Cinema stopping kids in suits from coming in - Minions

[jackstini]

DS & his friend (both 13) had tickets this pm for Minions, Rise of Gru

Like lots of people per TikTok, they dressed up in suits/ties - just for fun
Got to cinema and were told they couldn't come in because of what they were wearing

DS called me upset and DH went down to see if he could sort it. Found 5 grown men standing over them and a few other kids, shouting at them that they needed to leave and they were not allowed in. Kids felt very intimidated

No dress code visible in the cinema or on the website

DH asked if they had misbehaved and was told no, we just don't like this suit thing as some of the people on TikTok have kicked off
DH pointed out, they hadn't kicked off, just wanted to watch the film, so what was the problem. Stoney silence
He took them outside, took their jackets & ties off & they went back in 5 minutes later and were admitted by a different member of staff

Is it just me or is this ridiculous? And pathetic for them to treat kids like that

I really want to complain but wanted the MN population to vote on if you think they were BU or not

YANBU - cinema staff were out of order & I should complain
YABU - don't complain

Bullshit. My sons and their friends went in suits, as did lots of groups. No trashing, no messing. They dressed up, they saw the film, they left. That's it.

Oh come on. Maybe your teens are angels and wouldn't do anything. But it's just like shops that don't let me than 3 teens in at a time. Most teens are fine, but get a group together especially with these stupid tictok trends and they can be idiots. Your cinema can tell who will be fine and who wouldn't be. As far a they know their mates will be joining them shortly with suits on. If they are that bothered about seeing the film they can go in normal clothes. You're being precious about your teens.

My son went in a group of 16 teens and was so proud of himself for getting his first proper suit from a charity shop (at a discount because the woman serving thought he was so sweet). They had a lovely time and have some great pics of them all dressed up. I'm sure some groups WERE stupid, but it's a huge shame that staff didn't wait to see whether yours behaved or not before chucking them out. Was such a great, fun experience for ds and his friends. Yanbu.

Ah. All is clear. I didn't (stupidly) realise it was a TikTok challenge. DS 15 went on Friday night with 'some mates from class' and 'we're wearing suits. It'll be cool'. When we dropped him off, noticed there were abut 100 boys all dressed up in suits on their way to the cinema. Apparently some of them were mucking about and those that weren't teenage boys dressed up got a refund. So, I can understand the cinema being shirty about it (no pun intended!) as they still have a business to run an

How do you all know for absolute certain your sons were not being little shits? Were you there with them supervising? Or do you seriously think they’d come home and tell you they were shouting and acting like dickheads and ended up getting kicked out?

So unbelievably naive

Cinemas are becoming a nightmare with all the trouble and antisocial behaviour. They really need to crack down on it otherwise they're going to go out of business.

YABU to let your children watch TikTok. HTH.

As a group of teenagers 20 years ago, my group of friends were SO sensible, our parents would have been on forums saying we weren’t trouble makers etc.

I can still remember going to watch Crossroads starring Britney Spears, climbing over chairs, throwing popcorn, singing at the top of our voices.. relatively harmless fun, but I imagine SO annoying to anyone else in the theatre (although I don’t remember it being busy, and we were the target audience for the film!).

I imagine a lot of these kids are generally well behaved, but when they’re going en masse, swept up in a craze, I can see how a lot can become loud (fake laughing, cheering) in an innocent but disruptive to other viewers way that the cinemas are feeling a need to crack down on…

'teenagers gonna (sic) teenage'

Terrorists gonna terrorise. (just a few bombs)

Dictators gonna dictate. (just a few missiles)

Ah well. That's all right then.

Teenagers running riot in cinemas?? It’s like Rock Around The Clock all over again…..😳

(I don’t really get the suit thing, but I’m definitely with the cinemas on this!)

If it's true that the original trend was just to wear suits and then it escalated, I'm afraid it's just a case of the few ruining it for the many. No, it isn't fair but I don't know what option a cinema has. I don't imagine it's that easy to just remove a group of rowdy teenagers in the middle of the film without ruining it for others.

