(Photo courtesy of: Eater NY) “People are unable to respect movie theaters anymore.”
Riley Fontana
Connector Editor
In the past month, I have seen exactly two movies in theaters, “Argylle” and “Lisa Frankenstein” to be exact, and maybe my movie choices play into the audiences I am experiencing, but people have been exceptionally rude during these movies.
When I went to see “Argylle” I took the matinee deal and saw it at 3:30 pm on a Friday and everyone around me seemed upset that movie things were happening. The person about 3 seats to my left was loudly swearing whenever another trailer would play. I get it trailers are annoying, especially in access but this is something people should expect from movies.
Other people in the theater for “Argylle” were loudly discussing the film mid-showing. A few whispered comments here or there are fine to me, almost everyone does it. But they were full volume talking about how bad they found the movie, and I think they just should have left instead of ruining it for those of us who enjoyed the movie.
“Lisa Frankenstein” also had inconsiderate guests. This was another matinee at 2 pm for me. I was the only person in the theater until the trailers started to roll when about five other people walked in. There was a group of three teenagers and then two adults. For the entirety of the maybe 15 minutes of trailers showed, the group of teenagers were loudly playing music from their phones. I feel like it goes without saying that that is incredibly rude to do. This group also loudly discussed their thoughts and dissed the movie for a lot of it, once again then just to leave and see something else.
I have also noticed a huge uptick in phone use during films. I am fine with checking your phone with the screen brightness down, especially during a longer movie. Everyone has huge busy lives and might need to quickly reply to an email, but I have seen people watching TikTok in the theater. What was the point of going to a theater then, just to watch other video content on
your phone in the middle of the movie’s runtime? I have also seen TikToks being made in theaters which is another huge issue, but not one I care that deeply about right now.
I used to love going to the movies but in recent years the experience has been going downhill. I no longer want to pay really high prices to watch a movie and have everyone around me being rude and ruining the experience. I find myself only going to the theaters for movies I am really excited about and know I am going to enjoy and the people around me are greatly taking away from the films. Every theater I have been to usually has a house ad about turning your phone off, not talking and everything else, yet people have just been getting worse about not following them. There are exceptions to every rule, sure, but these people are causing heartbreak to not feel good in a place like this.
