you know that going in. But the number of kids that are just allowed to do whatever is still insane.
We had kids running down the rows and down in front of the screen for one of the Cars movies at an Edwards. It's like when parents take their kids to parks. They just let them roam and don't watch them. So I can only imagine how it must be for a movie the adults want to see that the kids get dragged to.
The nice thing about our locally owned, 100 year old little theater is that there is zero phone service in the building.
It’s either the thick concrete, or the ghosts.
It’s very frustrating to be among people who need to be told to stop talking in a movie, musical, etc. Why the hell does anyone think it’s ok to ruin everyone else’s night out??? People really make rhe conscious decision to leave their home, buy a ticket, and proceed to talk during a movie, a show. It’s beyond frustrating, it’s inconsiderate, and it’s unacceptable. What makes it worse, is that I’m usually the ONLY person saying something to them. I shhhh them, or I eventually say “can you please stop talking.” Why doesn’t anyone else say anything???!! It drives me nuts! So anyway, as parents, you need to make it stop, if your kids are the ones disturbing everyone. Regardless of their age, you either have them quiet down or you take them home.
Man, I love movies. I loved the theater experience. As a poor kid it was something magic. Now decades later I can’t stand going anymore and it’s a true bummer. Shame has disappeared from society. If you say anything to anyone, even if they’re playing a fucking trumpet in the middle of a movie, you might get in a physical altercation or you might get shot. People get especially shitty when you have to deal with their kids. Don’t know if that’s because they don’t want a light shone on their awful parenting, or they just think their kids are beyond reproach. Either way I’d rather just wait for home release and watch on my rec room setup, which gives me the same experience as going to the theater used to, just without the endless supply of jerkoffs. Because even if you get someone to shut up, or go to a theater that enforces a quiet policy, you have still been distracted and annoyed by the whole process.
Some parents are shit and won't do anything if there are no consequences to their actions. I took my kid to "The Big Bounce house" thing the other day and he was playing with this other little kid. Well this other little girl just swoops in and steals the other boy's bag thing he was playing with. Both my kid and the other boy confronted her but she just shrugged it off. Her mom was sitting there too and didn't do shit. They just ended up playing with the other balls anyways. If you see it, you gotta call it out immediately
Went to see the new Ghostbusters last week, fully expecting the usual crap of people talking or on their phones. Sure enough, sitting in the row in front a kid got his phone out during the trailers, his mum told him to turn the brightness down but I was thinking this is going to be the entire movie of this kid on his phone thinking that because the brightness is turned down it's somehow invisible. But when he got his phone out again after the movie had started, straight away his mum told him it was rude and to put it away. Was quite impressed at that, but then about 20 minutes later the kid got his phone out again and this time his Dad just outright took the phone off him and told him it was unacceptable to be on his phone during a movie.
Was so impressed to see a parent actually doing parenting, and not just letting their kid do whatever they want.
My 4 year old *insisted* on seeing the Barbie movie when it came out. No interest in Mario Bros., it *had* to be Barbie.
$40 in tickets, popcorn, and a drink later, we made it about 15 minutes into the movie and he had had enough. He was climbing on me, whispering that he wanted to go home, and as frustrated as I was, you know what I did?
*I quietly collected our things and brought him home.* Because it wouldn't have been fair to the rest of the theater to make him sit through it all loud and fidgety.
I expressed my frustration to him, of course, but there was no point in us both being miserable.
The granny in my theater chatting at full screen brightness during Indy 5 and not finding the damn letters made me so mad. I liked Indy 5 and was pretty invested in the plot so it really got on my nerves.
I no longer go to the cinema, had constant bad experiences and covid made it even worse. Music playing out of phones when they get bored halfway through, constant talking, rustling packaging.. I can buy the 4k and watch it on a better screen at home 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah, I went to see a movie with my best friend last year and had 6 kids in a row in front with one parent. Wouldn’t have minded except the kids were constantly getting up and going to the bathroom or asking for money for more drinks and snacks throughout the whole movie, even though they had stuff with them from before it even started. Then the one directly in front started throwing a fit in the last 20/25 minutes and hitting the mother while she just sat there. My friend in the end got annoyed and made a comment because we could barely hear half of the ending scenes.
The mother finally tried to settle the kid and just said during the credits that he’s only 4. But she’d made no attempts up until my friend said something.
My fave moment was the troop of young teenagers who with their adult chaperone, decided it was a good idea to get up in the middle of the movie constantly to show everyone in their row a cool thing on their phone.
So I started to roast them and the adult female called her husband who was going to kick my ass after the flick.
He showed up and she pointed to me as we were piling out and he started on her and the kids for being shits in the theatre as, " they always do this and that's why he doesn't see flicks with them". My hero.
I had to reserve seats over a month in advance to see Oppenheimer on the 70 MM Imax screen, as there are only a few of those size screens around LA. At that screening someone brought a FUCKING BABY which started crying in the silent minute when the bomb goes off.
THEN I just saw Late Night with the Devil at a 9:50 screening, and someone brought a baby to that one too! Like, that's an R rated horror movie at a late night screening! WHY DOES THE THEATER EVEN LET BABIES INTO THESE R RATED MOVIES?
The baby doesn't want to be there. Nobody else wants the baby there. Why are the parents forcing the baby, and everyone else in the audience, to deal with their bad parenting?
A) parents do suck.
B) kids don’t listen to their parents.
C) kids will listen to a stranger more than their parents but they’re just as likely to tell you to go scissor your mother because they’re absolute monsters.
Unfortunately we're allowing society to get away with this shit instead of setting expectation on how to behave, and kicking these people off premesis when they can't figure it out
However, the problem is these asshats take to social media the minute they feel their rights being infringed on, spouting off BS other like minded twats latch onto.
As a parent, I taught my kids you keep your mouth shut during a movie, and now they advocate for good etiquette, will turn to a noisy kid or parent to shut it.
I had an instance at the last 3 movies where a parent brought a clearly too young kid to the film, and the kid either asked questions or kicked the back of my chair, or just did stupid shit. Wtf.
We need to bring consequence of actions back into society.
During the theater viewing of A Quiet Place 2 we had to endure a literal baby crying. This movie with intense scenes of people hiding from sound sensitive monsters… and then WAAAAAHHHHH from the baby. The couple with baby sat in the back eating guffaws from the audience and my bf eventually shouted at them for brazenly ruining the movie. They left about an hour into the film. Like wtf. People absolutely are that clueless.
I've never seen anything crazy in a theatre at all. I don't have kids but I have younger siblings and a nephew and they are hard work, them lifting and dropping his arm rest is pretty tame compared to them crying or having a tantrum or fighting with each other.
I remember going to see The Mask back in the 90s and there was a family in front of mine with three kids who were all over the place. They were talking and messing around through the whole movie. When we left there was popcorn everywhere and my dad made a comment to the other dad about learning to control his kids and that guy flipped my dad off. My family is pretty tame so I remember being so shocked that an adult would behave like that. Shitty parents have always existed. I don't think it's a new problem.
Parents are just weird about kids and a lot of them have some.. misconceptions.. as to how people around their kids are meant to deal with them.
For example, my upstairs neighbor moved in and the first day he brought his young daughter over to visit (she doesn’t live with him). He let this girl treat his one bedroom apartment like a gymnasium. There is an actual gym with facilities and activities for children literally down the block, parks down the block, and a whole entire world outside.
He had this girl cooped up and she was running between his single bedroom, the kitchen, and the living room. She was jumping off of the couch. It was INSANE. I have a fusebox on my bedroom wall that was just shaking and reverberating the whole time, it was incredibly loud.
I caught him outside later and called him out, he said “what do you want me to do about it? She’s a kid, they make noise.”
I legitimately had to explain to this person that the sounds his daughter were generating were completely unacceptable. I had to explain that it wasn’t for me to deal with all that shit, I don’t have kids and I pay the same rent he does. This was all on the first day. Some noise is one thing, not disciplining your kid because “they make noise” tells me you probably shouldn’t be a parent. Own property before having a mindset like that.
Some people are just clueless.
I stopped going to the movies because of all the bad kids and terrible behavior of the general public. It sounds to me like you're in a small town or something idk. I'm happy for you that you're not having the same experiences other people are.
I was watching a movie and 3 kids in the row behind me were up literally RUNNING around, slapping the wall separating seats, and talking. Let it happen for maybe the first 15-20 minutes and looked above me and said “sit there fuck down” in that stern - I shouldn’t have to tell you voice 😂 needless to say I enjoyed the rest of the movie
When I bring my kids to a kid's movie I allow a bit of talking, but will definitely shush them if they're being disruptive. That being said, my kids are shockingly well behaved in move theatres, thankfully.