@Clymene I don't understand all the laughing emojis at my post. Not kind.

I'll give it a go to help you out understanding.

Wanting to dress up smartly for a trip to the cinema when you are 15-ish to see a children's film when coincidentally there is a big old craze for wearing suits to the cinema to see that exact same children's film and then wrecking the joint...but it's just a coincidence and you just happen to want to dress smartly to the cinema....is preposterous.

It isn't believable. It's likely that you are being hoodwinked.

Perhaps your child wants a suit to go to see the Minions film because of the TikTok challenge. To me, that seems more likely than he wants to dress smartly to go to,the cinema.

A friends daughter works at a cinema:
'Oh god we've had people wearing suits and throwing bananas at the screen, Sorting the bins last night was chaos. I'm scared to see what the new Thor film will bring. Everyone is talking about almonds for some reason'.
She's a sensitive gentle soul and dealing with near riots isn't funny. It certainly isn't unreasonable to stop any potential trouble that ruins other cinema goers entertainment and worries the staff.

Sadly whilst your child probably was doing it for fun, a lot have turned up and acted like twits and ruined it for everyone else
DD wanted to do it when they go with their mates and I said no because it was supposed to be seen as an issue due to a minority doing it not just for a giggle but to disrupt others.

I went to see it with my young son and the cinema was packed with teens (a lot wearing suits) they were all perfectly well behaved and quiet during the film, it was lovely to see them all enjoying some harmless fun.

Really weird. We used to dress up to watch the Harry Potter films when I was a teen.

It’s really odd how there’s never any parents whose kids are capable of being inconsiderate pop up. I’m going to presume those who are silent aren’t under any delusions that they don’t know for sure what their kids have definitely been up to.

anyway, having watched some TikTok compilations on YouTube I’ve made the decision not to take my dd to the cinema to see this for some time yet. Some of them look and sound like football matches. In a kids film in a cinema. My dd would be terrified to find herself in that environment unexpectedly.

But not screech and throw bananas.

Children have been dressing up to go to the cinema for decades. I remember wearing a Snow White dress to go and see Snow White. But it wasn't associated with preventing other people from enjoying the film. That's the difference.

From a cinema's point of view, if they have heard about a screening, get disrupted and trashed. That will have cost them a lot, they will have to have, refunded people's tickets, not everyone who was refunded or give a free ticket to another screening, would want to gone back if I had a young child and this had happened when I was there, I wouldn't go back, I would look for another cinema. So they will have told other cinemas, to be on the look out, as it could happen again.
They could have handled it better, by saying if you take off your jackets and behave your self, we will let you in. I did work in a cinema and we encouraged dressing up for kids films, free sweets/popcorn for those dressed up. But it was normally the little ones under 10. Older people dressed up, where normally for marvel films not the minions.

What they need is a few of their teachers in each screening*. A couple of words in a teacher voice will sort them right out!

*(Obviously this is a partly tongue in cheek comment, though I did once manage to stop a group of youths cocking about with a Tube barrier by very firmly telling them to pack it in and get out of the way. Poor sheltered DH nearly passed out!).

This is hilarious welcome to 2022. I really hope the internet brakes before my DS grows up to be drawn in by these tik tok challenges

Case closed.

My local small independent cinema has had to introduce a rule that under 18’s must be accompanied by an over18 to gain entrance to see this film. This is a direct result of the twats doing the tiktok challenge. Friday afternoon and Friday evening showings both had the same problem of large numbers of teens turning up in suits and not only being abusive to the staff and parents with young children but endless noise throughout the film, throwing food, throwing drinks and empty and not so empty bottle.
On Friday night I was working just past where the cinema is and one of my colleagues had to phone the police as after they had left the cinema about 80 teens in their suits decided to carry on the fun and kick the shit out of each other in the middle of town . A few other film goers who hadn’t demanded a refund and left half way though the film also had to face that on their way home.

But of course these weren’t the sons of mn posters as their children are all little angels who fart rainbows.