The Epidemic of Rude Moviegoers

“Barbenheimer” might be good for theaters, but it’s bringing out all sorts of wildly disrespectful moviegoers in the process.

You can just go on social media and read user complaints about the terrible experiences that they’ve had recently, with lots of people taking photos and continuing to use their phones during a movie.

A Wall Street Journal article ponders the lack of etiquette these days in movie theaters. The industry is already struggling to sell movie tickets, and the last thing it needs is for people to be turned off by the experience, but that’s what’s happening.

Many attendees are forgetting the cardinal rule: Never take out a phone during the film. Instead, people are picking out selfies to post, scrolling during dull moments, even taking pictures of the screen—with the flash on. The cinephiles sitting next to them have to decide whether to keep quiet or make an even bigger scene.

During the last three years, the pandemic forced studios to stream much of their new content. An incalculable number of moviegoers realized just how much more comfortable, and less headache-inducing, it was to watch a movie at home than to go to the local cineplex.

You can now just stay in, save money, and not endure any of the annoyances that come with watching a movie in public — who wants someone texting and talking right next to them during a movie?

It’s not just at multiplexes. Film festivals are also starting to be affected by phone-obsessed attendees. Even at an event as cinematically religious as Cannes, I’ve had to tell people to turn their phones off. Sundance, Toronto and Venice have also been inflicted with this problem.

The WSJ piece calls the behavior the “concert-ification of movies.” I like that. In other words, moviegoing has turned into a lack of respect for the artist and those around you. Nowadays, entering a movie theatre is a bit like playing the lottery, you don’t really know what to expect and who will be sitting next to you.

There is no doubt in my mind that audiences are getting worse. The ease of streaming and smartphones has zapped people's attention spans. There seems to be a need and desire for people to “reset" themselves halfway through a movie by scrolling on their phones. Brains have become too dependent on devices.

I’ve even noticed some people on social media posting part of the movie they’re watching on their stories. I don’t understand why people pay to go see a movie if they don’t even care enough to watch it.

“It’s the first time I noticed that many people taking pictures of the screen during a movie,” a moviegoer tells WSJ.

When I decided to rewatch “Oppenheimer” last week, people were on their phones, having full on conversations with friends, and using flash photos/videos of the movie while it was screening. The movie theatre has become a living room with more and more people completely uninhibited in relation to the world around them.