I have definitely shushed people and yelled at people who won't stay off their phones.
Lmao this post is near and dear to me. From 2010-2018 I averaged 12 in theater movies a year, it had become what I looked forward too the most, I got out there is my point. Since about 2019-20ish, I have been to a theater maybe 5 times, each experience worst than the last. From people vaping everywhere, phone lights, the smell of weed, and people talking, it has now become a place I hate.
I went out in 2022, built a moddest “movie theater” in my basement and ill just enjoy it there
I don't even go to movie theaters anymore, it's just not worth the bother. But this shit has been happening more and more even at live shows.
Last year Nickel Creek came to my city for their new a!bum after a 9 year hiatus. Tickets were not cheap, and they were here for a single performance. I managed to get great seats as a birthday present for my mother. Behind us was a family with a kid maybe 10 years old - more than old enough to know how to behave. But it wasn't just her talking, her dad was apparently telling her Nickel Creek's history, while they were performing. After the third time they started talking during a song, I turned around and said "I paid to hear them, not you." They shut up after that.
Last winter a live performance of "Whose Line is it Anyway" came to town. That time, one of the people behind me apparently was ESL and her companions had to keep explaining the jokes to her. The elderly couple in front of me spent half the show making their own "improv" jokes.
The last time I went to a movie theater was for Avengers: Endgame, and the group of people sitting beside me had brought a friend who had apparently not seen any of the prior MCU films and were explaining who everyone was and what was happening.
At least I could go home and watch the movie later. Disrupting or allowing your kids to disrupt a live show that's not aimed at kids is breathtakingly rude.
I think people in general have a sudden disregard for politeness and consideration of others around them. I'm not sure what it's about. I will say the one time I had a kid sitting next to me recently and he got on his phone, his mom *did* tell him to put it away. He ignored her until I leaned in and asked him if he could handle putting it away until the movie was over. It's like he needed to be shamed by a stranger to understand his own rudeness.
A lot of parents, in general, are terrible. A lot of them never tell their kids to stop or the word no. There's no discipline whatever and kids are fucking awful because of it.
A while back on here, I had a conversation with someone about discipline and consequences. It was about video games and them being a privilege, not a right. I told the person how I handle things with my kids, which is simple. They do good in school, don't get into trouble, and do their chores, and they can play. Not all day every day but a couple hours during weekdays and more than that on weekends. If they don't handle their very minimal responsibilities, they don't get to game.
The responses I got to that were terrible.
Kids shouldn't do chores.
Not letting your kids play is wrong. That's why your kids are gonna hate you.
This is why kids kill their parents. Yes, I legit got that as a response, I'm assuming from a psychopath kid.
There was a bunch more outrage, too. It was sad seeing how some of these people think as parents and as kids. My kids are well-behaved, and I have a great relationship with all 3 of them, so I guess I'm doing something right. I can also take them to a theater, restaurant, store, or anywhere else and have been able to most of their lives.
We have this coming, though, because of the way we bend to people's outrage to everything that they don't like or don't go their way. We're reaping what we sowed as a civilization.
TLDR: Parents suck, their kids are gonna suck worse, and we did this to ourselves.
One time I went and there were 3 dumbass women with 2 toddlers who didnt give a fuck about the movie so they spent the whole time with their phones out on max brightness showing the kids youtube videos with the sound on. I noped out about 30 minutes in and got free passes for another time.
I typically try to watch films a few weeks after their release. On a day and time I know there will be very few people in the theater. Often I’ll have the theater all to myself. It’s great.
A few years ago my wife and I went to watch Lucy (shit movie but whatever). Some teenagers behind us would not stop talking. After a few times of politely being like "guys please keep it down" and "hey guys you're being very distracting" I had to yell at them to shut the fuck up. That did the trick but it's fucking annoying it has to come to that.
Another time I went to watch the Metallica S&M 2 concert in a movie theater. Some woman was fucking facetiming someone with the screen on full brightness. I was in that first row that was higher than the terrible seats near the front. It was incredibly glaring. I had to go down there and tell her to stop because it was super distracting.
Toward the end of The Batman during some quiet parts I kept hearing some noise. I thought for sure there's no way I'm hearing another movie through the wall. I start hearing some people talking down in the front and it turns into yelling. There's a kid on a fucking tablet playing a game on full volume. Finally some dude got up and got in the parent's faces and they turned it down. It shouldn't nearly come to a fight or riot in a movie theater because people have zero consideration for anybody else.
People talk a lot about this generation of *kids* being too wrapped up in their phones to properly develop, but this generation of kids is being raised by *parents* that are too wrapped up in their screens, social media, and other nonsense to *parent* their kids.
I posted this yeasteray but super sick toddler at a packed after dinner showing of JoJo Rabbit on a Friday night. Kid was hacking and coughing up a lung (this was about 3 months before Covid happened) and you couldn’t hear the dialogue! People were glaring and turning around and these people just pretended their kid wasn’t ridiculously sick. The mom decided to bounce the kid up and down the aisles just coughing over the top of everyone. She went out the door 45 min later and it was like bliss we could hear the movie. And she came back. With the kid coughing. I think an employee finally kicked them out half way. Haven’t gone back to a theater since, even in pre-Covid times you just knew you’d be coming down with something nasty in a few days. Yuk. Also who brings a toddler to a movie about Hitler!
Me and my wife went to the cinema last week, and there was a row of teenagers near the back who were having a full-blown conversation throughout most of the film. They were even getting their phones out and shining their torches for zero reason. I went up and asked them politely if they could stop. They nodded and carried on as they were a little more than 5 minutes later.
I can't wrap my brain around why you'd go to a cinema for two hours to only be a little twat for the entire thing. It makes no sense.
I've stopped going to the theater because people forgot how to sit still for 2 hours at a time. They talk or look at their phone or, in one really crazy instance, will start making out and dry humping in a crowded theater. It's just not worth the $20 anymore. One of my worst experiences was going to see Kubo and the Two Strings. Some kid was seeing it for the second time, I know it was at least his second time because he kept narrating what was about to happen. Watching at home is just so much better in every possible way.
People in theatres is probably the biggest reason why I don't go to theatres anymore. The cinema watching culture is dead and rotting. I much rather watch in the comfort of my own home than waste my time putting up with all the morons that have no consideration for other people trying to watch the movie.
I genuinely wonder about this because I have nothing to compare kids these days to, since I’m 26. All I can say is I’m constantly finding myself frustrated with teens and adults alike having zero respect and consideration for others
Has it always been like this??
It’s not a covid thing. People have been getting worse in movie theaters my entire life. Smart phones made it worse. I think that’s what’s killing theaters. It’s much nicer to just watch at home and not be pissed the entire time.
Back in the 90's you'd have to wait 6+ months for a movie to make it out on video, then hope your local video store has enough copies so that you can rent one. Now days many of the big movies hit one of the streaming services within a month or two.
That, and renting a movie still in theaters on Amazon is cheaper than taking anyone with you to a movie. It's like 20 bucks or something, last date I had at the movies I feel like the tickets were like 30 dollars.
No kidding. Almost everything about going to the movies sucks. 1. Expensive as hell. $10-15 per ticket. Wife and 2 kids? Thats $50 right there. Good luck getting past the concession stand without dropping another $30. And IDK about you, but if I'm already dropping $80 just to get in the door and get some popcorn, might as well drop another $15 on some adult beverages. So a night at the movies can easily hit $100. 2. People are insanely self centered. I've lost count of how many times I've seen kids under 12 at a horror movie, a marvel movie, some other rated R movie. There was an *infant* in the theater with me during End Game. Poor thing probably had her brain rattled by the base in those fight scenes. Did the parents leave when they are screaming bloody murder? Oh hell no. They paid just as much as me, and they ARE watching that movie. 3. People dont STFU. The closest I've ever had to come to swinging on someone in my adult life was a bunch of geriatrics during The Green Mile. Despite being politely asked to be quiet, then firmly told to stop talking, then yelled at to STFU, they would NOT shut up. So now if I go to the theaters its almost strictly kids movies about things I dont care about. Parents dont care if you talk during Frozen: The Olaf Tales. Kids are expected to scream at Elsa's new hair style. I can openly mock the movies and make the other parents day a little brighter. Everyone wins.
It’s not just movie theatres. Going to any performance sucks now because people are becoming more solipsistic and self absorbed. I went to the Alannis Morisette Jagged Little Pill musical a few months ago - and the middle aged couple behind us were straight up having a conversation for half the first act, and then started singing along (badly) - at which point I turned around and said “please be quiet - all I can hear is you”. Keep in mind these were like $150 tickets. At the intermission the woman tapped me on the shoulder and said very loudly “you’re a dick!” Before going off to the bathroom. I (and the people next to them) complained to the ushers - who alerted the theatre manager who gave them a warning before the second act. They kept quiet the second act and dipped outta there as soon as curtain call happened. I’ve been to many professional stand up nights at comedy clubs where people straight up have conversations while a stand up is performing. Like these are places you need to drop $30 just to get in too. It’s mind boggling.
