Why are people so gross in the cinema?

[Raffaelli]

Went to cinema yesterday, was great (though very expensive!). Was quite shocking seeing the mess after. Drink cups all over the floor. Popcorn EVERYWHERE. The majority of rubbish just left strewn all over the seats and the floor. I get it's dark and you might drop a bit of popcorn here or there, but it wasn't even a kids film so no children involved. What is it about the cinema that leaves people thinking it's OK to treat it so badly? There were plenty of bins and someone with a bag collecting rubbish from people at the end...

YANBU. We went today and it was similar.

At ours they ask you to leave rubbish behind, which is fine. But I can't get over the popcorn which has clearly just been chucked around.

I am no small eater, but it amazes me the amount of food and drink people need for a two hour film.

Ours (pre covid anyway, haven't been since 2019) tell you to leave your rubbish on the floor.

My local cinema has a bin at the door but it’s small and usually bunged full of cups and popcorn buckets before half the cinema is empty.

Really? I've never come across that before. I guess it makes it easier for them to sweep up. I just shove all my rubbish in my bag and into my wheelie bin at home.

The regular ones we go to ask people to leave their rubbish too so they can recycle. The popcorn everywhere is out of order though!!

yep, ours asks us to leave rubbish by the seats for the staff to deal with. My ex withering a cinema and between shoes there is time to ‘clean the screens’

They are gross all the time, but the cinema is one of relatively few places you are in a confined area with strangers for a long period of time, so you notice. Have you ever checked out the state other people leave plane seats in when they leave? Quite unbelievable.

Depends on the film and the audience imho!
We went to see Conclave and I couldn't see or hear anyone eating or drinking and no mess made. Probably because it was an older audience - no teens being loud/eating smelly food!

I can't stand the cinema any more, people can't go a couple of hours without eating smelly, noisy food and suppling bucket sized drinks, it's gross & anti social.

The cinema in the nearest town to us, plus the two in the nearest city (3 different brands) all ask that you leave your rubbish at your seat and don’t bring it out. The bins they have in the corridor areas just end up jammed full and not split for recycling. They go in with different coloured bags and split up the rubbish for their recycling bins. You’re meant to leave it at your seat.

But you’re not meant to chuck popcorn around!

Our cinema ask you to leave rubbish behind so that they can recycle as a previous poster mentioned. Ordinarily we don’t chuck popcorn around, however, the odd occasion my kids have accidentally spilt their popcorn due to them being filled so high.

I said this last week. How entitled are people leaving their rubbish just where they sat. They're disgusting. It's not like there aren't loads of bins in the foyer either.
What turned my stomach was a woman taking her popcorn into the toilets ! Don't know where she put it in there.

Have you read any other comments? You’re told to leave your rubbish because the collect it in different bags for recycling. I worked at the cinema when I was 17 and we even did it then! You’re meant to leave the rubbish and not jam it all into the foyer bins.

Oh I see you're told to leave it cos people are incapable of recycling themselves they can't read the bins. Of course.

I don’t have a single cinema anywhere near me with split recycling bins in the foyer. Just single bins. So you can’t recycle your stuff properly to yourself. The cinema collect it separately themselves from the screens and put it into the relevant dumpsters outside. It’s always been that way.

Learn something new every day then!

I think some of it comes down to it being dark, and having to squeeze by each other to get to the toilet etc, popcorn is so easily spilled, especially because it comes really full.

@Raffaelli

Cinema popcorn is the most revolting food. Smells vile too.

I recall though from childhood bags of "Butterkist" for which you needed a separate seat!

Same, op. We went to our local showcase last night and the mess was absolutely revolting. I've never seen it like that ever before and it's really put me off going again.

No I did not rtft and no I didn't know that. Wow learn something new every day. People aren't just scruffy bastards after all.

I don't see why they need to throw their waste on the floor though.

The bloody size of the popcorn buckets is atrocious

Nobody needs that much popcorn

I always think I’m a tidy eater until I eat popcorn on the cinema. The darkness plus ease of dropping handfuls of popcorn = disaster. I do clean it up though.

Yeah, when the lights go on it looks like a food fight happened. When you think about it, popcorn is a ridiculous thing to try to eat quietly by hand in the dark. Endless foraging and crunching noise. Most cinema food is incompatible with the velvet chairs. Imagine doing it at home: turning the lights off then having a go at eating nachos with grated cheese from a cardboard tray on your knee.