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Going to the movies should be a fun experience, but day by day, it is becoming less and less enjoyable. Photo: MixMedia.<\/p>\n
Going to the cinema should be an enjoyable experience where you and your family and friends can enjoy the newest movies on the biggest screen possible.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s be real for a second, it genuinely sucks, and it\u2019s got nothing to do with actually watching the movie.<\/p>\n
As an avid movie watcher, I go to the cinema every week, sometimes up to three times. It\u2019s an experience I know well, but it\u2019s also changed a lot for the worse recently.<\/p>\n
At its best, seeing a movie on the big screen can be a group experience of excitement with other eager watchers; at its worst, it\u2019s a place for bored people to send Snapchat messages, throw popcorn, make stupid practical jokes and bother those who have paid a fair chunk of change to be there.<\/p>\n
Some of the things that I\u2019ve seen from moviegoers have been horrendous.<\/p>\n
There have been the usual things, like people using cameras and taking phone calls during the movie, which is less than ideal but, unfortunately, common.<\/p>\n
When I saw Backrooms at Hoyts Woden, kids were sneaking into the front of the cinema, three or four people to a seat, FaceTiming their mates in the middle of the movie.<\/p>\n
While seeing The Devil Wears Prada 2 in Belconnen, 45 minutes into the movie, a group of women in the row behind me were watching Pauline Hanson\u2019s most recent rant.<\/p>\n
While seeing Hoppers at Dendy, I had teenagers put their bare feet on the back of my neck, and when I told them off, I was approached by their parents, whose response was, \u201cthey\u2019re kids being kids\u201d.<\/p>\n
While at Disclosure Day, I was caught in the crossfire of two friend groups throwing popcorn at each other, while another older man decided to give a running commentary to everyone in the auditorium about how \u2018shit\u2019 the entire thing was. (For the record, he was correct.)<\/p>\n
These are just some of the most noticeable examples since April!<\/p>\n
For a standard Friday evening session for an adult in Canberra (Hoyts, Dendy, Limelight and Palace cinemas), the damage is almost $30. If you\u2019re paying that much for a ticket, you deserve, at the very least, to have your experience unimpeaded by that kind of rubbish.<\/p>\n
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