Loud teenage girls talking during movie refuse to be quiet: 'Where has cinema etiquette gone?'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 26, 2025 3:00 PM EDT

A showing at your local movie theater has never included more chatterboxes! 

These days, when you go to a movie in the theater, you're 100% guaranteed to see people texting or playing on their phones during the movie. "But wait, don't you mean 99%?" No. No I don't. It is every movie now, every single showing. People are so deep into their screens that many of them literally don't even look up from their phones to actually watch the movie! 

Sometimes I peek and see what these people are typing. After all, if I have to be blinded by their phone screen during the movie I paid for, I want to see what's so interesting that it's taking up their attention span. One time during a really funny movie, a guy was sitting with a group of his friends, and while everyone else was hooting and hollering, he was messaging a girl about how he was in the movie. It was just deeply uncool — everyone around him was engrossed in the movie, and he was just texting about the movie as if he had watched even a second of it. I was genuinely watching for this guy to lift his head up and look at the film for even a second, and it never happened. Wow.

Theater etiquette is going through some growing pains I think. After a few years of being cooped up inside all the time, people were eager to get back out there, but many of them had a crippling addiction to their phone. And for many people, being out in public still means talking to their friend group as if they're in their own home — loudly, and with no regard for anyone else who might be in the vicinity. I mean, teens have always been rowdy in movie theaters. Kids throwing popcorn and yelling has probably been an issue since theaters were invented. But this person got reverse-scolded for trying to silence a group of kiddos, and it's rather infuriating. 

Now, this is not my problem to fix. As a mere Fail Blogger, there's obviously nothing I can do about problematic movie theater behavior except call attention to it (and yap about it on TikTok!). But I do hope for a day when theater etiquette returns to a silent, pitch-black theater environment (hey, a guy can hope!). 

Up next, check out this wild story of a person who actually won an iPad via a claw machine! Too bad it got stuck inside… read the update to see what happened next!

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  • 01
    My title pretty much explains it but honestly where has cinema etiquette gone. A group of girls, had to be late teens because of the age rating, were sat in front of me. Through the trailers they were chatting fine they're just trailers - but then the film comes on and they're taking photos and sending snapchats. After that they pretty much just didn't stop chatting. Two guys sitting partly
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 02
    behind them kept shaking their head and looking at eachother but I imagine because they were young women they didn't want to say anything to them. After a while it got so loud I couldn't concentrate on the film (which was super quiet in parts) so I asked them politely 'guys can you stop talking please' - one girl replied and said 'sorry what do you want' and the other just said 'no'.
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 03
    Before my partner could go down to grab a member of staff a staff member actually came in but the girls went completely silent until they left, then the chatting started up again, although it was a little bit quieter than before I asked so maybe a small achievement. But I just don't understand what is wrong with people. If you want to chat, don't go to the cinema!
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 04
    AdditionalPiccolo... This happened to me, I kept leaning over really obviously and reading their snapchats, made it so weird and awkward that they eventually stopped lol
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  • 05
    KayakerWithDog That's when you go to the manager and get a free pass to a different showing.
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  • 06
    fakegoose1 My friend doesn't ask politely. He once yelled at a group of tean girls to "shut the f ". They didnt make a single sound for the rest of the movie.
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 07
    5 young people watching a movie, girl on the right sips a soda
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 08
    Old-Revolution-1... I would start adding my own comments to their conversation, make it wierd.
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 09
    W... I seriously think some people just don't have the attention span to quietly watch a movie and I don't understand what makes them want to spend money on it if that's the case.
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 10
    I've had this the past two times I went to see a movie. The first time my wife and I actually moved seats so a boyfriend and girlfriend could sit next to each other (despite the fact that they chose the seats on either side of us in a not very busy theatre while buying the tickets) and all they did the entire movie was show sh to each other on their phones and talk. I asked them to be quiet several
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 11
    times and each time they apologized and shut up for maybe a minute. The last time was for the most recent Conjuring movie and a group of girls ahead of us (middle of the cinema) started around on their phones and giggling after maybe 45 minutes to the point that people in the back were shushing them.
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 12
    AtticusFlinch246 This is almost exactly what happend to my wife and me. The only difference is I leaned down to one of them and said "please tell me you didnt just pay $16 each to come in here and have a conversation you could have had for free in the lobby". One of the other girls said "tell him to shut up!", but the girl I spoke to said "No, he's right" and they all shut up
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 13
    for the rest of the movie. I don't know if I got lucky and spoke to the one that paid for the rest or if I hit the lottery and spoke to the only smart one in the group. Either way it was the first and probably last argument I've won.
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 14
    247world Last time I went to the movie, an employee came in and read a list of rules before the movie began and then an usher was on duty the entire movie. I mentioned it to a friend and he told me that that theater had started that several months before because they had lost so much business
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 15
    Two young girls sit in movie theaters seats, to the left, girl in striped shirt holds popcorn bucket and crosses one leg, to the right, a girl with red hair drinks soda
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 16
    they were almost about to close. Apparently it even made the local paper when somebody who got kicked out tried to sue. It then became known that these theaters had a set of rules and expected patrons to follow them so everyone can have an enjoyable experience, and their business came back.
    via u/Throwaway20202027
  • 17
    Maybe it's time more theaters adopted this policy
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  • 18
    DiscussionOk672 Sh like this is why I never understood the outrage of movies being released on streaming services. I would rather stay home and watch stuff than to go get my bl d pressure up over some dumba kids who have no respect.
    via u/Throwaway20202027

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teens kids teenagers movie theater movies
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