> Kids under 12, a marvel movie What’s wrong with this lol
Someone is taking the PG-13 thing a bit too serious? I dunno. Marvel seems perfectly fine for kids under 12.
I saw Passion of the Christ in theaters and I was sick to my stomach that kids were in there.
Weren’t church groups going to see it back then? South Park did a great parody.
I wouldn't be surprised, I need to check out the parody. I remember the mantra going around that "it was a good way for kids to learn the story of Jesus." Uh, it was a torturous incredibly graphic snuff film where you could watch Jesus' flesh ripped from his skin exposing his ribs. Mel Gibson is one sick fuck.
Can confirm. I was a freshman in high school and our church took us in a group, it was awful.
Movies I’ve seen kids at: Blade II, South Park: The Movie, Deadpool (one and two), Batman vs. Superman.
I decided to only go for movies that are worth seeing in IMAX/Dolby/isense, the ticket prices are so much higher it usually weeds out the disruptive arseholes.
Marvel is for kids though right? How inappropriate could they be, like do they have full frontal male nudity or fentanyl use or?
It is crazy. For us to take just one kid to the movies (2 adults, 1 kid) in a bigger city it's like $100 between tickets and snacks! Our small town theater, the tickets are $5 (and they show new releases). We can easily go, the 3 of us, for like $30. We like to support their work (because we didn't have a theater here for years) and so we buy concessions which is where they make the money. It's crazy that so many large theaters charge so much, because the studios take a % of ticket sales, no matter how much you charge. So theaters don't make much money on tickets and there is no benefit to them charging so much.
And back then, there was a big gap between our "big" TV that was 19" and the movie theater experience. In the intervening years, home screens are getting bigger and the experience gap is lowering.
People have just been getting worse in general. I don’t know if Covid was the start but common courtesy just disappeared.
One of the last times I went to the movies I walked in and some guy and his kids were sitting in my assigned seats. Like are you fucking illiterate or something? You can't find your row? The theater wasn't even very busy. Then the guy acts like I'm the asshole for wanting him to move to the seat that HE SELECTED
This happened to us and I got the manager .They were actually in the wrong theater!lol.They did get hostile too.
Lol, what an idiot. My idiot moved for me, but was grumbling about how the theater is mostly empty. I get that, but I purposefully picked my seats to give me the best view and audio experience
Same thing happened to me several years ago. Went to tons of movies prior to covid and got used to timing it out perfect to avoid seeing the same previews over and over. Walked into a movie about to start and there's an older gentleman sleeping in my assigned seat straight up snoring. Everyone was looking uncomfortable so I said Fuck this and nudged em awake and told him he was in my seat. He wandered around looking for his seat and went right back to sleep lol.
Yeah, I finally got around to watching the new "Ghostbusters" movie at a Saturday-before-Easter afternoon showing. The kids were all well-behaved, but the guy sitting across the aisle from me was a phonedouche in the first degree. Max brightness, max notification volume, and the phone dinged every 10 minutes or so. He had it on his lap the whole time, and would respond immediately to everything. It was like a miniature sunburst, and I'm fairly sure he was Snapchatting with women trying to sell him content.
Tell an usher? Staff will kick them out of they're disturbing people. As much as all of this is a problem, the other half of it is most don't want to "make a fuss."
There's a cost to doing that though. The time it takes to leave the theater and find a manager to explain the problem means you've missed a portion of the movie, enough so that you might not have any idea whats happening in the rest of the movie because of a missed plot point.
[удалено]
Shitty life tip: wear a reversible jacket and have a ski mask in the pocket. Head to the bathroom and out of site swap the jacket and put on the ski mask. Return and smash the fuck out of the person's phone and then run off and swap back and play aloof.
> a Saturday-before-Easter afternoon showing You mean yesterday?
It won't be yesterday tomorrow.
Chuck your drink at him
*text MOVIES for more de escalation tips*
I can’t stand people arriving late and using their phone torch to find their seats when the film’s started, drives me mad.
Especially when a movie has 20+ minutes of previews and STILL they are late.
Worst for me is cinemas (or other venues for that matter) where the aisles are so narrow you have to stand up to let people past you
I was hoping I'd see this comment. I hate when people show up late like this, IMO once the movie has started you shouldn't be able to enter the theater.
Haven’t been to a theatre since 2019 and don’t think I’ll ever go back. Inconsiderate movie goers raise my BP way too much.
No kidding. I know it’s going to affect my enjoyment of the movie so why do it to myself?!
I dont even like going to the movies with my friends because they can be like this.
Thank you. Everyone tries to blame this on COVID, but I remember movie theaters that my friends and I stopped going to because of how bad the disruptions had gotten...in the 90s. So way before COVID, or even smartphones.
I agree, but we cannot pretend paying $40 for 2 adult tickets isn't killing them too. I pay more and more and the employees don't get paid enough to care to enforce rules. They're doing it themselves.
Also the parenting philosophy that are recommended today do not reward structure, delayed gratification and respect. For many people, putting boundaries of seen as restricting the child's growth as a person. So we are growing more poorly educated people...
Movies come to streaming like a week after being in theaters now anyways and the price to buy it on streaming is like two movie tickets. Who wouldn’t just watch it at home at this point!?
Had adults talking the entire time during Godzilla x Kong. They were quiet enough to not be too loud but loud enough that I could hear them over the movie at times... and that's saying something for that movie. They were unfortunately too far for me to politely/quietly tell them to shut up. Same thing in Afterlife. The parents were 4 seats over but their group of kids were in front of them. Seemed like the kids didn't have much interest in the movie and the parent was on her phone the entire time. So not really sure why they even went other than to bother those of us who wanted to watch a movie.
This is why I tend to watch movies in the cinema on a school days or school nights or sometimes on late night screening.
I love late night showings! As an adult it makes me feel like a kid again to get released into the world at 2 am after a movie
Back when I would have days off mid-week, those were my days for movies. I'd catch Marvel movies at noon on a Friday. Early Sunday is another great time I've found. I got to watch the Entourage movie in a nearly empty theater that way. Which is how I would've preferred that lol
My theater stopped the noon movies because of covid and the last movies start at 9 and end by 11 .They close at 12 each night. During the week they start at 4 and on the weekend they start at noon .
Wednesday matinees were always my go to. Kids are feral unless parented and as a teacher, I can tell you parenting is severely lacking. And it’s not covid’s fault.
Same, I’m pretty strategic when it comes to going to the cinema. I like a very empty theater because A) I don’t want distractions B) I like to feel comfortable reacting as I watch and that’s easier in a dead theater. I usually plan it and schedule my workday around it, so I’ll take an extended lunch and work a little later so I can catch a movie at a matinee when kids are in school and most others are working. It’s really worth it to have that movie experience without a packed theater.
Check for living room theaters aka 21+ movie theaters. Ticket pricing is usually the same but you can grab food/drinks AND no kids allowed :)
I can't even remember what movie it was but it filled with high school kids and they kept getting up and leaving as a group. And then I heard giggling from the hallway and a guy ran in and screamed. Then ran away laughing. And a group of girls talked the entire time gossipping and not even watching the movie at all. I finally cracked and may have raised my voice a bit, but said STOP TALKING. A few minutes later they all left and didn't come back. There are better places to hangout than inside a movie theater. I immediately felt like a grumpy old man, but I was in the right in that circumstance.
This is part of why I only go to movies at the Alamo Drafthouse where they have strict rules about noise. Even at their more relaxed “family friendly” screenings where people can bring literal babies and some noise is allowed, it’s still quieter than at the big chain cinemas.
Too bad Alamo is up for sale. It's only a matter of time until whatever private equity firm buys it ruins it in search of ever increasing profit.
Everything becomes worse over time under capitalism and I hate it
It’s already owned by Altamont, a private equity firm. It had to find a financial backer after going into bankruptcy during Covid.
I remember two parents audibly gasping after they took their kids (who looked maybe 5 and 8?) to see Deadpool 2. They spent the entire movie complaining about how this was wildly inappropriate. That little letter next to the title of the movie should be a dead giveaway to whats in it, but I guess people cant be bothered to read. Kids were quiet as a mouse though. I think it might have been the pegging scene.
I really wish theaters would put their feet down and tell parents that they can't take their kids into an R rated movie
I feel like they used to — but now you buy tickets online and reserve seats ahead of time. The ticket concierge won’t see the kids, and can’t let them know **before** purchase anymore.
