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Originally Posted by Josh Steinberg
I feel like the amount of disruptions I've experienced at theaters in the past five years or so has grown, but as a result of that, I'm more aware of disturbances in general, which means that I'm probably noticing things that I might not have before in addition to the added rudeness. I try to be tolerant and I am to a reasonable degree. I understand that occasionally someone will need to check a text message, or if they missed a line, ask their friend what the character just said. If someone whispers "Pass me the popcorn" and I overhear it from a row away, it's not the end of the world. But with each passing year, it seems to keep growing beyond that.
I really feel that this is by and large a result of this overwhelming sense of entitlement that people seem to have.
Consider this example: last summer I went with my brother to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" in IMAX 3-D. I had already seen the film in a regular theater but was really excited about seeing the climactic battle in 3-D, and I don't think my brother had seen the movie before. Now, as we're all getting seated preshow, I notice a mother walking in with her baby. Not a toddler, not a four year old, but a baby. I didn't say anything; I didn't feel it was my place. And the kid was perfectly silent all through the first two-thirds of the film. However, as soon as the film switched to 3-D, the baby started wailing. The mother wasn't even doing anything about it. I figured after a second that she'd get up and take the kid out of the theater, but nope. I wanted to get up and get an usher or security guard, but I was in the middle of my row which was in the middle of the theater, and I would have had to have climbed over at least twenty people (and blocked the view momentarily for even more) and that seemed to be even worse, so I sat there and did nothing. The baby kept wailing, and I started getting really pissed, I mean, I paid $15 a ticket to see this movie in IMAX, pretty much for the sole reason of seeing this 3D segment, and the kid's wailing. Finally, after a few minutes of this, I couldn't help myself. I didn't really scream, but at a loud enough volume for this woman to hear me, I said as sarcastically as I could:
"Thank you so much for bringing your crying baby to the movie. Really, we all paid $15 each to listen to your baby, that's so much better than anything that's going on in the movie right now. Really, thank you, it's making it a better film."
Pretty much everyone in earshot of me started roaring with laughter, the woman finally got up to take out the baby, and there was a small round of applause as well. It solved the problem, but I wish I hadn't have had to say anything in the first place.
So back to the entitlement thing: this woman clearly felt that she was entitled to see this movie above all else. Nevermind that it was a PG-13 movie, clearly inappropriate for a baby, and that the baby is a disruption to the rest of the people there. She was entitled to see the movie, and her sense of entitlement was greater than her consideration for the couple hundred other people that just wanted to watch the movie in peace. At no point in this woman's thought process did she consider the impact of her decision to bring the baby on everyone else. It was a giant "fuck you" to everyone there. Now, when I was a baby, my parents never brought me to a movie, and I was a very well behaved baby from what they tell me. Just as it never occurred to this woman that what she was doing was unbelievably rude and inconsiderate, it never would have occurred to my parents that bringing a baby to a movie (especially something that wasn't meant for small kids) would be OK. Just never would have happened.
I don't like to complain about things being terrible all the time when they're not, so I should point out that my local theater here (the Somerville theater in Boston), doesn't allow small children in the theater after 6pm I believe, and never for "R" rated movies. That definitely helps, although small kids are far from being the only problem.
I saw "No Country For Old Men" a few weeks ago, and it was a packed house...and the couple sitting next to me, in their 50s if I had to guess, would just not shut up the entire time. They weren't having a conversation, but they were commenting on literally everything that happened on screen. From "that's a really beautiful shot" to "I used to have that car" to "Run!" and "Shoot him!", these people literally could not stay quiet for more than thirty seconds at a time. I tried to politely ask them to be quiet, but they were either completely oblivious to how much noise they were making, or felt that it was their right to be disruptive to everyone else around them.
I hate to become "that person", but when these situations get out of control (particularly in such a way where I felt the theater manager or ushers could have intervened and solved the problem), I ask for a refund afterwards. Not a free pass, but a cash refund. (The baby crying falls into that category.) If enough people did that where it affected their bottom line, they'd start to do something about it. I understand that theaters are in the business of making money, but things like the baby incident end up costing in the long run, I think. How many of us don't go to the movies anymore, or go significantly less often, because of experiences like that happening over and over? Was the $10 they got from the mother worth the $50 or $100 less they'll be getting from me over the course of the year because I'm far less inclined to go? One of the reasons I go to the Somerville Theater more than other ones, even if it's not a movie I'm dying to see, is because I know I'm not going to have to deal with that stuff. On the other hand, at some theaters I've had the "baby" experience way more often, so even if I'm dying to see a movie, if it's only playing there I'll seriously think twice about whether it's worth going or if I should just wait for the movie to expand to somewhere else. Would it really be so difficult to just turn away people with babies from PG-13 and R rated movies, particularly at nighttime? Or to occasionally keep an eye on the theaters and if someone's talking on a cell phone, kick them out?
I try to be understanding, I really do. But there's a difference between your cell phone going off accidentally because you forgot to turn the ringer off, and actually picking up the phone and having a conversation during the movie. The first one I can easily overlook.
So that's my rant.
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