'No Texting at AMC': Movie Exec Backpedals After Complaints

By DEB BELT (Patch Staff)

BURLINGTON, MA - A ban on texting during movies will stand at AMC Theatres nationwide, says its CEO, who was virtually flogged on social media this week for suggesting the change.

The theater chain’s new head, Adam Aron, said he was considering whether to allow texting and other mobile device use at some theaters in a bid to appease and boost younger audience patrons.

There is an AMC theatre located at 20 South Ave. in Burlington.

The most likely option he suggested was that a theater, or several, within an AMC Cineplex, would be designated as a venue where the glow of small cell-phone screens could compete with the light on the silver screen.

Aron’s suggestion was a flop with movie-goers.

So he took to Twitter Friday morning to retract the idea.

“NO TEXTING AT AMC. Won't happen. You spoke. We listened. Quickly, that idea has been sent to the cutting room floor,” Aron posted.

»Would you support cell phone usage in some theaters? Does it make sense for it to be at movies that cater to young adults? Tell us in comments.

Patch readers were mostly against the idea, with one astute commenter wondering why anyone would pay for a pricy movie ticket – and the even pricier popcorn and drink – and then spend time on their phone.

Reader Carl Bonroy said, “if texting is allowed, we're done. We'll find another chain and if all chains adopt it. I've been wanting to put a nice home theater anyway so we'll go that route.”

While reader jack taggart said confrontations between movie-goers on their phones and those who aren’t will turn violent.

“People have been shot in movie houses, when imbeciles have persisted in using cell phones and the like, despite being strictly forbidden to do so. It will be interesting to watch as the new freedom to use electronic devices takes hold and the reaction from less tolerating attendees comes to a boil. The mass shootings will move from on screen to audience participation.”

Why did AMC even contemplate the change?

Money, plain and simple.

Aron wants his company to hold onto, or increase, the number of millenials shelling out the big bucks to watch a movie in a theater. And for that demographic, putting away the cell phone is next to impossible.

“When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don’t ruin the movie, they hear please cut off your left arm above the elbow. You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone,” Aron told Variety. “That’s not how they live their life.”

In a statement Friday, Aron said he heard “loud and clear” via social media that movie patrons gave the cell phone idea two big thumbs down. He vowed that there will be no texting in AMC theater, “not today, not tomorrow and not in the foreseeable future.”

Four years ago, the idea of selectively allowing cell phone use in theaters was raised by Regal Entertainment CEO Amy Miles, the country’s largest movie chain until AMC and Cinemark’s merger is complete.

Miles said at the April 2012 CinemaCon that a movie that appealed to younger audiences – she mentioned “21 Jump Street” with Channing Tatum – might be the place to allow cell phone use.

“You’re trying to figure out if there’s something you can offer in the theater that I would not find appealing but my 18-year-old son” might, Miles said, according to Deadline.

But, there was pushback and Regal didn’t ease up on its cell phone ban.

»Photo from Shutterstock