Believe it or not, manners are important no matter where you go. Manners are not just for the home and office, but for public places as well. One of these places is the movie theater.
In a movie theater, you have dozens, perhaps even hundreds of people gathering together for the common pleasure of watching a movie. With so many people in one room, it is important for all of them to remember the etiquette of watching a movie together.
Arrive on time
One of the first things to keep in mind when planning on watching a movie in a theater is to arrive at the movie on time. Think back to how annoying you find it to have someone crawling over you te get to a seat after the movie has started. Trust me, the people in the theater who bothered to show up on time find it no less annoying when you do it.
Keep your butt out of people’s faces
If you must arrive late or get up during a movie, at least have the decency of going down the row looking at the people you have to crawl over to get to your seat. They do not want to see your butt as you push past and you were the one who had to get past them. Make sure you apologize (quietly) as you push past them.
Turn off your cell phone
While this one should seem like a no brainer, more and more theaters are finding that people not turning off their cell phone is becoming a serious problem. Remember to turn off your cell phone before you go into the theater. If for some reason you must be able to answer your cell phone while in the theater, at least turn it to vibrate. And even more importantly, if you have forgotten to turn off your cell phone before going into a movie theater, don’t answer the cell phone if it does happen to ring. Send the caller into voice mail and call them back later.
Be quiet
Being quiet in the movie theater has to be the oldest movie theater etiquette rule there is. Don’t chat with your friends during the movie, don’t needlessly rattle wrappers, don’t play drums on the seats or yell things at the screen. Most of the people there with you don’t care what your opinion of the movie is, so please don’t force it on them.
Don’t take children to inappropriate movies
Sorry, but your two-year-old does not belong at an R rated movie. For that matter, neither does your eight-year-old. Adults go to R rated movies because they want to see an adult movie. Not because they want to see (and hear) your child. If you want to watch an R rated movie, pay a babysitter to watch your kids or just stay at home and rent a movie.
Throw away your trash
After the movie is over, you will most likely find you have some trash. Take it with you and throw it away in the trash bins provided by the movie theater. Yes, technically they have people they pay to clean up the movie theater, but I am sure you don’t like it when people make your job harder so why do it to someone else? Besides, other people need to leave the row as well and they won’t like tripping over your trash.
Movie theater etiquette is something that all movie theater goers should know about. If everyone were to follow these rules, than everyone will have the best time possible when watching the latest movies.