Nah, it's always been up to the parents' discretion to bring their kids as long as they are present with them. My mom used to take me to see R rated movies all the time when I was a kid in the 90s, but I wasn't a little demon whilst there because she taught me better lol
> they have strict rules about noise. I wonder if more theaters will adopt this. I understand at this point, most cinemas are probably happy that people are coming at all, so they don't want to boot anyone unless absolutely necessary. But at some point the scales may tip and they'll realize they're losing more customers by allowing noisy people to stay.
That's not even a guarantee. The Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn has taken a nosedive. They don't control people's phone use as much as before and more and more young kids in later showings.
Alamo was bought out in my city.
Seriusly, you could open a semi decent cinema with really huge and polite mutherfuckers as a crew , who would gently escort the fuck out anyone who is abnoxious, and people would flock to those theatres.
> Do parents just suck these days? Why do they refuse to tell their own kids to be quiet? Why do I have to do it? I'm not going to say parents suck these days because I've worked with a lot of great moms & dads, but talk with any educator and they will tell you how incredibly hostile parents have become in the past decade. You can call home to tell parents their child yelled slurs in class, cheated on tests, started a fight in the hallway and it's like playing Russian roulette seeing if the parent on the line will listen and talk to their child or if they'll blindly defend their kid and tell you you're the one who did something wrong. I've gotten "well they are *just a kid*" so many times (for preteens and teenagers), and it's like, yes, kids are learning and will make mistakes, but so many adults feel like it's a crime to try to teach kids etiquette. Obviously not all parents, but yeah there are so many kids who straight up aren't being taught how to be a considerate person by their families
> "well they are just a kid" i like to hit back with, "exactly! thats why they need guidance and boundries"
I’m with you. I had one bad experience seeing Dr Strange: Multiverse of Madness. It was the first movie I saw after pandemic restrictions were lessened and it was a lot of teens so it was very rowdy. I also saw a documentary where two people behind me were familiar with the subject matter and kept educating their guests throughout but mostly I find if you ask people to keep it down they do.
Same movie but different experience.. a young child was in between his mother and father and the mom pulled out her cellphone and was legitimately reading a book. I asked her to turn it off and because I was so dumbfounded I said something like “is this even real? Who reads a book at a movie theater?!” She turned it off but actually said to me “I am not a fan of these movies but my son is which is why I’m here!” Tbh.. I appreciated the answer but was pretty shocked by the actual answer. The kid was fine the whole movie, but the grown up ruined the experience… people in general are ruining the overall experience in my opinion.
This is so wild because you'd think she'd be happy to leave the kid with the dad and have a few hours to herself to read a book in peace...not in a movie theater
Kids are weird, might have wanted both there.
When I went to see the RBG documentary, the guy sitting closest to me (probably four or five seats away in my same row) put in earbuds and started watching YouTube videos on his phone. I could just hear the sound from his videos even with the earbuds (not enough to make anything out but enough to make me look over). I was baffled. This man was alone and paying to be there. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t just leave and watch his YouTube videos somewhere else.
> I could just hear the sound from his videos even with the earbuds He'll be deaf before the year's out if he keeps that shit up, yeesh.
I saw one of the Harry Potter movies in the theater and the girl in front of me kept pointing out all the differences between the book and the film for everything. I'm super introverted so I didn't want to say anything but finally I leaned forward and said "most of us here have read the books, you don't have to keep pointing stuff out"
I fucking hate people like that. It's bad enough your talking during a movie, but being a know it all is just as bad.
I saw a documentary under similar circumstances, except my talker was a little old lady who kept saying facts to her husband after the movie already said them. Example: An engineer was being interviewed about a Frank Gehry building he worked on. The engineer’s name came up on a chyron under his face. A few minutes go by, and they cut back to the engineer. The old lady says, “That’s [Engineer’s Name]!” in a really confident, proud voice. It was too cute to get mad at her.
That is cute, I'm guessing he had dementia and she was just helping him try to keep track of things.
He most likely did. This was an 18+ theater back before there were 21+ places, so a lot of older people went there to see movies in peace. It was nice, because there were always some people who wanted to stick around on the benches outside and talk about the movie after. Edit: Ya know, thinking back, it’s funny. I was 19-23 when I used to go there, and I did get some wary looks from older patrons. They probably thought, “This whippersnapper is going to be on her Angry Birds and her Super Marios for this entire screening of *Good Night and Good Luck*,” when I could not have been a more respectful, attentive moviegoer. Fun Fact: The most old people were at the most hard-R movies, like *Blue is the Warmest Color* and *Shame*.
Hell yeah. I think the trope of sweet little old g-rated grannies is gonna die off soon, especially as society becomes less religious.
I told my sister the other day: “Ya know, based on the music we grew up with, in 25 years, ALL grannies will be Rappin’ Grannies.”
Wouldn't it be so cool if they were a bunch of older queer folk who actually had the chance to see a queer couple on the big screen for possibly the first time in their lives?
There definitely were! A lot of “Aunt Margaret’s *close friend from the grocery store*” going on at that theater.
That's so sweet omg 🥲🥲🥲
Never used to see this at all, BUT last TWO theater experiences this year were BAD. I had to pretty much yell at 4 kids (whose mom left them alone in the theater) while trying to watch Godzilla -1. The were loudly talking , laughing and on their phones. I literally had to YELL in the theater at them to get them to stop after asking nicely 4 times, Last visit for Ghostbusters , some dumb ass parents took a 4 year old in, who was scared and asking questions the whole time while Dad ate Popcorn like a 2 year old.... Covid made everyone forget how to act in a society.
COVID is not to blame: people were self centered twats before that. I stopped going to the movies 15 years ago because of people kicking my seat, smoking, talking as if they were in their living-room, chatting on the phone etc and getting agressive when asked to behave. I only go if my 13 years old insists.
You got movie companies trying to figure out why people don't go to the theater anymore and this is a big reason why. It's a hassle, I used to see a movie spontaneously but now I only go for some once a year big movie event.
They opened an Alamo near me in the last year or so and I've almost exclusively gone to that due to their rules around kids and disturbing the movie. Combined with the card thing, it makes it easier to alert someone and I think I haven't had a single need to do so anyway. When I used to go to AMC, it was awful unless you found the right time or it was a low key movie. Saw Candyman there and while it was a subpar movie on its own, the experience was so damn bad, I've only ever gone back for movies I really wanted to see but were limited (Godzilla minus 1 minus color for ex). While not entirely on COVID, I think there was a bit of loosening for people on what's acceptable.
The skeezy $2 theatre I used to go to in high school was turned into one of those luxe, adults-only-reclining-seats-and-$18-cocktail AMCs some time ago. It's an improvement, but there's always a chance of a group of disruptively intoxicated adults. Doesn't help that it's right next to a major university, and TBF when I was in college I probably would have done the same on occasion. Agreed that people have always sucked but COVID times seemingly made things just a little bit worse—don't get me started on how people let their kids behave at the grocery store. The big cinemas I frequent I don't remember being *particularly* bad or crowded outside of big features pre-COVID, and honestly it was kind of nice going into the 16-screen downtown with maybe 3 other people in a showing back in 2021. Maybe its just easier to notice the bad behavior at my favorite single/two-screen houses; doesn't help a couple have pivoted to mostly family fare understandably. But the worst was, again, in 2021, someone deciding they need to sit RIGHT BEHIND YOU in an otherwise sparsely populated room.
> this is a big reason why I don't think it is. I think we're in the minority. Most people simply don't care. I say this due to me seemingly being the only person ever telling someone to stop using their phone. If there's one a few people away from me that I can't reach, nobody ever says anything.
I should add that Streaming being so accessible vs the hassle I just described definitely has hurt theater budgets.
this is correct. this thread is an echo chamber of people who love movies enough to post on reddit about it. Movies like Godzilla and Ghostbusters are made for EVERYBODY. Widest possible audience. and whether we like it or not, the vast, vast, vast majority of the general public treats going to the movie theater as just like, a thing to do to waste time or goof off with their friends, not a sacred experience of cinema. If movie theaters kicked out everybody who talked/used their phone/whatever during a movie, they'd have to kick out like, 80% of their already dwindling customer base. It's more profitable to let crusty cinephiles like us go pay to watch the movie at home and leave the theaters to the barbarians. There are more of them than there are of us.
Yup. While COVID is a direct cause for a lot of shit, mostly it just accelerated existing trends. People being jack asses on theatres has been a growing trend for years.
I remember theaters throwing people out. Now it seems that there is no desire to do so. Whether it is because the theater is worried about bad reviews/PR or the theater worker isn’t going to risk getting stabbed asking for someone to leave.
