General Discussion

@TheFaithfullyDeparted: There are so few things in life that can't wait 90 minutes for a response. If it's anything truly important, they can call and you can exit to take the call. 99% of the texts you receive aren't emergencies that can't wait for an hour and a half, but you still have to check your phone. That's a disturbance to everyone else, and it may be a minor one for you, but it adds up when several people do it. Honestly, kudos to whatever theatre you were in for ensuring that everyone else wasn't disturbed by your texting. Your text may or may not have been important, but theatres can't start judging the importance of texts. Your text is just as annoying as anyone elses, no matter the subject.

Naturally, I don't think you're the real issue in most cases, unless you get important texts at every damn screening you go to :P The issue lies with the people who will text or tweet often during movies. But again, a theatre can't start differentiating between important and unimportant texts.

I, personally, will not tolerate any distractions of any kind during a movie in a cinema (at home, during a bad movie, however, anything's fair game) and, as such, I cannot believe that cinema chains are willing to actually appease the idiots who pay $10 (or however much it is) or £6 for a new bit of background noise whilst they fiddle away on their phone that you'd think is their sole reason for being and that, as such, they drop dead if they're away from it for more than 10 minutes at a time!

What I'm saying is that it is a stupid idea.

I don't understand why people do it. It ruins the experience for you and everyone around!

@litrock Did you listen to last week's Operation Kino podcast where they talked about this at the end? I was curious what your opinion was of it. Personally, I was pretty shocked and somewhat angered by their responses. I get what they meant that theater owners have to adapt to get people in the seats but what's the point of getting people in the seats if they don't even pay attention during the movie? I guess if they get the money that's all they care about. I was hoping for a more mixed discussion on the topic but was really disappointed.

The one thing I like about 3D movies is that because you're basically wearing sunglasses, you have a harder time seeing the light off a cell phone of someone sitting near by. Unless they're right beside you. But IMAX has the right idea because their 3D glasses are basically light weight goggles that have a piece of plastic blocking your peripheral vision.

@rem25: I haven't, so I just hopped in and listened to that point and I'm not sure what you mean. They all claim that in practice they're actually anti-texting, and then go on to debate the history and actions of what it means to go to the movie. I thought it was a great thought experiment, calling into question the preconceptions about what it means to have a movie theater in this world and what watching movies even is. It's a more academic discussion, putting forward things they don't necessarily believe in order to remove the rage that people are having and exploring the possibilities of the space. That's why they're my favorite podcast, even if I don't always agree with them. I appreciate that they aren't jamming on the knee-jerk 'people are awful!' panic button and examining the dynamics of being a theater-going person. /shrug

@litrock: Ok, so I went back and listened again to what they said and you're right. I guess my thing was one of them saying about how if you want the pure movie-going experience then you should have to pay more. I guess I'm hoping this will never come to fruition though I get the economics of it. I guess I am one of those purists that wants people to sit down, shut up and enjoy the film (or not). I wonder how Alex and Rorie would've looked at this info, seeing as they don't get screeners for movies and go to the shows for the reviews. I know Rorie said he wanted the early morning movies as the midnight and weekend evening crowds were terrible. Fortunately, the local theater near me is small enough where I don't think they'll ever introduce these rules. I guess it would be interesting if theaters started doing this if business goes up or not, depending on what people really want out of their movie.

@The_Patriarch: But you don't know if the text you get is important. So if I see a text from anyone in my family I'll usually check it to see and respond if it's important

I still do not own a cell Phone