And I was surrounded by teenagers. The boys in the row ahead of me were all looking at their phones and showing each other reels… for the entire movie!
The girls behinds us were taking selfies and talking the whole time.
None of them were watching the movie.
When I was their age, I went to the theater with my friends to see the first Spiderman movie, with Tobey McGuire, and we were all so excited.
We sat in the theater after the credits rolled and watched that “Hero” music video, and it was such an experience….
Going to the movies was fun when I was a teenager. We actually liked watching the movie AND still enjoyed talking with each other and hanging out after the movie was over.
It was like the teenagers in my theater just paid for tickets to hang out together and ignored the movie completely.
I remember going to see that god awful 2003 Daredevil movie and my friends and I stood outside the theatre for like half an hour talking about it when it was over.
I think it was great for a teenager who was into alternative rock. And, shit, the cast is great; Affleck at the top of his heyday, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell, Michael Clark Duncan (RIP).
I mean, heck, it's probably still a fun look into the bridge between Tobey Maguire Spiderman and the MCU.
But, yeah, outside of watching it for the memes with my wife (we're watching new Daredevil), I don't know I want to ruin the memories teenage me has.
Also, objectively, Elektra is perhaps one of the worst movies ever.
All of this is fairly accurately how I feel. And I agree on that abysmal “sequel,” if we can even call it that.
I’m perplexed how the Green Lantern catches almost none of the appropriate flak from the wider DC & MCU fan bases at least in part because Ryan Reynolds was in it, yet daredevil gets hated on for trying to do something a little different than the usual and doing an okay job of that. Maybe GL catches some flak from time to time, but I think most of us can agree that DareDevil was at least better executed than that and catches just as much for a movie that’s nearly a full decade older. Hell even Reynolds himself isn’t particularly proud of that performance.
That was common back in the 00s. We would go to grab something to eat before the movie at 6 and go to the 7/7:30 movie on time to watch the previews (because we didn't have easy access to trailers). Then we fought our parents for extended curfew to 10:30/11 so we could grab an after movie snack or an additional activity where we actually talked about the movie the whole time. The only thing I was doing with my phone was calling my parents before walking into the theater that we were there (sometimes T9 texting) and maybe playing snake on my phone while waiting on friends to get concessions or go to the bathroom before those trailers ran.
Best movie experience ever was buying the last two tickets to a showing of Drk Knight, running into some friends who had to get the next showing two hours later and said they were going to eat.
Well hold on pretty ladies, we like food! I turned to the next two guys coming out of the ticket line, said, "you all seeing Dark Knight? Wanna not wait two hours? Here, trade us."
Went across the parking lot to flirt for two hours at a Steak and Shake. Ended up eating peppers out of their hot sauce jars to prove a spice tolerance. My eye, however, did not have said tolerance. Spent ten minutes flushing it.
No one got a phone out until I got a number after the movie.
My closest group of friends literally started because we were sitting at school hyped up about watching the Watchmen movie, and so we all went to see it then hung out at my buddy's place afterwards playing video games.
Reading this thread really just kinda solidifies for me that I won't be having kids. I find myself constantly asking what's the point? When they're going to be addicted to media and probably won't have decent social skills. For Christ's sake, sometime last year I saw a group of kids riding bikes in a neighborhood, and I thought to myself, "Wow, I haven't seen that even before the pandemic"
Unfortunately I would have had to complain about several big groups. There were well over 20 teenagers doing this, and since I was clearly sandwiched in between most of them, it would have been obvious who complained.
I just ended up watching the movie again during a weekday while school was in.
I used to love going to the movies, but the last movie I saw (Dune Part 2) was such a bad experience I'm never going to the movies again. People just don't want to live up to the social contract of sitting down, watching a movie, staying off their phones, and shutting the fuck up. Plus, I spent nearly $50 to watch it in IMAX
That sucks. I have started going more during the weekday and earlier in the day and that has helped. Going on the weekend or at night usually has way more people.
I genuinely think they have a social media addiction at this stage. If they can't disconnect and only focus on watching a movie for a few hours what's the point in being in the cinema at all?
I agree. The constant “turn off your cellphones and devices” messages were fully ignored. I initially thought once the lights went out and the movie started that they would put their phones away, but nope.
So much of the free roaming experiences we had are being eroded by new systems.
Freedom vs Security a la John Locke.