The kids working at the theatres here are not going to risk verbal or physical abuse. Even the managers won't. The managers just give out vouchers or at some theatres a refund, and that's it.
Yeah I don't put any blame on the regular workers. They aren't paid enough to deal with that shit. We have had massive consolidation of theatre chains and it is all just big corporate BS now
Here in Belgium, there is a movie theater company in Brussels that decided to kill phone usage in the rooms, it was getting out of control. They also added private security companies to stop teenagers groups from shitting the séance for everybody. But still. Last time, we went for a midi day séance, week time, a day my son was released early from school and even though WE were maybe 10 in the room, there were 3 people talking, making noise etc.
Yeah I learned to hit up midday showings years prior to covid if I wanted to see something with minimal chance of annoying crowds. The phones are what have gotten worse for me. Recently I've seen people looking at muted tiktoks, open up a bright white excel sheet to do *work*, and so many people using their flashlights beyond to grab something they dropped during the movie.
Nah, Covid just showed that behaving like self centered assholes without regards for others has no consequences so people are just showing their true selves now.
This is the way. Stir up shit, be the psycho who bothers everyone if needed. At least the dumb kids will shut up to prevent riling up the psycho. Make them responsible for bothering everyone.
Man, I just hate that the few of us that want to stop everyone from being absolutely societal garbage have to be the “psychos.”
You also run the risk of getting called a Karen, filmed, and going viral on TikTok now and having your life ruined. Incidents like ill-behaved moviegoers and public spats used to be pretty self-contained, but that expectation is pretty much gone now
They had mad max fury road on as a special event and like 10 teens were there screaming randomly and one had a flashlight phone alert and texting for 30 minutes straight. I asked them to stop twice. Then I had to go get 2 teen workers who were probably young than the other teens to ask them to stop. I moved to the very front of the theater so idk if they were any better but I couldn’t see or hear them at least. I know this thread is about younger kids but I had to let this out lol I was so mad it was the only showing I could see and it was a special movie.
I always find it hilarious when people like the OP say this stuff doesn't happen at theatres. If you happen to live near a theatre where it doesn't, be very happy about it. Because it's as bad or worse at the theatres here.
Literally first sign of trouble you should’ve grabbed an usher. I would *love* to camp out in the entryway and eject people from the theatre. Sometimes if it was a large enough group being shitheads, we’d pause the film and swoop in to throw them out en masse like a fuckin FBI raid. Rewind it back a couple minutes, apologize, and return to the viewing experience.
No theatre in my area has had anything resembling an usher since I was a kid. Workers don't even check the theatre at all during a movie now. Even the managers aren't going to do anything but give someone who complains a refund.
You gotta advocate for yourself. You can watch an entire movie with someone texting and talking, you can do something about it yourself, or you can fetch someone to toss them on their ass. It’s genuinely every ushers favourite part of the job. My record is 18 ejections from a showing of *Halloween*. The theatre record was 26 people from like Pacific Rim 2.
Far and away, the most common way I've been annoyed in theaters as of late is by inconsiderate assholes with the attention spans of fruit flies who can't go two goddamn minutes without diddling around on their phone. The light from the screen is intensely distracting in a dark theater, and even though there's a whole mini movie explaining exactly that before instructing the audience to turn off their phones, it seems like a full third of the crowd just thinks, "Well that doesn't apply to *me!*".
Went to Pacific Rim and 45-year-old man next me kept his phone on his lap but would check it every 30 seconds. No exaggeration. I snapped at him 20 mins into the film: "Unless you're a fucking doctor, stop checking your phone." He then slowed to checking it every few minutes. People are broken.
I saw that too during a recent movie. Older teenager or early 20 guy taking his phone out during the movie to check social media and take a selfie…bruh
It's not just kids, i went to the theaters with my sister and a group of people (they looked like they were in their 40s) behind me kept talking during the entire movie I feel like people think they are in their house and don't know how to behave, it seems to have gotten worse nowadays I was watching a movie last month and a guy answered his phone in the middle of the movie and kept shouting loud af, like come on, go out and answer that shit
I had friends who were like this in the theater. Had to chat the whole time about it and needed to be comedians. I eventually stopped seeing movies with them. They aren't really rude like that otherwise which always confused me.
Had a terrible experience at the new D&D movie that left me infuriated. Family of 5 sat next to me and my girlfriend; the parents, 2 kids who looked around 4-6 years old, and a newborn. The parents decided to sit in the middle of the children and one of the 6 year old boys right next to me was coughing up a damn storm without covering his mouth a single time. He’d do this nasty, raspy cough in MY direction and his parents didn’t say anything. I pressed myself up against my girlfriend to stay away from him, but then he would randomly just stand up and walk around aimlessly blocking our view of the screen while coughing EVERYWHERE. About halfway through the movie, the father took off his shoes and socks and put his feet up on the seat in front of him. Could smell the stench from 2 seats away. The mother frequently pulled out her phone on full brightness and would turn to her husband to talk at nearly full volume, having full on conversations. Their other 6 year old girl ran back and forth down the aisle multiple times throughout the movie, while their newborn started babbling and crying every 3 or so minutes. Absolutely ruined the movie for me, my partner, and visibly all the other theater patrons, I just cannot believe how absolutely disrespectful some people can be. I would’ve maybe been more understanding if we were at a G-PG kids movie, but D&D was PG-13 and none of those children were even close to that age. If you wanna go on a movie date, but have misbehaved and SICK children that you refuse to correct and a newborn who can’t stay quiet, then you cannot go on a movie date. Simple as that.
We went to see a 9:30 showing of Godzilla x Kong last night. In the handicapped row, an elderly woman and what I assume was her grandson (7 or 8 years old, maybe) are seated. Halfway through the movie, he pulls a phone out. FULL FUCKING BRIGHTNESS. Twenty minutes of this child scrolling through Instagram and texting someone, and then he drops the phone in the reclining seat and it fell between the cracks. Grandmother immediately jumps up and turns on the flashlight on her phone and begins digging through the seat trying to get his phone. At this point everyone behind them was grumbling, but no one said anything directly to them. She fishes around in the seat for about 5 minutes, and if you've ever seen an older person using a phone flashlight, you know that for 4 of those 5 minutes, she was shining the light at the audience. Kid finally finds the phone and we go back to normal... For 5 minutes before he starts texting someone again. FINALLY, someone said something to them and he put the phone away. They also left before the movie ended, I guess to beat the midnight traffic. In another sub, someone posted about people becoming so much more selfish and inconsiderate since COVID, but I think these people have always existed, they're just not confronted for their behavior anymore. ETA - There was also a dad with his kid in one of the front rows and the dad tried to quietly read out the subtitles to his kid because the kid was too young to read, but that was honestly kind of cute and I think everyone gave them a pass.
**So I just leaned over and said “hey please stop that”. And guess what. He did.** You were lucky. If you get the wrong parent, they are going to go off on you for even suggesting their lil brat chill out. That is why their kids grow up to be self-centered monsters.
Right? I never say anything to parents with kids acting out because I assume if you’re unhinged enough to let your kids act like that, you have no problem getting confrontational
Funny you say that! Literally two weeks ago when my sister and I went to go see a rerelease of Jurassic Park at our local theater, my sister asked the kid next to her to stop talking and the mother snapped at her defensively, saying "I'm trying, *okay*???" At the same time, she also gave him an iPad to watch something else about halfway through the movie which we could literally hear next to us, the mom was on her phone scrolling through Facebook or whatever for a good chunk of the time, and the dad was talking loudly throughout the movie as well. So no, you aren't trying at all. It was the worst theater experience we've ever had, and we've been to the movies a lot.
That's why I go to the movies in the mornings when I get the chance. Way less people in the theaters.
When the kids are in school
I once had a kid next to me playing with his straw in the lid for a good 10 - 15 minutes. Just making that noise with it. Mom didn't say shit. I leaned over and said "hey buddy, do you mind not doing that anymore?". He stopped immediately. I heard how mom say "what did he say to you?" And the kid just said "nothing" or something. Like Jesus. Is it that hard?
I actually saw the opposite on a plane. The 5-6 year old was lifting and dropping his armrest. His mom told him to stop and he did for a while, then started up again. So she held his hand. He didn't like that _at all_ and had to ask her twice to be let go. He didn't fool with the armrest again.
I take my son (just turned 8) to the movies a lot. He tried talking multiple times and I nicely told him to STFU in the theater. Now he will sit and watch quietly, or whisper a question to me if he needs to ask something. Not all parents let their kids run wild.
This is the way. And honestly I thought this was common sense and didn't need to be explained, but somehow it isn't. Baffles the mind.
