In my twenty something years of watching films in cinemas, rude people were something of an urban legend. I’d heard of it happening to people online, but never seen it up close and personal.
I’d seen videos of people brawling in screenings of The Little Mermaid and Garfield, and written it off as rogue troublemakers kicking up trouble.
But my last trip to the cinema – to watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – has opened my eyes to the rudeness problem we face in our cinemas today.
I suppose I’d brought it upon myself. Just before going into the screening room, me and my partner had been talking about recent videos online of people fighting in the middle of films. We were saying how ridiculous they were, and how there was no need for such carnage.
Whilst I certainly won’t excuse violence, I now have a better appreciation on why you might be tempted to yell at a complete stranger across a darkened room.
Right from the get go, people in the cinema were chatting among themselves. Two teenage couples came in late and began loudly talking about where they were going to sit. They ultimately had to split off and sit in separate rows – in front of me and behind me.
Lucky me.
The couples shared a seat and proceeded to cuddle and make out for most of the film. Standard teenage fare, I suppose, I could look past that. What I had limited tolerance for was the couple in front waving back to their friends behind me – at least a dozen times throughout the film.
I must admit that my focus on the plot was a little off. Fantasising about dumping a bottle of Coke over the top of someone’s head will do that.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the group next to me spent a majority of the film talking between themselves, texting on their obscenely bright phones and mimicking the on screen dialogue. It was with them that my patience broke, and I leaned over and snapped: “Will you be quiet?!”
To be fair, they stayed silent after that. .
A couple of rows ahead of me, one woman insisted on checking her Apple Watch every ten minutes or so. And yep, you guessed it – this was on full brightness too.
After fetching a security guard, who stood in for most of the film, me and my partner gritted our teeth and saw the film through to the end. Not that I understood much of what was going on at that point.
As we left the building, I swore off going back to the cinemas.
What has surprised me the most is the fact that it took me until the age of twenty-five to experience something like this. In my life, I’d wager I’ve been to the cinemas at least thirty or so times.
Yet this was the first time I ever found myself losing focus from the film because of the behaviour of other attendees.
What’s happened?
I have my own theory.
As much as I love streaming services, I have to say it’s played a part in this phenomenon, and it’s been exacerbated by COVID.
Cinemas were shut down for vast swathes of time between 2020 and 2021, and film as a whole has struggled to really find its mojo again.
Take a look at the top grossing films in 2019 – nine of the top ten highest grossing films earned over $1 billion worldwide.
By comparison, only three of 2022’s top rank managed that. Two achieved that the following year – Barbie and The Super Mario Bros Movie.
I’m certainly not saying the rest of the films were flops by any means. A box office of $700 million is nothing to sneeze at.
But it shows that people aren’t going to the cinema as much. Things are getting more expensive in a lot of places around the world, and paying out a small fortune for the film viewing experience isn’t topping many people’s priority lists.
Plus, I suspect there’s a thought that crosses most of our minds’ when we see a film being advertised.
“I’ll wait for it to come to streaming.”
I do feel guilty for thinking this way, but it almost feels inevitable.
My feeling is that people have gotten way too accustomed to watching films in the comfort of their home. Talking through important scenes, scrolling through Twitter and being oblivious to other people is the outcome for a surprisingly high amount.
Far be it from me to start suggesting what cinema staff should be doing to cut down on this. It’s an unenviable position to be in, turfing out people who are likely not to take kindly to being kicked out.
But how many people are in similar positions to me? Having a really bad experience at the cinema is enough to put you off altogether and push you further into waiting for films to come out on streaming services.
What are we to do – besides catching weekday showings in the early morning hours perhaps?
