The use of phones in movie theaters has been an annoyance since they were introduced as technology. The first phones were loud and disruptive. Now phones can be silenced, but possess screens so bright that anyone can see when a theater patron is texting friends while watching a movie. Guess what? When an entire room is dark, it doesn’t matter how low the brightness can go, it’s glaringly obvious when a sudden source of illumination shows up. So it’s generally frowned upon to use your phones in a theater, even now. Unless you’re Marcus Theatres president Gregory Marcus, who is kind of encouraging theater-goers to flout the taboo for Taylor Swift‘s “Eras Tour” movie.
“We want you to take selfies and pretend like it’s a concert,” Marcus said. Seems like the idea is for fans to treat the big screen extravaganza like it’s another stop on her record-breaking, sold-out stadium tour. Even Swift posted an instagram message to fans: “Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged” Which is horrifically unheard of for a movie theater. And we’re concerned that this will start a slew of bad behaviors surrounding theater-going etiquette. It’s a little bit of an experiment, and it’s new to Marcus as well, voicing some minor concerns himself.
Collective Participation Might Cause Future Issues
“We hope it won’t get out of hand. This is new for us, too. I really hope people are not standing on seats. We have stadium seating, so there’s no reason,” Marcus said. But…have you met Swifties before? Hopefully patrons will be well-behaved, if not respectful. Which seems to be a concern as movie theaters everywhere have gone through million dollar-renovations and doubled their cleaning staff for the event.
Variety interviewed a number of theater heads whose overall reaction seems to be cautious optimism. We’re still a bit concerned that this will cause some holes in future etiquette for movie-goers. Hopefully the raucous behavior encouraged won’t become the norm.