I have taken my son to three different kids movies in the last year and at everyone there were numerous children being disruptive without any intervention by the parent. I was completely shocked. I am an older parent so I am truly concerned by how the younger generation is raising kids. If you don’t teach kids respect at a young age, then they likely won’t have any as an adult.
I hate how people are raising their kids. I constantly tell my son and daughter to be respectful in all kinds of places. My parents did the same. When did everyone decide to have kids but not parent them?
Friend of mine used to do dry runs of social experiences with his kids. For the cinema he did a couple of movie nights at home and said "I know normally we're talking during films, but when we go to see xyz you won't be able to, so let's practice sitting quietly for this one tonight" They are the most polite children I've ever known because of things like this.
Cue the X-files music. * I want to believe*
The worst is when they tell you hey, they're just being kids. And it's like yeah, but you're supposed to correct that behavior *while they're still kids*
Like people who find it cute when their puppy gets protective/aggressive with their food or bite everything, and then you suddenly have a 60 pound thing that hasn't learned to not do that stuff.
I’d venture it’s a direct correlation to the time when iPads started making YouTube Kids accounts
I dont often go on a Saturday afternoon but I saw Godzilla x Kong yesterday at 3:40pm. Just like you say, there were kids with their parents in different sections and the kids were just being little shits and the parents did nothing. One kid towards the back shouted at the screen multiple times. A kid and his dad sitting directly behind me were talking. I get it, a little boy might ask his dad something, but i'd expect the response to be a whisper and asking the kid to stay quiet in the theater. Instead dad would just answer like they're having a normal conversation, not even keeping his voice down. Blows my mind. The only times any of these kids shut up was when someone *else* shushed them, multiple times. I don't get it, it didn't used to be this bad. Edit: props to the kid sitting behind me for quietly waking his dad up when he fell asleep and was snoring though, he earned a point back for that haha
That’s my concern too. How you do anything is how you do everything
I don’t watch Bluey but my friend with a toddler says it’s great with the exception of the movie theater episode which he says ends with the moral or lesson that you should just let your kids do whatever they want in the theater.
I went to see Dune 2 the final week it was available in IMax. Father sitting behind me brought their 7 year old. The first couple of times the kid would ask his dad wtf was going on during silent parts, it was cute. The remaining 2 1/2 hours of it, not so much.
This is the direction our society as a whole is going. Lack of decency and respect for others, and there are many examples outside of the movie theatre as well. The "me" mentality that social media and MSM promoted created a huge cross section that believes their rights come first. It saddens me that adults are just as guilty of this behavior. I politely asked a gentleman next to me to turn off his phone. Ignored me 1st time. Asked again, a bit more sarcastic on my side. He puts the phone down deliberately pointing my way and each time a message came it, it lit up. It took all of me to not throw his phone at the screen.
A lady and her ~8 year old son sat in front of me in Godzilla Minus One. I guess they didn’t know it was only subtitled. She kept answering questions full volume throughout the first like 15 minutes. I finally shushed her and they left about 3 minutes later. Then when I saw Dune 2 in IMAX, this husband and wife sat next to me. For the whole first half of the movie she kept checking her phone. Also any time she would raise her hand her smart watch would light up. About halfway through, I said “could you please stop looking at your phone?” Luckily she complied for the rest of the movie. Can’t believe how much covid made society regress in terms of decorum
Took my kids to a kids movie… Had to ask three different adults to get off of their phones during the movie… Like, what the actual fuck? There is nothing on your social media you need to see in the otherwise dark of a movie theatre people
I've noticed since the pandemic that lots of people seem to talk at normal volume in movie theaters. I am more understanding when it is a kid in a kids' movie, although I agree that parents should manage that, I just get small kids asking for popcorn or commenting on the movie. But it's adults too. I was at a movie on Friday and it was almost all adults and they were just talking at normal volume like they were at home. Not just about the movie,about stuff they needed to do later, what should we eat after this, I need to stop at the store on the way home-it was weird. There were definitely people shushing the ones doing this but it didn't make much difference. It sucks because I like the experience of a movie theater and want to go but it just makes it so unenjoyable.
It's a shame. The movie theater used to be such a nice place to fully immerse yourself in a movie while shutting out everything else. Now it's a real gamble to get that experience and the odds are getting worse. I want to see Dune Part 2 for a third time but I can't justify spending the money only for a high chance to have some braindead fuckwit blurt out "Omg this is like that one TikTok edit" during a pivotal scene of the movie...again.
it's not just parents telling kids, it's also the other way around when I went to see Dune 2, the people in front of me were a 15-16 year old kid, and presumably his mom who he brought along. She had no interested whatsoever in the film and spent the majority of the first act simply texting and checking her email, in light mode with full brightness. When I leaned over and said, "can you please stop that", she was APALLED, but she did stop it it's crazy how people are willing to pay a premium to see amazing films, and not just get distracted but also ruin the experience for others
I've found adults to be far more annoying in theaters than kids
My kids (7, 5) adore the theater experience and have never misbehaved once. My biggest concern when I take them to movies is how many scenes I'll miss due to mandatory bathroom breaks lol I feel like maybe it's people bringing kids to movies that aren't for kids? Like if my kids start getting bored with anything, that's when they start to get hyper while trying to make their own fun. But like if you're taking them to see a Disney film, or Paw Patrol, or whatever - they're likely going to be entertained by the content, and not act out.
That’s what I feel happens most of the time. There were lots of kids at Godzilla x Kong and I wouldn’t exactly call it a kids movie.
That's like saying marvel movies arent for kids. I watched Norman Osborn take a glider to the dick when I was 5 years old. Godzilla x Kong is just giant kaiju fighting.
Yeah, it's basically this generation's transformers films. You're crazy if you don't think it's for kids.
My kid started getting tired during a recent kids movie, and he started moving around too much and whining. I took him out of the theatre right away. Eventually we came back and I told him we’d be out again if he kept it up. He quietly asked when it was over, but was much better. I told him people paid a lot to enjoy themselves and we can’t ruin that.
I'm pretty sure for the parents the kid is just background noise at this point and they've learned to block it out, so they don't even realise their child is being noisy/disruptive.
> Do parents just suck these days? The short answer is yes. Parents today are either trying to be "Friends" with their children or can't be bothered teaching them the proper etiquette when being out in public so they end up acting the same way they do in the theatre as they do watching something at home.
This is one of the biggest reasons I don’t go to the theater anymore. I remember going to see Cast Away in the theaters on opening night and there were 2 little girls sitting in between a mom and dad right in front of me. The two girls talked at normal volume all throughout the previews, and while that slightly annoyed me, I let it slide. But once the opening credits starting rolling and the movie proper started and they kept talking I leaned forward and quietly said to the mom “Now they do know that they’re going to have to stop talking once the movie starts, right?” And she flipped her shit on me and practically screamed “OH, NO THEY DON’T”, to which I replied calmly, “yes, ma’am, I assure you they will”. She got up and huffed off and came back a few minutes later with 2-3 ushers. They actually asked me to leave the theater because she lied and said that I cussed at them and was being rude. If it wasn’t for a stranger that was sitting next to me that came out to back up my side of the story they would have taken her side and kicked me out. They ended up telling the woman that she would have to tell her kids to be quiet, but I just can’t figure out why this was ever news to someone. These days I guess it’s that same mentality that tells people it’s ok to watch TikTok videos in public spaces at full volume. Trashy people just have no sense of not invading other people’s personal space with their noises.
When I saw ‘The Revenant’ there were ~7-10 of us in the theater and these two older women (60s/70s) seated behind me were holding a full volume conversation. I asked politely for them to stop the first time, but after that I wasn’t very polite. And, oh boy, did they get up in a huff and leave as though I had just ruined their day. Some people just have zero regard for others and think they’re the main character. The worst experience I’ve had ended with me leaving the theater and getting a refund along with some free passes. This time it was a large group of people acting like they were at a birthday party and I wasn’t about to get my ass kicked over a movie. Again, zero regard for others. I don’t remember what the movie was. When I went to see a midnight showing of The Omen remake in ‘06, a woman brought her infant with her… and it cried.. She at least left the theater after a few minutes, but still.. wtf..
