Majority Of British Cinemagoers WON’T Complain If Cinema Trip Disrupted

We’ve all heard nightmare tales from friends and family about an unpleasant cinema experience they’ve had, and even experiences of our own. Whether it’s people talking loudly, phones going off, or worse - it appears no one is inclined to complain about it.

According to a recent survey conducted by Den of Geek in 2015, a staggering 91.8% of Brit cinemagoers didn’t complain if their visit to the pictures was disrupted.

Not only that, according to the survey carried out across various social media channels, one in three cinema visits ended in some form of disruption for its viewer.

The idea behind the survey was to highlight that cinema etiquette doesn’t seem to exist and that paying patrons aren’t getting the experience they paid for, not to mention cinema chains themselves don’t seem to care about it.

When asked what people thought about the behaviour of fellow audience members, the results aren’t particularly encouraging;

Very Quiet: 3.4%
Quite Quiet: 30.7%
Okay: 32.8%
A little disruptive: 27.8%
Very disruptive: 5.4%

While a good percentage were deemed ‘quite quiet’, a similar fraction were also ‘a little disruptive’.

Out of the UK’s leading cinema chains, we also get an idea of which company handled said disruptions best;

1. Independent cinemas (61.4% said they managed it very well or quite well)
2. Picturehouse (57.9%)
3. Everyman (57.9%)
4. Curzon (51.1%)
5. Empire (25.1%)

But the ones that handled it the worst makes for a worrying read;

1. Odeon (52.3% managed it not well or very badly)
2. Reel (51.5%)
3. Cineworld (50.0%)
4. Vue (49.4%)
5. Showcase (45.8%)

It appears the biggest culprit for ignoring unruly patrons is Odeon, with Picturehouse emerging on top for the most successful in stamping out issues. Interestingly, it’s the independent places that win and the bigger chains that fail miserably.

Odeon also came out on top for not managing the complaints well (52.3%), whereas independent cinemas received 77.2% positivity for resolving problems.

And finally, the survey asked what the biggest issues of disruption are, and the results are, shall we say, familiar;

1. Loud eating and rustling (64.8%)
2. People using their mobile phone during a film (51.8%)
3. Talking during a film (46.9%)
4. People turning up late and disturbing the film (37.1%)
5. Seats being kicked (18.4%)
6. Kids misbehaving/being left unsupervised (13.3%)

So it seems the biggest annoyance isn’t screaming kids, people talking loudly, or phones going off (although this one is close), but the sound of eating. Admittedly, it’s often baffling why some people decide to take an entire picnic with them to watch a two-hour film. Even those who enter with rustling popcorn, smelly nachos and stinky hotdgs bought on-site often infuriate those with even the highest tolerance of people.

But what can be done?

Short of cinemas banning food and drink - which they’re obviously not going to do as that income is where they make their money - maybe we should all just be a little more considerate to others who’ve also paid to be there?

- Sean Penn Under Investigation For El Chapo Interview
- Most Anticipated 2016 Movies Named
- Christoph Waltz To Return To Bond?

Picture credit: Pandora Cinema, Den of Geek