In Cinema Texting - Yes, No, Maybe?

Texting in cinemas - not so good.

On Monday, AMC Theatres, the second largest (soon to be largest with the acquisition of Carmike Cinemas) cinema circuit in the U.S. announced that it was going to allow - no, foster - the use of texting in its auditoriums.  The scheme was to allow moviegoers to attend 'text-friendly' movie screenings.

On Friday, AMC management did an about-face and completely rescinded the entire scheme.  The original thought was that by allowing texting, Millennials would be enticed to attend more movies. That scheme was a complete and utter miscalculation that had AMC's CEO, Adam Aron running for the tall grass. "We heard loud and clear from moviegoers that texting was unacceptable to them and they do not want it" stated Aron.  The feedback on permitting texting was almost instantaneous and went viral. Social network announcements and tweets bombarded AMC with a resounding 'NO' to the texting idea.

In their official statement, AMC stated, "There will be NO TEXTING ALLOWED in any of the auditoriums at AMC Theatres. Not today, not tomorrow and not in the foreseeable future." 

Aron back-peddling on texting

It's clear that AMC is being managed by finance guys with little finesse in understanding moviegoers' needs. Going to the movies is all about having an enjoyable and sensory entertainment experience - that's it!  Cell phone use should not be permitted in a cinema once the feature presentation starts. Pre-show is all about product and service commercials, most of which you've already seen on either TV or during another movie you viewed weeks earlier - so texting is ok, my me, during pre-show.

Millennials, like all other moviegoers, don't want people texting while they are viewing a movie. AMC completely misjudged younger viewers by throwing them into an all-inclusive category where pre-conceived notions and biases exist.

Best
Jim