BoingBoing reader Brian Walsh went to an AMC theater in San Francisco last night with a friend to see "The Devil Wears Prada," and had a rotten time. Turns out the Devil doesn't wear Prada, he wears an AMC security guard's uniform. The movie, the overpriced popcorn, the smooshy seats — all great, Brian says, but the "being treated like a criminal" part, complete with repeated metal detector scans? Eh, not so much. Here's a snip from his blog recap, tagged with keyphrases like "MOVIE THEATERS SUCK BALLS," which should give you an idea of how he feels. Brian and date are metal-detectored before entering the theater, then after they sit down he gets up for popcorn…
As I head back into the theater, I am subjected to the tests again. Metal detector. Phone. Etc. This time I wasn't as cool with it.
I stopped to let the guard know that: It is a shame that the business model of the movie studios is inflexible and out of date. Hence, their inability to adjust to a world where content is readily available on multiple devices and from multiple sources has led to the theaters losing the one advantage that they have over my living room: the experience.(…)
During the movie, the wonderful experiences persisted. As enjoyed the excellent acting, wonderful story and beautiful women on the screen, I was distracted by movement on my left and right. There were devils in
Pradasecurity uniforms paroling the theater staring at us. I have called the theater to check this out, but my assumption is that they were looking for anyone using a recording device. At least they were consistent in degrading the experience.
Link.
Reader comment: Phuc says,
I believe its important to state that Brian Walsh went to see a preview screening, as the movie has a national release date of June 30th. As such, I see no problem with security doing what they did, although during the actual film, they could have been a little more lowkey. If Mr. Walsh were to revisit the theatre and watch a film that has already been released, I am sure that he would find the experience less obtrusive and much more enjoyable.
Reader comment: Amanda says,
At least he wasn't shot randomly, for no reason.
Reader comment: Eric Schwartz says,
In contrast to Brian Walsh, about whom you just posted a story on
BoingBoing, my last several theater experiences have been pretty good.I did go see X-3, I'll admit, but that was my own fault. Though the
food was overpriced and nasty (and therefore, I chose not to partake),
the theater itself was nice and clean, there were no security guards,
and the sound and picture were excellent. In other words, I had a
fairly ideal movie experience. Well, except for the annoying guy four
rows down and 10 seats to the right of me who kept texting his friends
throughout The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe; that was one time I
*wish* there were security guards to kick his ass out of there, as the
bright screen kept distracting me from the movie I paid to see.I'm not sure if there's a point here, other than: going to the movies is
not nearly that bad everywhere. In fact, I suspect that the vast
majority of moviegoers don't encounter anywhere near that level of
abuse– the worst I've ever had to endure is Sean Astin sanctimoniously
invoking the thousands of people who work in the movie industry whose
livelihoods I'm endangering by downloading movies off the 'net. And
while that was annoying, at least it's a legit (and legal) tactic.
