Looks like Regal Cinemas are testing out a project where they get movie goers to act as rats… and I think it’s a great idea! Our friends over at Filmjunk give us the following:
this American theatre chain has decided to start providing remote alert devices to its customers to help notify staff of any problems they may encounter during the movie. The device will be about the size of a pager, and will have separate buttons to complain about audience disruptions, projector problems, temperature, and a fourth for any other issues (possibly for piracy). I guess only a select few people at each movie will be given access to these devices; in return for being a rat, you get a free bag of popcorn!
Seriously, this is at least a small step in the right direction. One of many movie goers pet peeves is stupid people in theaters making noise, using cell phones (DIE!!!!!!) or other various disruptions. This gives a little bit of power back to the people. Bag of popcorn for my soul? Sure thing… sign me up.
Too bad there wont be a button to say “Start The Damn Movie” during the 20 minutes worth of Dodge and Sprite commercials
In my cranky old age, there have been at least a dozen times in recent movie visits that I would have GLADLY complained about my fellow patrons, if I hadn’t paid an insane price just to get into the theatre and wasn’t ABOUT to miss part of the show.
The Grudge 2, which some people will debate the quality of anyway, was completly ruined for me by around a hundred or so squabbling, talking, giggling teenagers who couldn’t think to turn off their cel phones or even *gasp* not answer them during the movie.
I don’t remember seeing a single usher enter the theatre during that movie. It’ll need time to work the kinks out, but I’m very happy they’re realizing that people are unhappy, but not willing to leave the theatre.
(Side note, I’ve also suffered through sub-zero temperatures, sound fritzes, and earsplitting volumes because I didn’t want to miss the film. To this day I don’t know what the Oracle told Neo in that first scene with her during The Matrix, because there was no sound until one of my friends went to complain).
This reminds me of when I saw Tenacious D Pick of Destiny last week(btw, I was kinda dissapointed by that film) and these kids came running into the theater, and just wouldn’t show..and it got worse and worse, so I was like ‘fuck this’ and went out and got their asses kicked out..cuz you know what if they weren’t going to kick them out, I was going to do it myself
It’ll be interesting to see how this works out. I’d be willing to be a tattle tale against those rude offenders, who should die!
@Zuke – Drive-ins were a lot of fun growing up. It’s the only way my parents would take us to the movies as kids. Unfortunately, they’ve become a thing of the past in So Cal. :(
I sent you a link to this article last week.
I think it’s a fantastic idea! Rude & inconsiderate patrons is one of the reasons I don’t goto the walk-in theater as much as I used to. Kids & college students yakking/texting on their cells and people talking thru the whole movie should die!
The drive-in is the new venue me and my GF have been going to. Double feature for the price of a regular movie, you get to bring your own food, and your dogs can come too! And guess what, you don’t have to listen to rude people chatting during the movie! Yeah!
So…if I understand this right…as you beep out people you don’t like, here it what happens:
1) In order to operate gizmo you have to look at it as you press buttons. Therefore your eyes have to wander off the screens.
2) The usher comes in to take care of the offender(s) who, depending on offense, will behave in one of two ways: [a] promise to keep the noise down, and get a warning or [b] do not go quietly and/or make a scene. Either way, that’s a number of people blocking your view of the screen. In addition, you want to make sure the clowns are dealt with on some level. You still miss part of the movie.
3) The person you think is the problem is incorrect. It is the goofball next to him. They are not friends. They have never met, not even in a former life. The problem remains; movie is still disrupted. You miss part of the movie.
4) How do you get rid of the dude with the crusty socks behind you? Is there a button for that? You know he has smelly socks because same person is compelled to put his feet into the back of your recliner seat…finally, you turn around, see his date is really hot and you must find the right button to get rid of the dude. You have your excuse…but you miss part of the movie.
5) They make lousy popcorn; not enough salt and not enough butter. Plus you have to leave the room to get it. You miss part of the movie.
6) Someone sees you doing these activies. You are disrupting the show. They rat on you instead of thier buddy who has not only brung his cell phone, but a whistle and a party popper. You might miss the rest of the movie.
7) Unless it is obvious the film in the projector is improperly loaded, the average filmgoer will not be able to tell the difference between picture problems (too light, too dark, improper framing, etc.) ….especially if they have to miss a bit of the film with all the other distractions.,,,including the 6’5 dude seated in front of you with the cowboy hat, with the hat is all you see…
******
How about paying an employee to do this? The employee would have at least seen the film once, and will have to stick around to clean up after the litterbugs.
-Sealer
That’s why you wait until afterwards to make your complaint. But this is an awesome idea. I’d go as far as killing the cell phone users, particularly if there was a freebie in it for me!
AMC has been doing this for about a year now.
I would rather miss as little movie as I possibly can? Giving these remotes seem like a good idea. As far as losing the devices, I don’t think it is any more of a risk than what a restaurant assumes with their pagers.
Wouldn’t it be easier just to walk out of the movie a tell a member of the staff theres a problem. Or have members of staff doing screen checks? It’s what we do and it works fine. Having remotes, gving them out and making sure they return in good condition just seems akward.