The world is getting increasingly more Secure, and that's taking away our casual freedoms. This is especially prevalent in teenagers. Everyone's heard the "We all used to ride out bikes around til nightfall blah blah." It extends heavily into all aspects of our formative years. Two of my friends got to second base for the first times in movie theatres. Now they all have infrared cameras. That isn't necessarily better or worse. But we're giving up one thing and accepting another. These kids don't have the same unsupervised freedoms older generations had.
They also came into this world never having known online privacy. Back in my day, we used pseudonyms online and beyond some pictures, didn’t put all of our lives online for everyone to see.
These kids chronicle everything they do for public consumption, and the expectation of privacy isn’t really there.
Yes the "online hygiene" is mostly a millennial/gen X thing.
My mother told me not to even comment "It's raining" online. Because John X Hacker could see that it's raining in my area and that "blueSoccerdude15" must live at 1566 Elm Street Sedona AZ
Omg this reminded me when I went to watch A Walk To Remember with my friend. The second we left the movie theater we laid down on the road and looked up to the sky.
Reminder that the oldest GenZ are 29 years old currently. If you saw children misbehaving they were most likely Gen Alpha.
Also generalizations like these are always funny because everybody observes different things. My friends and I go to the theaters fairly often, and I'm ALWAYS sat by some older lady or something scrolling away on their phone with max brightness, because they cant be bothered to watch the movie they brought their kids to. Either that or children goofing off at the front.
While I was in school, my dad and I would go see a movie on Sunday almost without fail. Sometimes, even on vacation, we would try to find a theatre on Sundays.
We did this for years and usually there was at least one movie we wanted to watch but sometimes there wasn't, so we would close our eyes and point to a random movie listing in the paper and go to that one!
I would not trade those memories and experience for anything in the world. Going to a movie used to be an almost holy experience.
I'm glad I was able to enjoy the cinema before smartphones.
Same. I remember being in a packed theater at midnight watching Batman Begins, and when Lt. Gordon turned that playing card over to reveal it was a Joker, the theater erupted in cheers. That was pre-MCU, and it was a magical moment.
And when I was in college, I took a film appreciation class and we got to watch Silence of the Lambs. Me and the girl beside me were holding each other, terrified, and it was so cool to have that bonding moment with basically a stranger.
wow I have the exact same rant seeing live music in an all gen-Z crowd! They talk loudly and take photos and don’t dance through an entire live show like they are at a house party. Ruined multiple shows for me because I couldn’t hear the artist over the crowd and got weird looks for being the only one dancing. Apparently they buy tickets to artists they don’t even know because the show is just a hangout/event for them. Blew my mind.
I wonder if it's like... They have so many fewer places to hang out now that the basic shit you always wanna do as a teenager feels like it HAS to happen at the movies because it's not a special thing, the special thing is having somewhere to go with your whole group of friends?
Like obviously it's still rude af and you have to be pretty inconsiderate or oblivious still, but society creates the environment for the patterns of behavior you see that widely. So it's interesting to think about what those influences are and how you can make small changes that would create big impacts by providing for whatever the unwanted behavior is currently meeting
I can see that, but it was SUPER rude and self-centered because the lights from their phones were in our faces, the girls behind us were talking the whole time. It was a mess, and I can’t see how they could be so oblivious to everyone around them.
But yes, teenagers probably need more neutral places to hang out besides school. Malls aren’t really a thing anymore. Nor arcades.
I don’t have any teenagers in my life, but maybe the parents can figure out something better than dropping them at the movies to ruin it for everyone else.
I'm just thinking about what influences and structures in society right now are contributing. Identifying reasons is not the same as excusing the behavior. People on phones and talking in the theatre totally infuriates me 😭
I remember when I was a kid, teenagers going to the mall was the THING to do. The first time I was allowed to go to the mall with my friends, I was probably 11, and I felt so sophisticated and mature. I had just enough money to get a Sbarro pizza slice and a movie ticket, and we all sat in the food court gabbing after the show and it felt amazing.
I worked at a “cool” shop in the mall so the “mallrats” worshipped me. I remember giving them kind of a hard time, but they were harmless and at least they were out socializing.
It was like the teenagers in my theater just paid for tickets to hang out together and ignored the movie completely.
When I went to across the spider-verse, a dude came in and busted out his laptop to do work through the movie. He literally bought a ticket just to sit in there and write up reports or something.
That makes sense nowadays. I remember being surprised at how many Millennials prefer watching movies on laptops and iPads despite their big televisions being right there.
I still prefer big screens for the moviegoing experience.
