April 25, 2006

  • There was a discussion in a forum I frequent, about how annoying kids can be in movie theaters and how they are one of the main reasons people have stopped going to the big screen. There's even a sort of "study" about "how to avoid children in a theater."

    That link was interesting. Interesting in that it doesn't seem to apply to me
    in reality. It also only really seems to apply to children and not
    teens. I honestly haven't had many incidents with noisy children, and
    when they do happen, the majority of the time the parents will take
    their children outside if they are being noisy. Teens on the otherhand
    are much more annoying than children will ever be, because they embrace
    "the right" to be obnoxious. Teenagers would rather go to an evening
    showing because that's the "cool" thing to do. Which is what prompted
    me to primarily go to the matinee showings (weekdays preferable). Because of that, I
    haven't had much issue with teens shouting at the screen, talking /
    2way-ing on their cellphones, or those damn laser pointers. Plus with
    matinee showings, seating isn't an issue, you don't have to show up
    early, and there's no need to get in line for a movie.

    I think it also comes down to what movie you are watching too. I'll be
    surprised to catch a child or a teenager in a showing for Match Point
    or the Matador, which are the kinds of movies I try to watch in the
    theater. If I watch a big popular movie like Silent Hill or Mission
    Impossible 3, I expect kids or teens to be in attendance, but even so,
    I still have a far better experience in the matinee times as opposed to
    the evening showings.

    Maybe my situation is unique? But I'm even considering three different
    theaters here in my scenarios (a 20 screen and two 30 screen theaters),
    in a highly populated area. So hhhmmm.....