Please switch off your phone.
Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 9:00AM An excerpt from an interview with AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron, from Variety.
Would appealing to millennials involve allowing texting or cellphone use?
Yes. When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don’t ruin the movie, they hear please cut off your left arm above the elbow. You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That’s not how they live their life.
Actresses react.
"Personally speaking, I can't wait to see life tear you apart".
"Well. What about now? You hate me now? Cause it should be easy because I fucking hate you."
"Why don't you go fuck a fuckin' sow's ass?"
"Where's your fucking decency? And then I'm asked fucking questions. What's... wrong? You suck my dick. That's what's wrong. And you, you fucking call me "lady"? Shame on you. Shame on you."
"You are in a beehive, pal. Didn't you know? We are all busy little bees, full of stings, making honey day and night. Aren't we honey?"
Why would you want any distractions from actresses like these?!
moviegoing
Reader Comments (20)
No! It's asking a 22 year old to act like a freaking adult and respect the people around them for cryin' out loud. If you can't be separated from your phone for the length of a movie, DON'T GO!
"Christina... Bring. Me. The. Axe."
dear lord.
if anything, entering a movie theater should be more restricted. the number of movie sessions ruined by uninterested, close-minded and plain uneducated fellow viewers is large for me.
"Go back to your rathole! Tell AMC I fear neither them, nor their priests, nor their armies of phone-addicted customers. Tell those texting creeps and bored husbands if they want to shake their little fists at us, we're ready to give them such a bite they'll wish they'd kept their hands in their pockets. I, too, can command the theater, sir! I have a hurricane in me that will strip your Snapchat bare if you dare to try me!"
"I refuse to be a victim. I refuse to be a victim. I refuse to be a victim!"
"As your patron, I encourage you from time to time, and always in a respectful manner, to question appropriate public behaviour. If you're unconvinced that a particular custom is the wisest, tell me so, but allow me to convince you and I promise you right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo. Except, of course, the subject that was just under discussion. The price you pay for bringing up the idea that millennials have a right to turn on their phone in a movie theater is... I collect your fucking head."
"This is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark, except the few faces illuminated by phones while the rest of the audience behaves and tries to watch the picture!"
Good Lord. I fear that this translates into movie theaters easing up on their "no cell phone policies"--which so many people already ignore. I would hate to see EVEN more cell phone use in movies theaters than there already is. I'm one of few friends of mine that still regularly goes to the movies. Frankly, if distracting and disrespectful behavior during movies is no longer discouraged, I would feel discouraged from plopping down $15 (I'm in NYC) to go. I love the moviegoing experience and have been somewhat sad to see the shift away from people actually attending movies. That said, I'm not spending $15 to hear people clicking away on their phones and seeing screens light up near me when I'm trying to watch something.
If it's any consolation, AMC has already forcefully retracted the proposal.
When Bette drags on a ciggy you best pay attention.
I am one who DOES NOT own or use a moblie device.
Not to miss the point, but the idea that it's *only* millennials using their phones in movie theaters made my eyes roll so far back in my head that they almost did a full 360. A middle-aged woman in The King's Speech had a full 20-second half-whisper conversation before the entire theater started screaming at her.
What's funny to me is that this isn't about how 22 year olds act. It's about how corporate employees perceive them, and their efforts to pander to them. Most likely the reason for this is actually so that they can encourage "checking in" at AMC, live tweeting films, adding their hashtag count, etc etc. aka, free marketing and publicity. The fact that this could turn into a "darn young kids!" conversation is pretty absurd. Institutions don't change their culture to accommodate the comfort of their patrons. It's about whether something can bring in money.
What happened to reasonable boundaries? If you want to text, you have to leave the theater. Love the reacting actresses.
It's not just millennials...it's millennials and STUPID FUCKING older people.
It's a lot of people and they should all be reprimanded in equal measure. In my screening of Jungle Book this weekend, a mother let her kid play with the very bright tablet throughout most of the movie. There's A LOT of disrespectful and thoughtless people out there.
This is a character pastiche, not an actual quote, but, "Grim? If I ever decide to try my hand at the movie theatre business, however unlikely that is, I want the logo to be someone holding a cell phone crawling out from under a giant ticket stub that crushed them." - Mandy
If I was some 22-year old moron texting a movie theater and saw one of these ladies with that look in their face. I'd shit myself.
In all seriousness, this is the kind of bullshit that's made more and more disgusted with the modern world. I pay money to see a movie in a movie theater and the last thing I need is some asshole to go out there and text about this and that. Who gives a fuck what you're texting about?
I will not set foot on a AMC theater again- and it's not just the kids with the phones- you old people who don't turn theirs off either- I even saw a guy trying to taped the movie with his Ipad?! Seriously people if you can't turn off the phone for a couple of hours to watch a movie than stay home.
"hello? hey girl! Ah I'm in the movies. Uh huh, yeah Shake-a-speare in love. Ooh-ooh! You lyin'! You lyin'!
"So turn off your cell phones. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I'm speaking to you now! TURN THEM OFF!"
--Howard Beale