Using Your Phone in a Movie Theater? Outrage Erupts Online After 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer Screenings

The "Barbenheimer" phenomenon got a lot of people into movie theaters in the last week and a half, but it also reignited one of the most fearsome debates among movie buffs: phones in the theater. Obviously, movie theaters ask customers to silence their phones and leave them off during a screening, but some people are more serious about it than others. A conversation about phones in the movies heated up very quickly on social media this weekend.

The fact that Barbie and Oppenheimer premiered on the same day became a meme months in advance and inspired many people to go out for a double-feature – or at least for two movies in the span of just a few days – including some that are not frequent moviegoers in general. That means that packed audiences were stuck together for hours at a time, and some people did not take phone etiquette seriously. That includes not just sounds, but light, as a bright phone screen in the tiered seats in front of you can be annoying and distracting.

Of course, some people take this kind of annoyance more seriously than others, and many people have different opinions on the underlying issues. Some think that it's a matter of education – that casual movie fans need to be informed in strong terms that phone use is not acceptable. Others think it is a sign of compulsive behavior and internet addiction that we should address more broadly as a culture – not just at the movies.

Debates about these kinds of takes passed around social media this weekend along with some anecdotes about phone users in the theater and how they were treated by others. Here is a look at some of the top posts on the issue.