Movie Etiquette and a Humble Recommendation
(Above) Careful folks, he's been drinking!
A word on movie theatre etiquette: It is not appropriate for your cell phone to make any type of noise in a movie theatre. It is even less appropriate, and downright offense to the rest of the moviegoers surrounding you, to answer your cell phone and have a conversation, no matter how short (even if you whisper). If you must bring a baby, which is not recommended, it should be removed if it makes any noise whatsoever, even if it means you missing some of the movie. Many theatres offer special baby nights where you and the rest of the new parents can go and “enjoy” the annoying screams of infants. NO TALKING DURING THE SHOW, I think this is quite self-explanatory.
Of late the theatres here in NYC have been plagued by a complete disregard for proper movie etiquette. How people actually live with themselves after answering their cell phone in a crowded theatre is beyond me, but it happens, and is happening with more frequency all the time. It seems to me that when you are paying $10-$11 to see a film the theatre could have one of their attendants in the theatre with you to forcibly remove people who can’t control themselves. The theatres don’t seem to have a problem hiring people to stand outside the theatre and check your ticket to make sure you’re not sneaking into a show, so it follows they could spare a little manpower to make sure the polite moviegoer has a nice time. I would also recommend that theatres put an end to this cell phone answering nonsense by installing signal blockers (not a very expensive technology) in their theatres.
Right now I believe that two of the worst theatres to go to in New York City are the AMC and Loews (right across the street from each other) in Times Square. It seems that every film I watch there has at least one loud disturbance at some point during the film. The last time I viewed a movie there the woman in back of me answered her cell phone twice and had two full conversations!!! When I turned around to glare at her she got really bent out of shape (thank the Lord above she didn’t have a knife). It hit me then that this woman actually thought she was doing nothing wrong. I guess there is only so much you can teach people.
I would highly recommend going to the Lincoln Square cinema. Not only is this cinema (on 70th St.) absolutely gorgeous and well designed, the people are wonderful. Not one peep out of anyone, I could actually enjoy the film to its fullest. The theatre itself offers both balcony and regular seating, and the screens are ginormous (a combination of gigantic and enormous). Each theatre is decorated in a different motif, ensuring that you’ll get a different experience almost every time you attend. They also don’t play before preview commercials, which gives you the chance to have polite conversation with your compatriots. Lincoln Square is definitely a model theatre that should be attended by all upstanding moviegoers in NYC.