'A Minecraft Movie' Box Office Success Undermined by Chicken Jockey TikTok Trend – ryan

We really need to talk about movie theater etiquette. In what should have been a great weekend for cinemas, A Minecraft Movie opened well above expectations to deliver the biggest-ever opening weekend for a video game movie – a positive sign for the theater industry and for the future of going to the movies. Instead, it was overshadowed by reports of loud, rowdy screenings with teenagers and young adults throwing popcorn at the screen, shouting lines that quickly became TikTok trends, and treating a shared movie-going experience like a living room. It got so bad that the police were called to one screening, and various theaters have put up signs reminding people not to throw their popcorn and soda at the screen.

Theaters shouldn’t have to tell moviegoers not to throw food at the screen. They also shouldn’t have to remind audiences not to be on their phones during a movie, but people ignore it anyway. A Minecraft Movie is not the problem specifically, but a microcosm of a much larger issue that has plagued the movie-going experience for years. While going to the movies always had flaws, it appears that a couple of years of staying inside and watching movies at home during the COVID-19 pandemic has made people forget how to behave in a movie theater. If the issues present at the various screenings of A Minecraft Movie are not addressed, more people might be turned off from going to the movies.

A Minecraft Movie

Release Date: April 4, 2025
Runtime: 101 minutes
Director: Jared Hess
Writers: Chris Galletta, Gavin James, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Allison Schroeder, Chris Bowman
Producers: Jason Momoa, Jill Messick, Mary Parent, Roy Lee, Todd Hallowell, Cale Boyter, Jon Berg, Jon Spaihts, Brian Andrew Mendoza, Vu Bui, Lydia Winters

Cast

Jason Momoa

Garrett Garrison

Movie Theater Behavior Has Been Slipping for Quite Some Time

There are a number of factors that help explain why movie attendance has declined since the COVID-19 pandemic. Ticket price inflation and shorter theatrical windows, which have conditioned audiences to watch more movies at home, are certainly significant factors. Yet another major factor likely contributing to decreased movie attendance in recent years is poor audience behavior. Going to the movies has always come with the risk of bad behavior (try seeing any horror movie on opening night), and cell phones have only increased that risk.

For example, AMC Theaters has two PSAs telling moviegoers to turn off their phones and keep them tucked away during the movie. One plays before the trailers start, and one plays before the film begins, for any audience members coming in late. Yet, despite two decades of theaters reminding people not to use their phones during a movie, people still largely ignore it. For the person pulling out their phone, that rule applies to everyone except them. But what happens when everyone thinks that? It’s now nearly impossible to go to the movies and not see someone pulling out their phone and distracting everyone around them with their bright screen.

Some people will say, “I’m just checking my text” or “quickly responding,” but why not get up and leave the theater? It might mean missing part of the movie, but why should one person’s text messages impact everyone else? The movie theater is the one place where it is socially acceptable for people to put their phones away and not constantly need to check them, yet some still choose to do it.

How Did Popcorn Become Associated with Movies?

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Talking in a movie theater has also become far too common. While one shouldn’t need to speak at all, and nobody should be whispering to their friends throughout the movie, there are a few cases where a small, light whisper is acceptable (like asking a friend if they want a refill), but there shouldn’t be whole sentences of commentary spoken at full-volume. Nobody is paying for your commentary. Talking in a theater or making jokes like you’re on the couch at home is rude. Everyone paid for a ticket, so everyone should be paying for the proper movie theater experience, and it only takes one person to ruin the whole thing.

Movie theater behavior is so bad that there were concerns that some fans would sing during Wicked, which led to AMC putting out a special ad reminding people to be quiet. Think about that for a second. People, mostly grown adults, had to be reminded not to treat a movie like a sing-along DVD at home. There were actual concerns on opening weekend that moviegoers would have to listen to someone belt out “Defying Gravity,” despite that behavior being frowned upon… and the worst part was that some people still sang along!

What is happening with A Minecraft Movie is an extreme version of what is becoming routine, and it might turn others off from going to the movie. Why spend nearly $20 on a ticket when you might have to deal with someone shouting at the screen because they want to be the center of attention? Or sit behind someone who turns up the brightness on their phone so they can take a photo of the film’s title card to post it on Instagram? So, what is seemingly good news for A Minecraft Movie is bad news for every other type of movie.

Increased Bad Behavior Is Being Encouraged

As with the Gentle Minions craze from 2022, younger moviegoers are partaking in a fad – this time, the Chicken Jockey TikTok trend – hoping to go viral online. Audience members are intentionally being loud and disruptive in an effort to be recorded on camera and become a viral meme on social media. Others see the post on TikTok and try to repeat it. It’s performative disruption in the hopes of making “content.” Younger moviegoers aren’t exclusively to blame. There are plenty of adults misbehaving in movie theaters, too, but it certainly says something that a movie like Dog Man or Paddington in Peru might have a more well-behaved audience than some movies with a PG-13 or R rating.

Even worse is when studios and filmmakers encourage this behavior, as when Dwayne Johnson encouraged people to sing during Moana 2 and Wicked, for some reason. While they might not be telling people to shout and throw popcorn, as is the case at A Minecraft Movie screenings, this is the natural evolution of moviegoers recording scenes from movies playing in theaters and uploading them online to get social media engagement. Some filmmakers and studios even share these videos, although filming a movie in a theater is considered piracy, and it goes against theaters’ message of putting your phone away. Why would moviegoers put their phones away if recording a brief clip of an audience reacting to the movie could get them shared by the director or star of the film? The answer should be common courtesy for others, but for some people, that seems to be asking too much.

Despite What Dwayne Johnson Says, You Shouldn’t Be Able to Sing During ‘Wicked’

To sing or not to sing, that is the question when it comes to the release of the musical sensation ‘Wicked,’ and Dwayne Johnson has some thoughts.

Now, movie theaters need to crack down on people using their phones during screenings, yet they can’t afford to have someone constantly monitoring every showing to make sure people are behaving. They shouldn’t need to treat audiences, typically mostly composed of adults, like children. Everyone knows how to act in a movie, but some choose not to.

People already feel far too comfortable leaving their food and drinks behind when they leave the theater because they think, “Well, the theater employee gets paid to clean it up.” Ask any theater employee who worked the opening weekend of A Minecraft Movie, and they will likely tell you it was one of the worst work weekends of their life. A friend of mine who works at a movie theater described it with the same tenor of horror as a soldier returning from war.

Movie Theaters Are at Risk

Movies are a shared experience, and they are best enjoyed that way. There is nothing wrong with a pre-approved rowdy screening if the audience knows what they are getting into, like with the many screenings of A Rocky Horror Picture Show. Most people know the opening Thursday night screening of a new Marvel movie will be filled with more cheers and fan screams than a Saturday matinée. Even Wicked provided audiences with sing-along screenings later in its run. However, what is happening with A Minecraft Movie is taking the fun of what is supposed to be a shared experience and turning it into a selfish moment of indulgence. There is room to cheer and react appropriately during a movie, but shouting and throwing concessions all over the place is not it.

Going to the movies should be fun, but should one individual’s fun come at the expense of everyone else’s enjoyment? We need to start trying to make the movies a better place to go and enforce rules and expectations for good behavior. If not, the movie-goers who regularly show up for a variety of new releases will stop coming, and new movie-goers will be deterred. All that will remain is a sea of phone screens taking screenshots and recording videos of people dancing, singing, and throwing beverages at the screen while only half-paying attention to the movie.