oh HEEEEELLLL no!
 

Theater Chain Execs Consider Allowing Cell Phone Use in Theaters

Thank gawd the Alamo Drafthouse CEO hasn't lost his mind too.

Historically younger people go to more movies. According to the article that's no longer the case. If not being able to text is the real reason behind the drop in ticket sales then theater owners would be pretty much forced to embrace texting, taking, or whatever else the core audience wants.

I wonder if we are going to end up segregated. Texting/non-texting/etx/non-etx/2d/3d/2d texting/3d texting/2d no texting/3d no texting/48fps/24fps/48fps 3d with texting/48fps 3d with no texting, etc.....

Screw that, my living room is more comfy anyway.

What if they want to make pooh pooh on the theatre floor, which is about on the same level as talking and texting during a movie?

Reductio ad absurdum aside, like most businesses theater owners will follow the money. If society changes to where more people want to text than sit quietly then theaters will adapt. Much like we adapted from the grand theaters of yesterday to the shoebox sized multiplex's of today.

That doesn't mean I have to like it, but it would be unrealistic to deny the economic factors.

Already this same issue has reared its head at live theater as well. Some theaters are encouraging patrons to text and tweet during the show, presumably by way of interacting with and commenting on the performance. This is happening at the Broadway revival of Godspell, for instance, and the textors are seated in one specific area. i'll be seeing this in a few weeks, so I can comment then as to how distracting this ends up being. (The theater is in the round, so I can't help but think that the text-section will be noticeable from just about anywhere.)

There just might be some way of creating meaningful and engaging theater pieces that include live social networking, but if an audience is simply texting away during a traditional musical, it would be hard for the performers not to feel like their audience is bored and distracted. We actors usually want to weave a spell. Texting and tweeting feel to me like awfully mundane activities, inimical to surrendering to the spirit of a performance. But then, I'm instructed by the media to feel more out of touch and useless every day. (Maybe I'll write an interactive multi-media show about it.)

The main issue with texting at a movie theater is the dark environment. At concerts and many plays the room is not as dark so someone near me texting (especially on a nearly silent touch screen) would not bother me at all assuming they had it on silent so it's not buzzing and binging with each received message.

I already don't want to see movies in a theater very often; this will continue to keep me away. I find texting very distracting and I don't want it around me when I'm trying to pay attention to a movie.

I would read someone texting during a show as bored, yeah. I've heard about some theaters doing this, setting aside a section where you can tweet or text to people who will tell you about the show, but I can't see myself doing it. Totally takes me out of the mood.

That would be interesting. Get all the audience members to subscribe to your tweets prior to the performance, and then during the show, using twitter as a means of doing mental asides inbetween lines of dialogue: "That's funny... John never has a second cup of coffee at home..."

So, the younger set isn't going to movies?? I thought Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Everything Aimed at Young People makes far more money than everything else??

Even so, they're going to scare away old folk with texting in the hopes that teens will start paying $13 each to see a movie? Sounds idiotic to me. No 19 year old is saying "I would totally take my girl to see Avengers for $26 plus $9 popcorn and $5 drinks even though I have literally dozens of entertainment options at home, but they won't let me text in the theater."