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Comment by TuringNYC | Hacker News Reader

I'm glad the study lists the reasons people cited. I'd love to hone in on this: "Distractions from other members of the audience: 19%"

One major reason for me is the lack of courtesy from fellow moviegoers, especially with phones. A bright smartphone screen in front of you is jarring, especially in a dark theatre, and especially with 3D movies. I've even seen people take phone calls in the theatre.

Stadium seating solves this problem as the gradient usually hides phones in front of you. I have started to either sit in the front row balcony, or stadium seating, or just refuse to go to theatres.

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I work for a very large company whose name starts with a G, and they recently put on an event for employees to watch a movie. The person next to me was on their phone the whole time (they appeared about halfway through the movie) and even took a call during the movie while remaining in their seat. If it wasn't a corporate event I would have left. As such, I couldn't even say anything since it wasn't like I had paid for the movie and I didn't want bad blood.

I was utterly baffled a working professional at this particular company could behave like this around their co-workers, thankfully no member of the general public has ever done something like that around me.

So Google?

I’ve no qualms about asking (or telling, if asking doesn’t work) people to be quiet if they’re talking on their phone or asking them to turn it off if the glare is distracting. What surprises me is how nobody else calls out the bad behaviour – even though they’ve all paid a substantial price to enjoy the cinema experience.

For me, any one of the issues would be a problem in isolation but the combination of issues makes it so going to the movies isn't something I really consider.

Oppenheimer was the first movie I considered going to in a long time but still did not. I am going to finally watch it Sunday. Even if I love it, I know I won't think about how much better it could have been at the movies. I will actually just be grateful it wasn't ruined for me by some negative aspect of going to the movies.

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