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

You think that's a pure coincidence?

Oh come on, you must be aware the trend is well to stop families enjoying the film. DD 15 admitted she went purely to see the disruption and videoed those innocent teenagers in suits...

Unfortunately, as my son in law has discovered since the film was released yesterday kids dressing up in suits have been bloody awful at every screening so far. There’s been carnage in his cinema, be it from teens without adult supervision disrupting the film by covering the floor in popcorn, shouting, having no regard for other users, to kids with their parents doing the same!

I can fully understand a cinema manager having a blanket ban. You don’t know if group A in suits is going to create carnage & group B in suits are going to sit there & watch the film. There’s nothing quite so tedious than picking up kilos of ruddy popcorn that has been deliberately lobbed everywhere in the auditorium with a 15 minute turnaround before the punters come in for the next screening!

Let alone losing profit because families are complaining about crap behaviour & as a manager you’re having to offer comps. Or handle complaints from the parents of kids that have been evicted for disrupting a performance & it can’t possibly have been their little Johnny that has been caught stuffing popcorn down the backs or the patrons in front or talking & taking selfies mid screening.

I put it was ridiculous, having read all the comments, it's not!

I didn't realise this was a "thing"!

Good for the cinema. They want to dress up because of the trend which is quite frankly really weird- cinema evidently has a policy of no young people in suits because they've been causing havoc.

Buy them tickets for the Rocky Horror Show instead?

Loads of teenagers are planning on going in suits. Yes, it is ridiculous but they are kids - they are meant to be ridiculous. As long as they just watch the film, it's fine. The problem is the cheering (and any other challenge involving disruption). If they want to sit with just their fingers touching (which is another challenge), crack on but disrupting the film is not on. I imagine the cinema has already had problems hence the no admittance.

DD went I see this today. They didnt dress up but we're going to. All the videos of it are basically masses of teens in suits causing a nuisancea and recording it for tiktok.
I don't blame the cinema for turning them away but understand why they were disappointed.

So that’s why everyone was dressed in suits!
We went to the 10am showing, it was just families in there and a row of well behaved boys upper ks2 I’d guess. When we came out the foyer was rammed with dressed up teens. If the aim is disruption then YABU but if they are just dressing up, it is a shame the bad behaviour of some ruins it for others.

I went to see minions last night with my young children and it was chaos. Never seen anything like it...dozens and dozens of teens screaming literally every couple of minutes eg whenever a new character came on. A few were running around the cinema at points. Some were throwing bananas. It was too much for the cinema's one security guard to deal with. If it had been just a handful of noise makers then they could have done something...but it was half the cinema at least so short of calling the police or stopping the film there wasn't a lot they could do. It took the poor cinema by surprise. The staff looked knackered and overwhelmed. So I can understand why on this occasion, after the chaos of opening night because of whatever this tik tok thing is, that they are being careful with the whole teenagers in suits things. They basically had to offer refunds to all the other customers last night.

I think this is the first time ever that a venue has had a 'no suits' dress code 😂

Unfortunately it looks like your DS and friend were discriminated against on the basis of they MIGHT copy aTik Tok trend of making a noise/ mess/ whatever. In fact any person in a cinema could do this, they don’t have to dress up to do it.
Yes, I’d complain to management.

Much easier to deny entry than try to chuck teenagers out during the film. Cinemas aren't inundated with staff.

Minions is a kids film. Why do loads of teenage boys suddenly want to go and see it unless it's to cause trouble?
It's really not just a kids film . Mark Kermode reviewed it and said it was brilliant. There are jokes in it aimed at adults as well as kids.
I can completely understand why 13 year olds would want to see it.
Having said that if there have been incidents of teenagers in suits causing trouble I can see why the cinema wouldn't admit kids in suits.

Cinemas can refuse entry for any reason. The fact that they were dressed up like kids who have caused trouble is ample reason to refuse them entry.

Having just popped onto TikTok to see for myself, it’s totally understandable they weren’t let in. I can only assume people who voted YANBU to complain haven’t read the responses here and don’t understand the reasoning.

I would be really pissed off to pay £30 for tickets and have to sit amongst that lot!

@QuebecBagnet out of interest, what sort of responses are going on the FB post? Just wondering if people are getting the understanding of why cinemas are refusing teens in suits.

Maybe it could be used as a lesson on how not to copy something just because they've seen it on social media. If they've seen the suit-wearing on TikTok it's highly unlikely that they haven't seen the TikTok challenges that go hand-in-hand with this.

The cinema staff will almost certainly have had notice from their bosses what has been happening in other cinemas. I can't blame them for wanting to prevent trouble rather than just wait and deal with the aftermath.

Hands up that was me! I was an early voter and now rectified!

If it’s some sort of viral
tiktok thing encouraging people to wear suits and then disrupt the film, I see the cinema’s point. We had something similar with the schools in our area last year. Some of the kids ended up charged with felonies it was so egregious. At our school it was just 12 year olds doing around 10k worth of damage to a bathroom in a single incident.

Totally agree with this. Trying to get kids out when they're with their mates and feeling brave, has disaster written all over it.

It’s unreasonable to expect the cinema to wait until people are disrupting the film for everybody else to then kick them out. Of course they should prevent anyone who looks like they’d be participating ahead of time so that everyone else’s time isn’t ruined and the cinema has to refund the whole screenings money.

Tbh I think it’s ok for the cinema to refuse entry if they’ve had teens causing trouble.

DS said there was a woman sitting in front of him with two primary aged children who kept trying to ask the group of Y9s in front of her to be quiet. DS also asked them to STFU.

i don’t think teens going along are necessarily out to be disruptive - DS certainly wasn’t - but if there’s a lot of rowdy behaviour it’s obviously not fair on younger children or indeed cinema staff.

The question really is (for me) why did your ds and friends suddenly feel the need to wear suit and ties to watch minions?

It's hot usually cinema attire or usually teen attire.

And do honestly think a public place should just accept "we wanted to dress up - honestly" as a reason for such out of character general public behaviour when it's known that there's a tik tok challenge where dressing in suits is part of it?

If my ds suddenly decided to dress unusually and attend a cinema I would have out my foot down before he went. There's no way I'd believe he suddenly decided on a whim to wear a suit and tie to a cinema viewing and it had nothing to do with social media and he had no intention of joining the challenge or at the very least making staff think that was his intention (even if he wouldn't have actually trashed the place).

Instead of complaining how about teaching your da about social optics and using common sense.

If they prevent the issue no poor sod on minimum wage has to deal with the confrontation or clear the mess up after the damage has been started.

Honestly, I am normally the first to defend teenagers for being tarnished with the same brush and unfairly judged. But the screening I went to, as I posted before, was like nothing else I have ever witnessed. Basically the whole back room of the cinema was teens and even those who weren't throwing bananas/popcorn around/ screaming at tops of voices were joining in with loud clapping at almost everything in the film and seemed to be there for (or at least enjoying) the atmosphere of chaos that their peers were causing (understandably- I can see that being very entertaining as a teen and as it was a childhood film of theirs I can understand the excitement of the new film!) ...but it was not fair on the poor cinema staff. It was absolutely crazy in there. If I hadn't witnessed this carnage I'd probably have voted yanbu but believe me, this was probably the right call to look after their staff and other customers - a very unusual situation indeed.