People Complain About Crowded, Chaotic Movie Theaters. But There's Something Even Worse.

"Reddit users angry about their overstuffed, overloud theatrical experiences swap stories of other guests illegally filming the screen for the 'gram, propping up laptops and participating in Zooms, bringing toddlers into R-rated movies and letting them watch their iPads without headphones, and yelling and screaming and throwing things. People are disgusting! Wouldn't it be better, one person wrote, to be at home, where you can pause Killers of the Flower Moon to pee and get dinner, rather than in a theater, "sitting in a chair some idiot was farting in for three hours"?"

"To which I say: I frickin' wish! Far from the crowded urban cineplexes at the center of this increasingly common kind of moviegoing experience, I have the opposite problem, and I can't say it's much better. I live in a small city, in a rural county, in Ohio. I go to the movies a lot, often by myself. I'm often alone, or nearly alone, in the screening."

Many moviegoers report overstuffed, noisy screenings with people filming, using laptops, bringing toddlers, and disruptive behavior that make theaters unpleasant. The writer experiences the opposite problem in a small Ohio city: frequent solo screenings that leave auditoriums nearly empty. Anticipation for Gladiator II turned into a solitary Thursday-night viewing during a pivotal climax, where the writer longed for audience reactions to amplify the scene. Several recent film experiences felt diminished by the lack of communal engagement. The absence of collective responses can make scenes feel flat and reduce the energizing, cathartic aspects of theatrical moviegoing.

Read at Slate Magazine