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The Average Movie Theater Has Hundreds of Screens
theodp writes "The "average" movie theater reportedly has a capacity of 200-300 people. Which, thanks to the wonder of mobile devices, means that it also has hundreds of screens. And — thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and texting — hundreds of potential annoyances. Which prompts NY film critic David Edelstein to ask: How Should We Treat Texters and Talkers at Movie Theaters? 'Has our culture become so private that no one knows how to behave anymore in public?' Edelstein wonders. 'Is selfishness the rule rather than exception? Are people who say, "Shut up and turn off your phone" today's version of "You kids get off my lawn"?' Jason Bailey argues that the only way to solve movie theaters' talking and texting problem is to give in to it, perhaps with anything-goes phone-friendly talk-amongst-yourselves screenings in the seven and eight o'clock hours coupled with no-tolerance shows later in the evening. Any other ideas?" You could always throw it.
Two words...Faraday Cage
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
I have actually been at a movie premier, full theater, movie is actually running and past the opening credits, when the guy in front of me gets a phone call. After lots of shushing he says loudly enough for everyone to hear "I have to go, I'm in the middle of Star Trek".
Yeah, the obliviousness of some people to others knows no bounds. I was once at an opera, where everyone had paid at least 4-5 times what one pays per person to go to the movies (and many quite a bit more), and the guy in the row in front of me -- in the middle of the opera -- answers his phone after it rings and begins talking loudly: "Hello!? Yeah. I'm at the opera! [speaking louder] I said I can't hear you, because I'm at the opera!!"
Everyone for rows around was glaring at this guy. At this point, a seeming stranger next to the guy (who had been shushing him) yanked the phone from his hand and turned off, then handed it back.
And sometimes the effect simply destroys the entire event. I was at a symphony concert a few years back where a 90-minute piece ended with a slow gradual dissolution of the music, gradually getting softer and softer, fading away over a period of some 10 minutes. (Some people may find such a thing boring, others sublime, but obviously most people at such a concert probably are closer to the latter.)
Most people here had probably paid at least 10 times what a movie ticket costs... a couple thousand people in the hall. For the last few minutes of the concert, you could have heard a pin drop (almost literally).
About 3 minutes before the end of the piece, a cell phone starts going off loudly. It keeps going off -- for about a minute as a guy in the fifth row from the front or so gets up and actually works his way out of the hall (these rows were not spaced to allow people to pass while everyone was seated, so it took some time)... all the while with phone blaring.
The concert was completely ruined for the orchestra and the entire audience -- the profound effect of the music was lost.
This event was so notorious that it actually got written up in major newpapers. If I remember correctly, the guy actually came forward (anonymously) and apologized -- explaining that he had just received an iPhone as a gift in the past couple days, had someone else put it into "sleep" mode, had it on vibrate, but somehow had mistakenly set an alarm... which he didn't realize could sound aloud even when the phone was on vibrate or "asleep." When it sounded, he was too unfamiliar with the device to figure out how to make it stop.
Since that event, I ALWAYS turn my phone and any other devices COMPLETELY OFF at important events. An accidental alarm or other noise just isn't worth ruining an experience for thousands of other people who may have paid hundreds of dollars each.
A movie theater may not quite be like this, but a similar etiquette principle applies on a smaller scale.