Ghost wrote:
rabbitroom wrote:
I think it's time for the era of "Self Policing" to come to an end, and the old saying "you may be asleep while other are awake" needs to be retired.
I couldn't agree more with this, as well as everything else that was said in this post. I understand that everyone in charge of the event doesn't want to become preschool teachers, and I'm sure there's a certain concern with driving away people who would become regulars to the marathons, but here's a classic example of how that 1 percent of the audience can be a real problem.
The bottom line is that if someone comes to the event to get drunk and talk through the movies, I don't want them there. I'd prefer the hosts or the theater management showing a little more proactive leadership... especially since these issues have escalated to throwing soda.
I understand that the marathons are a communal experience, and half the fun is audience interaction and reaction. Movies like YOU'RE NEXT and HOUSEBOUND wouldn't have been nearly as awesome without the cheers from the crowd, the laughs at the dark humor, and the general energy from the audience. Similarly, movies like THE SATANIST are a hoot to watch with general audience riffing. However, films like NOSFERATU are more somber slow burns and need to be respected.
Even with call-backs from the audience and some general riffing, it's really terrible when people decide to treat the theater like their living room and have constant conversations during the movies. It's even worse if you ask them to stop, and they ignore you. (There were some folks a couple rows behind me who were constantly conversing during YOU'RE NEXT. I asked them to stop, and for the most part, they were better behaved throughout the night, so this is a possible thing to happen.)
Ultimately, the fear of turning away paying customers by telling them to shut up results in incidents like "The Great Soda Incident of 2014." And sadly, it resulted in this group of folks from out of town probably never wanting to come to a marathon in Columbus ever again. Kicking out the talkers when they received the complaint may have resulted in two tickets not bought next time around by them. However, not doing so resulted in a larger group of people from out of town who will never return... and they will likely go back to their Chicago marathon and let people know what happened. Ergo, a loss of even more future customers.
I'm not saying the marathons need to have a hard-lined Alamo Drafthouse no-talking policy because part of the fun of these events is the community atmosphere. However, there needs to be some recourse for people who reach that level of rudeness. It troubles me greatly that
rabbitroom said they asked the theater/hosts to do something about them multiple times, and nothing was done. This isn't a court of law in which you're innocent until proved guilty by official observation. And I doubt there's anyone who is going to railroad anyone from the marathon by falsely reporting obnoxious behavior. Quite simply, after one complaint, the management or one of the hosts should have addressed the talkers directly. After two complaints, they should have been politely asked to leave the event.
For years, since I've been going in the 1980s, the line is "Look around you to see how people are behaving, and don't do that. And be nice because they might be awake when you're asleep." However, the joking of this nature minimizes the real problem that gets brought about by a slim minority of the audience. Why not just add, "Hey guys, it's okay for a degree of audience participation and reaction to the movies. But if you need to have a conversation, please do it in the lobby. If the people around you complain to us about rude behavior, we will ask you to leave with no refund." I think that's reasonable enough.
And, if Joe and Bruce don't want to be the heavy (or if the theater management is not available to address this), I like Tim's idea of dubbing some long-time, trusted marathoids as "Marathon Security" (or a title that's less aggressive like "Crypt Keeper") with the authority to address issues of rudeness and drunkenness.