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Comment by sbarre | Hacker News Reader

The biggest challenge was dissuading kids from trying to predict every single thing that was going to happen. This is a generation of talkers. They have to comment on everything. No thought can go unexpressed.

This is, unfortunately, why I so rarely go to the movies anymore. I honestly don't remember if it was this bad when I was a kid, but I don't think I've seen a movie in the last 2 years where I didn't want to (or actually have to) tell some kids (late teen or younger) in my radius to stop talking. A few times other people even had to chime in when they scoffed at me, like I was somehow out of place telling them to not talk during a movie.

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For what it's worth, I worked in the cinema industry (as a projectionist) for a few years, and even the old-timers had spotted this trend over time.

Apparently it's much more common to need staff to intervene with talkers in shows than it was thirty years ago. One memorable case had a staff member explaining to some kid that he couldn't record the show on his phone. The kid seemed confused by this, taping things on the phone and sharing them with friends was just normal, how they engage with every experience.

Another fun thing I noticed from the vantage point of the projection booth: if you look down into any screening more than about one-quarter full, at any time during the show you will always, always see at least one mobile-phone in use. There is never a time when the full audience is giving the film their full attention.

That phone one might be true because phones are becoming more interesting, not because of shifting social norms.

Maybe a bit of both.

But why go to the cinema if not to pay attention to the film? Maybe they were dragged along to crap films by their friends I suppose.

> you will always, always see at least one mobile-phone in use

In any given theater, how many people were dragged there against their will to watch a movie they don't care about? Probably more than one.

This is unsurprising.

>There is never a time when the full audience is giving the film their full attention.

There is probably also never a time when the full audience actually wants to be there. I would guess that for most couples attending a given movie, one person wanted to see it a lot more than the other.

It's not just kids. There was a middle aged couple next to my wife and I the last flick we caught. I asked politely if they could save the discussion until after the movie and the woman told me in a loud voice to fuck off... seriously.

I told my wife "I think I can take her..." but she, being the voice of reason as usual, told me to stand down. :)

where do you live? the most of the theaters I go to in LA and SF people mostly don't talk. The theater runs stuff before the movies, no talking, no texting, no phones. etc..

I live near SF. Where are these theaters?! Coming from Austin, and it's Alamo Drafthouses, I've been really disappointed with the talkers in films around here. Most movies that I've seen in the SF area have been filed with talkers.

Try Sundance Kabuki, especially the 21+ shows.

Also, we're getting an Alamo Drafthouse, which I'm really looking forward to: http://drafthouse.com/san_francisco/new_mission

There's a theater that I like to go to that has a policy of no talking and no cell phone use. First offense is a warning, and second offense they are removed from the showing. Those rules are made really clear at the beginning of every movie showing. It's fantastic.

Which theater? I'll start seeing films there :)

It's a place called Alamo Drafthouse. They made news a while back by posting one of their disgruntled customer voicemails on the internet: http://youtu.be/1L3eeC2lJZs

A friend of mine has a fairly effective response to this phenomenon. He turns around and asks, "Hey, did you get in to this movie for free?" When they say, "no" he replies, "Neither did I. Shutthefuckup." and turns back around.

I don't think this problem is limited to just kids. This is something that annoys me about a lot of adults, lately. It often seems like conversations lately are devolving into people tweeting at each other in the physical world. Something I've noticed for the past several years, but seems to be gradually becoming a common way for people to communicate with each other "in the real world."

This is a big selling point for the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain. They will escort you out if you talk or text during the movie. That, and they don't pillory you with inane commercials before the movie.

Sometimes it enhances the movie for me! Depends on the genre.

Comedies are the obvious one - they're funnier when laughing along with others. I also have no problem with audience comments during action or horror movies. For those kinds of movies I will actually tend to watch them in theaters where I know the audience is a little more lively.

If it's a more serious movie like Gravity or a Terence Malick movie then yeah, I don't want a lot of audience chatter. I'll see those kinds of movies at a stuffy arty theater where the audience is likely to be quiet, or I'll simply wait to watch them at home.

I agree.

> I'll see those kinds of movies at a stuffy arty theater where the audience is likely to be quiet, or I'll simply wait to watch them at home.

Yes, there's a class of movies I watch alone in my home (at night, to avoid random people disrupting) (and it also works for some series; e.g. I always schedule watching Person of Interest episode when everyone is sleeping). In case of cinema, I choose the other end - I go to the one with sound turned up to eleven, so that most of the time it simply drowns all ambient noise.

I remember watching "There Will Be Blood", and some person kept laughing and making jokes out loud. It's like one of the most tense movies I've seen, and they ruined it.

> This is, unfortunately, why I so rarely go to the movies anymore.

I hate people talking around me as well, but the other thing I hate is people eating a whole bag of popcorn during a good half of the movie. It makes so much noise, for me it's as disturbing as someone chatting next to me. Yet seems like nobody has any problem with that. It just sucks.

Funny, I just read this article [1], which sounds a lot like what you are saying. I personally don't hear popcorn in movies, but I do hear people talk.

[1] http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2015/02/23/please-stop-...

Now there's a name for that condition ? I'm surprised not everyone is annoyed at the same time :)

This is not a new phenomenon. this is a adult who forgot how kids behaved.

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