It’s hard not to look at the latest update from AMC Entertainment, the largest movie theater chain in the world, as a gesture of defeat.
AMC CEO Adam Aron has explained in a recent interview that in order to appeal to younger generations, he is considering letting them text during movies, a practice currently frowned upon by fellow audience members (who paid good money to see a movie, and not a movie with bright, distracting lights in front of it) and by studios (who don’t like it when people are encouraged to use a video camera in the theater, for obvious reasons).
“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,“ Aron told Variety. “You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That’s not how they live their life.”
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Never mind the fact that 22-year-olds are adults, and you absolutely can tell adults to turn off their cellphones, and that movie theaters used to have people called “ushers” who were responsible for regulating rude behavior during the movie. Apparently kids will be kids and AMC Entertainment has decided if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
Fortunately, Adam Aron isn’t suggesting that AMC Theaters will let their audience members text across the board. He openly acknowledges that his customers don’t want him to do exactly what he’s suggesting AMC should do.
“At the same time, though, we’re going to have to figure out a way to do it that doesn’t disturb today’s audiences,“ Aron continues. “There’s a reason there are ads up there saying turn off your phone, because today’s moviegoer doesn’t want somebody sitting next to them texting or having their phone on.”
So to clarify, Aron is saying that “today’s moviegoer” doesn’t want to sit next to anybody whose cellphone is on, and also that current generations of moviegoers only want to sit in theaters where everyone’s cellphone is on. Great. Thank goodness we cleared that up.
So how would this work? Variety asked Aron if there would be a specific section in theaters for people who want to text, which Aron calls “one possibility,” but he’s got another idea that sounds equally terrible on paper.
“What may be more likely is we take specific auditoriums and make them more texting friendly,” Aron suggests, but that too is a logistical problem, since there are only so many auditoriums in each multiplex, meaning that audiences who may not want to sit in a light-polluted theater, full of people who don’t care about the movie, may be forced to sit in that theater anyway if the movie they want to see isn’t playing at a more convenient time in another screening room (or worse, if it isn’t playing in another screening room at all).
Look, some people like texting in a movie theater. Some people also like heckling stand-up comedians, being belligerent in bars and harassing their servers at restaurants. Proprietors of these establishments are under no obligation to oblige rude behavior just because some people don’t know how to behave in public.
Every audience member buys a ticket to see the same movie in the same viewing environment. Selfishly altering that viewing environment wastes the money of other movie theater patrons, forcing them to endure a theatrical experience that they did not pay for and do not enjoy. When this behavior goes unchecked – or worse, is encouraged – it contributes to an atmosphere of apathy towards the movie theater industry, which will hurt companies like AMC all the more.
So if you want to text in a movie theater, don’t. If you are too important to turn off your phone for the duration of a motion picture, then you are too important to be taking the time off to watch a motion picture. It’s that simple.
Time will tell if AMC will make good on its threat to change the viewing environment at its theaters, to cater to a specific audience at the risk of alienating the rest of them. But let’s hope they double down on preserving the quality of the service they offer, and not give in to all those customers who make the rest of us not want to see as many movies in theaters as AMC would obviously like.
Update: Adam Aron has made several Twitter posts, clarifying that “Press reported we [sic] considering allowing texts in a VERY FEW screens,“ but as discussed above, this would still be a potential problem for movie audiences whose options would potentially be limited as a result.
Aron also assured audiences that “We know the vast majority of audience [sic] wants no texting,“ and that “we would ONLY pursue in a way we’d be TOTALLY confident ALL our guests will fully enjoy movie going [sic] experience at AMC.“
How he expects to make concessions to the minority of audiences while alienating the majority and actually pleasing all of them at once is currently unknown, but if he can figure that out, more power to him.
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
