to wish cinemas wouldn't let latecomers in

[windchime]

Took DD to cinema this morning. Saturday Kids Club, so bargain tickets at £1.50 each. Screening began at 10am with the usual 15 minutes of trailers and adverts. Most seats occupied in large auditorium at start of film. However, people were still being allowed in at 10.45, a good 30 minutes after the start of the main film. AIBU to think that if a screening begins at 10am, you should at least try to arrive on time? And if people arrive half an hour after the start of the main film they should either not be allowed in, or not stand in the aisle, with armfuls of food and drink, loudly complaining about the lack of choice of seats?

I get what you mean but considering the amount of people who are up and down to the toilet frequently, I'm not sure a few late comers would make any difference.

How many people were allowed in at 10.45?

I suppose if you were prepared to pay more to have that rule implemented then it might be a goer, but at £1.50 a ticket they would probably be losing money unless they sell every ticket possible.

We often arrive late as the trailers go on for up to 30mins at most cinemas I go to. A lot of younger children won't sit through 30mins of trailers plus over an hr of the film, as it was a kids club showing maybe this was the reason?

I think that part of it is that people are very disrespectful of children's right to enjoy a film uninterrupted. The times I sat in a children's film and been disturbed by adults talking, taking and making phonecalls, and behaving as the op describes - even worse, if possible, than the behaviour in adult films.

I think for the cinema it's fine TBH, as a PP said you'd get lots of interruptions from toilet visits anyway and at kids club screenings probably fractious toddlers being taken out etc.

Different for a play when actors can be distracted but I think it's alright for a film

I go to the cinema a couple of times a week. I never arrive on time. There are only so many times you can watch the same adverts and trailers. 45 minutes is pushing it though.

I always used to arrive a good 10 mins after the scheduled start time as I don't like to watch trailers.

I suppose we all know how children can make you late, despite your better intentions.

It's not just the latecomers who feel the need to eat and drink like it's going out of fashion. Main reason I rarely go anymore.

YABU to expect to watch a film in a communal space to be as comfortable as your own home.

I know what you mean, it isn't so much them coming in it's the time it takes them to find seats and get settled, it's very disruptive. I'm not sure I'd want to say they can't come in though.

God I must live further out into the boondocks than I realised. DH and DS have gone to the cinema, film due to start 1700, had a text just after that "We're all alone in the cinema".
Good job it's not a horror film, they are both of a nervous disposition and all those empty seats...
I think there should be a cut off point for late comers, very annoying all the traipsing across the scene. That's the point of trailers isn't it, to allow for latecomers.

Kids' screenings are non-stop with people up and down, talking and generally being distracting. A family arriving late is just another distraction.

Arriving during the trailers / ads isn't being a latecomer: arriving after the actual film you have come to see has started is being a latecomer!

YANBU, don't get me started on this though. £300 was paid for 4 tickets to Charlie and the fucking Chocolate Factory. Tickets clearly stated that latecomers would not be allowed entry as it is disruptive for everybody else (other members of the audience and performers). Ten minutes after it started, 4 tipsy adults all rolled in laughing, joking, loudly shushing each other and they were sitting right in front of us. Of course they bloody were . I told them to shut up and sit down and stop disturbing people that had bothered to turn up on time. They did at least have the grace to look a tiny bit embarrassed.
Admittedly, at kids cinema screenings you expect a bit of noise and people up and down, but it's the disruptiveness that would really piss me off.

i live 40 miles from the cinema, i'd be seriously fucked off if i got there and was refused entry, especially to a kid's screening where it's difficult just to blow it off and go for dinner instead or whatever.

to be fair though i'd slip in quietly and take the first seat i found, i wouldn't make a faff and piss other people off.

At the cinema near us they actually don't open in time to sell tickets for all the early screenings if it's busy so you can get there in good time and still be stood queuing when your film starts. Perhaps something like that had happened.

I suppose you think people shouldn't get up to use the toilet either op?
This really doesn't bother me as I have dc and I'm used to getting up and down with them to take them to the toilet and missing most of the film anyway. Being late makes no odds to me it's not us who have missed half an hour of the film. I just concentrate on the movie and not nosey at the late comers. YABVU.

I have no idea why anyone goes to the cinema any more, too many rude people, and people who go an seem to want to do anything other than watch the film

Yes, you should turn up in time for the main feature but I'd put up with the odd person coming in late and sitting down fairly quickly. I'd even forgive them for blundering around in the dark and giggling when they tripped over, so long as they kept reasonably quiet afterwards.

Mind you, I've been chastised on here for oohing! and ahhing! during crash, bang, wallop action films and laughing at the odd witty audience heckle, so my idea of reasonably quiet isn't everyone's.

Not fussed about a kids screening as they are noisy events anyway but the adult screenings at £9.30 a ticket, now that does piss me off. And why these people then have to bugger around finding the exact seat is beyond me. Half an hour of ads and trailers is surely enough time to get your ass in gear.

It doesn't bother me, but then when I was young we had continuous performances. You could come in at any time during the film, and stay and watch the next showing if you wanted to, to catch up on the parts you had missed. People did this quite often. If the film wasn't a very long one, there was often a second feature, and if there wasn't, there would often be a 'short', some little documentary about travel or history or something, and sometimes a cartoon. These came to an end when they started closing down big cinemas and turning them into multiple small ones.

louise1956 Oh, I know. I did it a lot. I saw The Sting in 1973 with my parents. I was eight. We missed the start by about 10 minutes so stayed for the whole film and then the next showing to get our money's worth. It's quite long.

The Godfather Part II is even longer. We missed the start of that and sat through the next showing.

It was an 18 and I would have been nine or 10. No one seemed to care much in those days.

My mum and I went to see a matinee showing of Saturday Night Fever in 1978 when I was 14. I had the hots for John Travolta but I probably looked 12 at the most.

I was challenged and my mum imperiously countered the ticket lady with: 'Do you think I'm the kind of woman who would bring a child to see a SEX film?' 'Well, do you?'

The woman was so intimidated she passed us the tickets without a murmur. I'm surprised my mum didn't demand a child ticket. She was that kind of woman. No one said no to her . If only I had that presence.

These days Saturday Night Fever would be a 15 at the most.

I don't mind as long as they just slip into the nearest available seats. But people who arrive late and then insist on barging into the middle of a row,forcing people to stand up, who then block the view of the people behind them are very annoying.

Saturday Night Fever is actually an 18. There is a PG cut though without the rape and nudity.