Are cinemas dying a silent death and, more importantly, are we being too loud to notice? As more films struggle to meet box office expectations and audiences become noisier and more distracted, many are starting to wonder whether there is a lost art of cinema etiquette that is killing the industry. In the past week, legendary film director Martin Scorsese has weighed in on the issue of etiquette, stating that ‘audiences who babble on phones during the movie, leave to order snacks and vats of soda, and keep up a noise level loud enough to drown out the actors’ are to blame for his own avoidance of movie theatres. I would be tempted to question how much of an issue this actually is for Mr. Scorsese, who could probably afford to purchase at least one entire cinema multiplex in each US state for just his own personal use, but that is beside the point.
It has been impossible to miss the viral cinema trends online in recent years, with so many film releases seeming to spawn new crazes and video ideas. From Gen-Z opting to don their finest suits to theatres for the ‘Minions’ movie to the iconic 2023 summer of ‘Barbenheimer’, social media has managed to create immersive and collective theatre experiences for audiences.
One trend having its moment on TikTok recently with the release of the new Minecraft movie, is the ‘chicken jockey’ saga amongst fans where the line delivered by Jack Black is causing cinemas to erupt into a cacophony of cheers, with drinks and popcorn flying through the air. One video even shows a teenage boy releasing an actual, live chicken into the air in the middle of a packed cinema. Cinemas across in the UK have placed official warnings about this behaviour condoning it and asking audiences to avoid loud and damaging reactions that interrupt those around them.
Whilst it is understandable that cinemas would want to avoid large disruptions, there is also merit towards them as these films, with trends like ‘chicken jockey’ attached to them, have all seen major box office success. This cannot be said for all films released recently, as streaming services continue to dominate, so should interactivity and active participation in cinema attendance not be embraced to the fullest extent?
Personally, some of my most memorable moments of going to the cinema have been a result of these trends – like Barbenheimer – where choosing the perfect all-pink outfit to simply sit in a dark room, with a hundred strangers dressed equally as vibrantly, meant the joy and theatricality of the film began before trailers had even started. The same can be said for sing-along- screenings in which the ‘necessary’ and ‘civilised’ cinema etiquette goes out the window and is replaced with genuine connection to what is playing. In times where theatres are struggling to stay afloat financially, is noise and disturbance the price to pay for box office success?