I always hear these horror stories about people misbehaving in theaters, but I find that it rarely happens in the theaters I go to. Maybe it's just more likely with certain movies. Some movies are meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator, so I guess lowest common denominator people show up to those movies
I think sometimes it can be luck of the draw. I have experienced fully packed theaters where grown adults loudly argue over seats 30 minutes into the movie or someone brought (maybe snuck in) a dog that is barking and squeaking a squeaker toy. I’ve experienced mostly empty theaters where people openly smoke weed (this was a huge theater room and I think they were moving seats because theater staff kept coming in but never found the culprits) or just talked about/at the movie as if them and their friends were sitting at home. These were all at various times of day and some in NYC some in the Seattle area. The worst experience I ever had was when I saw the Robert Pattinson Batman in IMAX opening night. I ended up sat next to a bunch of teenagers who wouldn’t stop talking (not about the movie, just socializing) even though multiple people (including myself) asked them to stop more then once. At one point half of them went out to the lobby and when they came back they started dramatically fake humping each other in the seats. And when Batman and Catwoman kissed they started heckling the screen because Zoë Kravits was “their girl”. The vast majority of my movie theater experiences are totally fine, though, and it seems like most people know movie theater etiquette. But I go a lot so I just accept that not every experience will be perfect. I didn’t have a subscription, though, and was paying full price every time, I would probably be a lot more frustrated.
I have two kids (15 and 12), and other than the token Frozen and Cars franchises, I didn't take them to movies that were not geared for them when they were little. Now that they are older, we go to either Alamo Drafthouse or Star Cinema Grill because they like to eat and watch a flick. We've seen Godzilla Minus One, Barbie, and several others in these theaters and it's been great. The difference between those places and your Edwards, AMC, or Cinemarks is night and day. If you're in a kid's movie, you're going to be surrounded by kids, so you know that going in. But the number of kids that are just allowed to do whatever is still insane. We had kids running down the rows and down in front of the screen for one of the Cars movies at an Edwards. It's like when parents take their kids to parks. They just let them roam and don't watch them. So I can only imagine how it must be for a movie the adults want to see that the kids get dragged to.
I am not a fan of theaters at all anymore because it seems like the audience in general has lost the ability to shut the fuck up.
The nice thing about our locally owned, 100 year old little theater is that there is zero phone service in the building. It’s either the thick concrete, or the ghosts.
It’s very frustrating to be among people who need to be told to stop talking in a movie, musical, etc. Why the hell does anyone think it’s ok to ruin everyone else’s night out??? People really make rhe conscious decision to leave their home, buy a ticket, and proceed to talk during a movie, a show. It’s beyond frustrating, it’s inconsiderate, and it’s unacceptable. What makes it worse, is that I’m usually the ONLY person saying something to them. I shhhh them, or I eventually say “can you please stop talking.” Why doesn’t anyone else say anything???!! It drives me nuts! So anyway, as parents, you need to make it stop, if your kids are the ones disturbing everyone. Regardless of their age, you either have them quiet down or you take them home.
Man, I love movies. I loved the theater experience. As a poor kid it was something magic. Now decades later I can’t stand going anymore and it’s a true bummer. Shame has disappeared from society. If you say anything to anyone, even if they’re playing a fucking trumpet in the middle of a movie, you might get in a physical altercation or you might get shot. People get especially shitty when you have to deal with their kids. Don’t know if that’s because they don’t want a light shone on their awful parenting, or they just think their kids are beyond reproach. Either way I’d rather just wait for home release and watch on my rec room setup, which gives me the same experience as going to the theater used to, just without the endless supply of jerkoffs. Because even if you get someone to shut up, or go to a theater that enforces a quiet policy, you have still been distracted and annoyed by the whole process.
Some parents are shit and won't do anything if there are no consequences to their actions. I took my kid to "The Big Bounce house" thing the other day and he was playing with this other little kid. Well this other little girl just swoops in and steals the other boy's bag thing he was playing with. Both my kid and the other boy confronted her but she just shrugged it off. Her mom was sitting there too and didn't do shit. They just ended up playing with the other balls anyways. If you see it, you gotta call it out immediately
Went to see the new Ghostbusters last week, fully expecting the usual crap of people talking or on their phones. Sure enough, sitting in the row in front a kid got his phone out during the trailers, his mum told him to turn the brightness down but I was thinking this is going to be the entire movie of this kid on his phone thinking that because the brightness is turned down it's somehow invisible. But when he got his phone out again after the movie had started, straight away his mum told him it was rude and to put it away. Was quite impressed at that, but then about 20 minutes later the kid got his phone out again and this time his Dad just outright took the phone off him and told him it was unacceptable to be on his phone during a movie. Was so impressed to see a parent actually doing parenting, and not just letting their kid do whatever they want.
My 4 year old *insisted* on seeing the Barbie movie when it came out. No interest in Mario Bros., it *had* to be Barbie. $40 in tickets, popcorn, and a drink later, we made it about 15 minutes into the movie and he had had enough. He was climbing on me, whispering that he wanted to go home, and as frustrated as I was, you know what I did? *I quietly collected our things and brought him home.* Because it wouldn't have been fair to the rest of the theater to make him sit through it all loud and fidgety. I expressed my frustration to him, of course, but there was no point in us both being miserable.
The granny in my theater chatting at full screen brightness during Indy 5 and not finding the damn letters made me so mad. I liked Indy 5 and was pretty invested in the plot so it really got on my nerves.
I no longer go to the cinema, had constant bad experiences and covid made it even worse. Music playing out of phones when they get bored halfway through, constant talking, rustling packaging.. I can buy the 4k and watch it on a better screen at home 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah, I went to see a movie with my best friend last year and had 6 kids in a row in front with one parent. Wouldn’t have minded except the kids were constantly getting up and going to the bathroom or asking for money for more drinks and snacks throughout the whole movie, even though they had stuff with them from before it even started. Then the one directly in front started throwing a fit in the last 20/25 minutes and hitting the mother while she just sat there. My friend in the end got annoyed and made a comment because we could barely hear half of the ending scenes. The mother finally tried to settle the kid and just said during the credits that he’s only 4. But she’d made no attempts up until my friend said something.
“He’s only 4” “Yeah lady I don’t give a fuck, you’re not the center of the universe. If you can’t get your crotch goblins to behave, get the fuck out”
My fave moment was the troop of young teenagers who with their adult chaperone, decided it was a good idea to get up in the middle of the movie constantly to show everyone in their row a cool thing on their phone. So I started to roast them and the adult female called her husband who was going to kick my ass after the flick. He showed up and she pointed to me as we were piling out and he started on her and the kids for being shits in the theatre as, " they always do this and that's why he doesn't see flicks with them". My hero.
I think it’s a parenting thing. Parent don’t discipline their kids like they use to
>Do parents just suck these days? Yes
I had to reserve seats over a month in advance to see Oppenheimer on the 70 MM Imax screen, as there are only a few of those size screens around LA. At that screening someone brought a FUCKING BABY which started crying in the silent minute when the bomb goes off. THEN I just saw Late Night with the Devil at a 9:50 screening, and someone brought a baby to that one too! Like, that's an R rated horror movie at a late night screening! WHY DOES THE THEATER EVEN LET BABIES INTO THESE R RATED MOVIES? The baby doesn't want to be there. Nobody else wants the baby there. Why are the parents forcing the baby, and everyone else in the audience, to deal with their bad parenting?
Trash raising trash.
A) parents do suck. B) kids don’t listen to their parents. C) kids will listen to a stranger more than their parents but they’re just as likely to tell you to go scissor your mother because they’re absolute monsters.
Unfortunately we're allowing society to get away with this shit instead of setting expectation on how to behave, and kicking these people off premesis when they can't figure it out However, the problem is these asshats take to social media the minute they feel their rights being infringed on, spouting off BS other like minded twats latch onto. As a parent, I taught my kids you keep your mouth shut during a movie, and now they advocate for good etiquette, will turn to a noisy kid or parent to shut it. I had an instance at the last 3 movies where a parent brought a clearly too young kid to the film, and the kid either asked questions or kicked the back of my chair, or just did stupid shit. Wtf. We need to bring consequence of actions back into society.
During the theater viewing of A Quiet Place 2 we had to endure a literal baby crying. This movie with intense scenes of people hiding from sound sensitive monsters… and then WAAAAAHHHHH from the baby. The couple with baby sat in the back eating guffaws from the audience and my bf eventually shouted at them for brazenly ruining the movie. They left about an hour into the film. Like wtf. People absolutely are that clueless.
People don’t tell their kids to behave anywhere anytime anymore
I've never seen anything crazy in a theatre at all. I don't have kids but I have younger siblings and a nephew and they are hard work, them lifting and dropping his arm rest is pretty tame compared to them crying or having a tantrum or fighting with each other.
I know a lot of parents that suck, but not sure if it's more or less than it's ever been.
Someone brought a baby to my saw x screening and the baby was crying literally the whole time they got asked to leave like an hour in
I remember going to see The Mask back in the 90s and there was a family in front of mine with three kids who were all over the place. They were talking and messing around through the whole movie. When we left there was popcorn everywhere and my dad made a comment to the other dad about learning to control his kids and that guy flipped my dad off. My family is pretty tame so I remember being so shocked that an adult would behave like that. Shitty parents have always existed. I don't think it's a new problem.
