'You want your seat, go sit in it': Entitled family sits in the wrong seats at the movies, 10-year-old son refuses to move, ruining the moviegoing experience

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 5, 2024 2:00 PM EST

Movie theater etiquette has certainly become a topic of conversation these days. Folks online seem to be split over the trend of theatergoers taking photos of the "Wicked" title card, with cinephiles finding this behavior to be distracting and obnoxious, while "Wicked" fans are finding their disgust to be pretentious and lame. 

Of course, unfriendly and selfish behavior at the movies goes beyond "Wicked." Here, we have a 24-year-old who treated herself to a solo date to the movies and picked out a specific seat she wanted with extra legroom, only to find the 10-year-old son of an all-around entitled family of three sitting in her assigned seat. The family refused to move at first because there was plenty of space elsewhere in the theater, but here's the thing. This is the seat the Redditor purchased and if there's plenty of room, then the family could move as well. Eventually, they ended up sitting next to each other, and the family genuinely tried their hardest to ruin the whole moviegoing experience for the Redditor. These people should be banned from cinemas everywhere!

For more stories like this, check out this post about an entitled Karen customer and the bartender she never tipped.

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    Cheezburger Image 10436759296
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    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    AITA for sitting in my paid seat at the movies? I (24F) work a busy job and rarely get time to treat myself to anything fun. I decided with all the fun movies coming out to reserve a ticket that same night.
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    There were 5 different showings, but due to the popularity of the movie I chose to see, the middle row (which is just after the handicap seating) was usually filled. However I found one
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    showing that had barely any tickets sold and my favorite seat open so I chose that showing. I purchased the ticket at 6:00pm and the movie was at 7:20pm.
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    When I arrive I get my snack and drink and head into the theater where there were maybe a total of 8 people. I start walking to my seat when I see a family of three
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    (dad, son, mom) and I notice that the son is sitting in my seat. I respectfully tell them my seat number was the seat their son was sitting in. At first the dad
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    seemed confused, then shifted to annoyance when I wouldn't go away. He told me "the theater is empty, you can go anywhere you want". Like I said earlier, I had chosen this showing for this seat
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    rather than an earlier/later showing. Also- this could've given them time to book these seats had they thought about it prior to 6pm. After his comment, I
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    admit I became super stubborn and told him I wanted that seat as I had paid for it. So his son moves next to the dad. At this point there is a seat between mom and dad left open. I tell the mom, if you'd like to scoot over so you're altogether I would be okay with
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    that. The dad interrupted me and said "you want your seat, go sit in it" so I did. The entire movie I sat in between the dad and mom while the entire theater was empty.
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    The first half of the movie, the dad made comments like "oh the Taco Bell is hitting me" (to which his son said "we didn't even eat Taco Bell"), and he encouraged his son to have extremely loud conversations, was on his phone
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    playing candy crush, and even went so far as to shove his arm in my face when passing popcorn to his wife (which she apologized to me for). All of that said, I still enjoyed the movie and wasn't going to let him ruin it for me.
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    However I told my mom this and - she said I should've just moved. My friends agree with me, but I'm just curious what everyone else thinks. I know I'm petty, but AITA?
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    EDIT: 1. My mom was more on the side of not starting more issues and not causing more drama. She's always been quiet and reserved and has always taken the path that's less problematic. I mentioned in comments, but she's German.
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    2. I'm in North East (USA), in a very populated city so the odds of the theater being empty like it was, was very unlikely. I walked in right at 7:20p when the previews began.
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    3. The son was maybe 8-10 years old, his parents couldn't have been more than 30-40 years old.
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    Mother_of_Pea... NTA, the guy totally is. Assigned seating in theaters is nothing new. You should have gone to the theater manager and complained
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    about him. My son is a manager at a theater and they LOVE being able to kindly tell people like this guy that they're out of line and they have the authority to him out if he continues to be disruptive.
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    I'm amazed that your mom doesn't agree, but whatever. You were kinder and more tolerant than I would have been, trust me.
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    20 sintrovert NTA. The ONE TIME I was nice about it and sat in a different seat than the one I'd purchased because someone else was in mine, people kept showing up late and I had to move six different times.
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    People, for the love of god, sit in the seats you selected and paid for.
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    CalamityClamb... NTA. You bought the seat. If it was a priority to that dad to sit together, HE could have moved. But instead, it seems his bigger priority was to "prove" he was right by being an a h le.
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