Wicked brought phones to theatres. They’re probably here to stay

Wicked reintroduced millions to the world of Oz last weekend — and has already made millions doing it. But aside from any magic it brought back into the world, audiences are noticing a trend.

“People just have thrown all etiquette right out the window,” culture writer Amil Niazi told CBC News in an interview. “It just has gotten to a point where I think people feel like the theatre is their living room, and we have to correct that.”

That’s ranged from openly talking during the movie to loudly singing along with the music (the latter of which has sparked encouragement from star Cynthia Erivo). But the most egregious example, in Niazi’s opinion, has cropped up in more screenings than just Wicked‘s: cellphone use. 

Since the movie’s debut, photos and footage of its opening title card have gone viral on social media sites like X. Those images are captured by rabid fans — and, Niazi said, often influencers — at the expense of everyone else in the theatre.

And what’s worse: Few of them seem to care.

“Chill lmao it’s not that deep,” “y’all r insufferable omg,” and “I’ll do what I want thanks” are some of the responses to criticisms of theatre phone use. It’s a pervasive shift in public opinion that for some ruins the entire movie-going experience.

“People are excited to share their experiences, their thoughts, their reactions to the films,” Niazi said. “Inside the theatre, we have to clamp down a little bit more on this behaviour, because often there’s no one walking around to stop them, right?”

While phone use in movie theatres isn’t necessarily new, the focus it’s gotten from Wicked seems to have kicked it into overdrive — along with the potential legal implications of recording and sharing Hollywood movies.

But Robert Cousins, Cineplex senior vice-president of film, says the problem isn’t a degradation of theatre etiquette at all.

Instead, it’s “different types of behaviour that we’ve seen in other forms of entertainment are filtering their way into the experience.”

That means young people, who largely missed the theatre-going experience for the better part of two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, are bringing in behaviour motivated by social media use. How they would — and have — behaved at Taylor Swift concerts, and even out on the street, he said, is making its way into the theatrical experience.

‘We’re not here to kill joy’

While smaller chains, like Alamo Drafthouse in the U.S., have taken a strong stance against the practice, that’s not in the cards for Canada’s largest theatre chain. Outside of a few ads meant to remind people not to disrupt other audience members, they plan on keeping out of the debate. 

“We’re not here to kill joy,” Cousins said, noting the company won’t be reintroducing ushers nationwide to personally chastise people using their phones. While rules may vary by theatre, having workers scold guests during a movie would be too distracting.

And, he says, disruptive behaviour typically peaks during the opening weekend of most popular films, then tapers off, as there’s some social cred in others knowing you were among the first to watch something.

As for the possibility of taking people’s phones before they come into the theatre, he dismissed it out of hand: “I’m just not going to do that.”

When it comes to the piracy argument, as long as theatre-goers don’t reveal major plot points or record large chunks of the movie, “it’s not piracy,” Cousins said. 

“It is letting people know that ‘I have seen this; I like this — here’s a scene or a shot I thought was fantastic.'”

The only thing that may roll back the tide is what’s minimized theatre phone use till now: cultural expectations.    

“As much as I would love to, I can’t be a police force within the auditorium,” he said.

“I would only hope that social norms that we’ve all accepted over the years would be what makes you behave in a certain way.”

What happened to shame?

Unfortunately, shame appears to be the main thing breaking down — and what we have the least chances of changing.

Cathy O’Neil, a mathematician and author of The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation, says shame is a potent social tool, used both healthily and unhealthily for much of our history.

In a group with shared beliefs, getting shamed for behaving in a way that goes against the collective’s best interests could lead to shunning or ostracization. Though it can backfire when used inappropriately, shame can stop something as elemental as hoarding food. O’Neil calls it “healthy shame,” and it’s incredibly important, and often very effective. 

But that only works when people agree on what makes something shameful. And for so many young people, in addition to not spending much time in theatres, they’re encouraged to prioritize capturing a potentially viral moment, instead of upholding unspoken social rules. That means those beliefs aren’t as shared as they were before.

“Our society has fractured, and we have literally different norms. So our attempts to shame other norm groups and to behave into good behaviour has the opposite effect,” she said. “And when people feel like, ‘Hey, you’re trying to shame me into doing something I don’t agree with,’ then of course the reaction is not only outrage, but to behave in the exact opposite direction.”

At the same time, she said, it’s misdirected: In this case, as in most instances of public shaming, it’s the social media companies whose platforms incentivize attention-grabbing behaviour that should be shamed, she said — not the people who’ve been manipulated by them.

However, the sheer success that social media companies have had in hooking users to their platforms — and to phones — means it’s unlikely that societal norms can quickly swing back the other way.

“If the group of people that enjoy being on their phone and drowning out other people by talking becomes large enough — if that becomes 90 per cent of the people — that’s the new norm,” O’Neil said.

“Us old fogies want to see movies in silence. But if it’s not the way it’s done anymore, we have to adjust.”