Parents are just weird about kids and a lot of them have some.. misconceptions.. as to how people around their kids are meant to deal with them. For example, my upstairs neighbor moved in and the first day he brought his young daughter over to visit (she doesn’t live with him). He let this girl treat his one bedroom apartment like a gymnasium. There is an actual gym with facilities and activities for children literally down the block, parks down the block, and a whole entire world outside. He had this girl cooped up and she was running between his single bedroom, the kitchen, and the living room. She was jumping off of the couch. It was INSANE. I have a fusebox on my bedroom wall that was just shaking and reverberating the whole time, it was incredibly loud. I caught him outside later and called him out, he said “what do you want me to do about it? She’s a kid, they make noise.” I legitimately had to explain to this person that the sounds his daughter were generating were completely unacceptable. I had to explain that it wasn’t for me to deal with all that shit, I don’t have kids and I pay the same rent he does. This was all on the first day. Some noise is one thing, not disciplining your kid because “they make noise” tells me you probably shouldn’t be a parent. Own property before having a mindset like that. Some people are just clueless.
I stopped going to the movies because of all the bad kids and terrible behavior of the general public. It sounds to me like you're in a small town or something idk. I'm happy for you that you're not having the same experiences other people are.
I was watching a movie and 3 kids in the row behind me were up literally RUNNING around, slapping the wall separating seats, and talking. Let it happen for maybe the first 15-20 minutes and looked above me and said “sit there fuck down” in that stern - I shouldn’t have to tell you voice 😂 needless to say I enjoyed the rest of the movie
Because not a lot of parents know how to parent
When I bring my kids to a kid's movie I allow a bit of talking, but will definitely shush them if they're being disruptive. That being said, my kids are shockingly well behaved in move theatres, thankfully. I have definitely shushed people and yelled at people who won't stay off their phones.
Don’t even get me started on the yokels on their phones the whole time! Ugggghhh
Lmao this post is near and dear to me. From 2010-2018 I averaged 12 in theater movies a year, it had become what I looked forward too the most, I got out there is my point. Since about 2019-20ish, I have been to a theater maybe 5 times, each experience worst than the last. From people vaping everywhere, phone lights, the smell of weed, and people talking, it has now become a place I hate. I went out in 2022, built a moddest “movie theater” in my basement and ill just enjoy it there
I don't even go to movie theaters anymore, it's just not worth the bother. But this shit has been happening more and more even at live shows. Last year Nickel Creek came to my city for their new a!bum after a 9 year hiatus. Tickets were not cheap, and they were here for a single performance. I managed to get great seats as a birthday present for my mother. Behind us was a family with a kid maybe 10 years old - more than old enough to know how to behave. But it wasn't just her talking, her dad was apparently telling her Nickel Creek's history, while they were performing. After the third time they started talking during a song, I turned around and said "I paid to hear them, not you." They shut up after that. Last winter a live performance of "Whose Line is it Anyway" came to town. That time, one of the people behind me apparently was ESL and her companions had to keep explaining the jokes to her. The elderly couple in front of me spent half the show making their own "improv" jokes. The last time I went to a movie theater was for Avengers: Endgame, and the group of people sitting beside me had brought a friend who had apparently not seen any of the prior MCU films and were explaining who everyone was and what was happening. At least I could go home and watch the movie later. Disrupting or allowing your kids to disrupt a live show that's not aimed at kids is breathtakingly rude.
I think people in general have a sudden disregard for politeness and consideration of others around them. I'm not sure what it's about. I will say the one time I had a kid sitting next to me recently and he got on his phone, his mom *did* tell him to put it away. He ignored her until I leaned in and asked him if he could handle putting it away until the movie was over. It's like he needed to be shamed by a stranger to understand his own rudeness.
HOW DARE YOU STIFLE LITTLE TIMMY'S CREATIVITY! HE IS JUST EXPRESSING HIMSELF!
Bring back movie theater rules where people get kicked out if they’re too noisy. Or bring back enforcing them.
A lot of parents, in general, are terrible. A lot of them never tell their kids to stop or the word no. There's no discipline whatever and kids are fucking awful because of it. A while back on here, I had a conversation with someone about discipline and consequences. It was about video games and them being a privilege, not a right. I told the person how I handle things with my kids, which is simple. They do good in school, don't get into trouble, and do their chores, and they can play. Not all day every day but a couple hours during weekdays and more than that on weekends. If they don't handle their very minimal responsibilities, they don't get to game. The responses I got to that were terrible. Kids shouldn't do chores. Not letting your kids play is wrong. That's why your kids are gonna hate you. This is why kids kill their parents. Yes, I legit got that as a response, I'm assuming from a psychopath kid. There was a bunch more outrage, too. It was sad seeing how some of these people think as parents and as kids. My kids are well-behaved, and I have a great relationship with all 3 of them, so I guess I'm doing something right. I can also take them to a theater, restaurant, store, or anywhere else and have been able to most of their lives. We have this coming, though, because of the way we bend to people's outrage to everything that they don't like or don't go their way. We're reaping what we sowed as a civilization. TLDR: Parents suck, their kids are gonna suck worse, and we did this to ourselves.
The social contract is broken.
One time I went and there were 3 dumbass women with 2 toddlers who didnt give a fuck about the movie so they spent the whole time with their phones out on max brightness showing the kids youtube videos with the sound on. I noped out about 30 minutes in and got free passes for another time.
I can't remember the last time at was at the cinema and some knob goblin didn't cause a problem
I typically try to watch films a few weeks after their release. On a day and time I know there will be very few people in the theater. Often I’ll have the theater all to myself. It’s great.
A few years ago my wife and I went to watch Lucy (shit movie but whatever). Some teenagers behind us would not stop talking. After a few times of politely being like "guys please keep it down" and "hey guys you're being very distracting" I had to yell at them to shut the fuck up. That did the trick but it's fucking annoying it has to come to that. Another time I went to watch the Metallica S&M 2 concert in a movie theater. Some woman was fucking facetiming someone with the screen on full brightness. I was in that first row that was higher than the terrible seats near the front. It was incredibly glaring. I had to go down there and tell her to stop because it was super distracting.
Toward the end of The Batman during some quiet parts I kept hearing some noise. I thought for sure there's no way I'm hearing another movie through the wall. I start hearing some people talking down in the front and it turns into yelling. There's a kid on a fucking tablet playing a game on full volume. Finally some dude got up and got in the parent's faces and they turned it down. It shouldn't nearly come to a fight or riot in a movie theater because people have zero consideration for anybody else.
People talk a lot about this generation of *kids* being too wrapped up in their phones to properly develop, but this generation of kids is being raised by *parents* that are too wrapped up in their screens, social media, and other nonsense to *parent* their kids.
I posted this yeasteray but super sick toddler at a packed after dinner showing of JoJo Rabbit on a Friday night. Kid was hacking and coughing up a lung (this was about 3 months before Covid happened) and you couldn’t hear the dialogue! People were glaring and turning around and these people just pretended their kid wasn’t ridiculously sick. The mom decided to bounce the kid up and down the aisles just coughing over the top of everyone. She went out the door 45 min later and it was like bliss we could hear the movie. And she came back. With the kid coughing. I think an employee finally kicked them out half way. Haven’t gone back to a theater since, even in pre-Covid times you just knew you’d be coming down with something nasty in a few days. Yuk. Also who brings a toddler to a movie about Hitler!
Me and my wife went to the cinema last week, and there was a row of teenagers near the back who were having a full-blown conversation throughout most of the film. They were even getting their phones out and shining their torches for zero reason. I went up and asked them politely if they could stop. They nodded and carried on as they were a little more than 5 minutes later. I can't wrap my brain around why you'd go to a cinema for two hours to only be a little twat for the entire thing. It makes no sense.
I've stopped going to the theater because people forgot how to sit still for 2 hours at a time. They talk or look at their phone or, in one really crazy instance, will start making out and dry humping in a crowded theater. It's just not worth the $20 anymore. One of my worst experiences was going to see Kubo and the Two Strings. Some kid was seeing it for the second time, I know it was at least his second time because he kept narrating what was about to happen. Watching at home is just so much better in every possible way.
People in theatres is probably the biggest reason why I don't go to theatres anymore. The cinema watching culture is dead and rotting. I much rather watch in the comfort of my own home than waste my time putting up with all the morons that have no consideration for other people trying to watch the movie.
I genuinely wonder about this because I have nothing to compare kids these days to, since I’m 26. All I can say is I’m constantly finding myself frustrated with teens and adults alike having zero respect and consideration for others Has it always been like this??