For me movie theaters are unendurable. Constant smartphone use and talking make the experience terrible. Not to mention barrage of pre-film ads/out of focus film/deafening audio/uncomfortable/dirty seats.
10 minutes of flashy product advertisements followed by a 15-minute bombardment of previews loaded with taiko drums and foghorns.
Thankfully my theater now uses reserved seats so I can wait outside during the assault.
On the other hand, I count myself lucky that in my small area they feature https://www.fathomevents.com/ which include classic re-runs or special musical events. Usually there are only a half dozen people in the theater with me for those.
All of those problems discouraged me from going to the movie theater but the issue that got me to quit going to movie theaters completely is increased volume without increased noise dampening. Thanks to the much advertised upgrades to the sound systems of the theaters you will hear your movie and the movie next to you. You'll hear the dialogue of your movie with a background of superhero explosions and revving car engines.
And no, there are no other movie theater chains available. And no, going to a matinee doesn't solve these problems. And there is no solution to these problems because they've become normalized so people will rush to defend them.
sounds to me like you should find a better theater chain if available in your area. i know the smartphone thing is a bad experience, but i haven't had to endure someone on their phone in a theater since i started going to places that care. to me, the phone thing is just a meme on the internet as it hasn't been a thing for me personally in over a decade
And what's your point? Did you misread something as I do not believe there is a problem? There's only a problem when you go to a theater that doesn't care about customer behavior. If you attend a theater that does, and removes people that misbehave, you do not have this experience.
Change your movie theater and the time that you go.
Matinee (afternoon) shows are sparsely populated and generally cheaper, especially during weekdays. There is a small movie theater in a strip mall outside of town that I sometimes take my kids to. It's clean, the seats are comfortable, and most people go there to actually watch movies not just hang out and gab with friends.
If they shows ads, I never see them because I don't walk into the theater until at least 5 minutes after show time. This is how I opt-out of the ads and previews. Once in a while I walk in while the last couple of previews are still running, or a minute or two after the movie has started. Doesn't bother me, the first few minutes of a movie are rarely pivotal to grokking the plot.
I always bring earplugs to theaters and concerts because I am sensitive to loud sounds (as in, actual physical pain) that everyone else finds perfectly tolerable. Sometimes I need the earplugs, sometimes I don't. When I need them, they don't diminish the audio quality at all, they just take the edge off.
And in retrospect, maybe it's a little weird that I have optimized my movie watching routine down to a science. (Especially since I don't actually go that often.)
If I sit down to watch a movie at home, I'm barraged by kids, a puppy, distractions, needing to pause a lot, people going in-and-out, other kinds of background noise, etc. Even if the theater isn't perfect (and luckily I live near several good ones) the simple lack of distraction at the movies is huge for me.
