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

People on both sides have very strong feelings when it comes to using a phone in a movie theater - and when it comes to retribution.

By Michael Hein

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.

Guidelines

Some users laid out the guidelines for technology in the movie theater as they saw them, prompting others to weigh in and suggest tweaks to the code of conduct.

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Vigilante Justice

One viral post told the story of a woman who had a drink poured on her by strangers when she used her phone during a screening of Barbie. The person who wrote the post didn't have many details, but readers filled in the blanks with their own hypothetical justifications for both sides.

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Optional

Many people pointed out that you can leave a movie theater at any time – whether to check your phone or simply because you are not interested in finishing the film.

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Compulsion

Other people thought the root issue is internet addiction, and that checking one's phone has become a compulsive habit.

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Re-acclimating

Many people said that "Barbenheimer" was a rare trip to the movies for them and in some cases, the first since 2019. Frequent moviegoers were not pleased with the newcomers.

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Embarrassing

If nothing else, many commenters were surprised that people using their phones in movie theaters weren't embarrassed to draw that much attention to themselves.

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Explains a Lot

Finally, some people joked that the prevalence of phones in theaters – and presumably during home viewings – explains a lot about the state of film criticism and literacy these days.

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