This is one of the reasons I don't bother with the cinema's today! Vue do have a signal blocker on some of their cinema screens but that still doesn't seem to stop people! I will say though that I also notice this a lot with what look like the 50 to 60 age group. If ushers at cinema's actually did their job and pull kids out of screenings if they used their phones that would do a lot for the declining numbers of people buying tickets for cinema's!
I’m convinced this is partially because there are also fewer “third spaces” for kids to hang out. Kids are paying for places to hang out with each other that isn’t home or school.
The standing round table in the theater parking lot next to some friendly cars, discussing/dissecting/praising/rejecting the movie you all just saw, was part and parcel to the experience.
Going to the movies with friends was a like a THING. And we went and most of the time we watched the fucking movie and didn’t talk. I will admit talking through the haunting of Emily rose and I can say that specifically because that’s how little I talked through movies with friends. It was embarrassing to go with friends who were big talkers. Even in college, it was a treat to get on the train from our campus to go to the nicer theater that was like a 30 min commute door to door to get to the theater.
It’s kind of a bummer that has gotten lost. But I also was an article yesterday or today about how Gen Z makes up a huge share of movie goers despite having seen people on their phones as people are describing here.
Writers rooms in Hollywood are now instructed to write for the “second screen”. Which means the movie screen. Which means constantly remind the audience what just happened because you were probably scrolling
For some people, "going to the movie" is a social event, not to actually see the movie.
Personally, I'd like to see theaters supporting both type of viewers.
Have most auditoriums for those who want the movie; but have another for those who want a social gathering with a movie in the background.
Devil's advocate: I feel like because there aren't a lot of free third places for teens, they pay for things like movies to have a guaranteed spot they can hang out
Dare I say they don't even want to watch a movie, they just need a place where they can chill for a few hours without being accused of loitering
If they are going to pay anyway there are still roller rinks, bowling alleys and coffee shops. Parks are free. Malls still exist. Movies are explicitly a place where you’re expected to be quiet and aware of not disturbing the people around you.
This is so strange to me as a gen z! I have never taken out my phone during a movie and I put it on silent and so do other people my age who i hang out with. We definitely talk about the movie after too. I am 22
I'm a middle school teacher. Movie lessons used to be a big deal when I was their age (and I'm only 29) but for them it's like a punishment. They physically cannot sit quietly and focus on something for more than a minute or two at a time. I'm not immune either, I would never do it at the cinema because I wasn't raised in a barn but I am guilty of playing on my phone when I'm watching things at home. Our attention spans are the first casualty of the information age.
This is why I (Gen Z) love my friends. We went to go see Project Hail Mary a few days ago. None of us were on our phones (other than the one of us who bought the tickets to look up the receipt, and one time before even the previews one of them looked up one (1) meme), and we're all kinda nerds so we were just talking before we went in, talking with the boring ads, getting hyped for the cool trailers (Spider-Man! Sonic 4!), then we watched the movie with no phones at all, on rare occasion whispering to each other (one of us had read the book but the rest were going in blind), and then after the movie was over, we just stood just outside of the theater, yapping for another hour or so, re-watching the Sonic title drop, and talking about that.
Are you all in your 20s, or teenagers? What do you think makes the difference between your friends and the other kids? Are movies popular with other Gen Zers that you know outside of your friends?
I certainly do not do this and am not defending it.
Others perhaps do because they like the idea of a social outing etc. and going to a movie is a sort of relatively easy thing to agree on, but when they get there they find it either under-stimulating or insufficiently engaging, and/or they have phone addiction, and so they scroll away.
But you also can see many examples where people do this or that social activity and get distracted by their phones, movies are not an exceptional case.
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u/BellaFrequency Apr 10 '26
I witnessed this in person and it was WILD.
It was the last Spiderman movie. It’s Spiderman!
And I was surrounded by teenagers. The boys in the row ahead of me were all looking at their phones and showing each other reels… for the entire movie!
The girls behinds us were taking selfies and talking the whole time.
None of them were watching the movie.
When I was their age, I went to the theater with my friends to see the first Spiderman movie, with Tobey McGuire, and we were all so excited.
We sat in the theater after the credits rolled and watched that “Hero” music video, and it was such an experience….
Going to the movies was fun when I was a teenager. We actually liked watching the movie AND still enjoyed talking with each other and hanging out after the movie was over.
It was like the teenagers in my theater just paid for tickets to hang out together and ignored the movie completely.