At that point, you should have got theater staff if they continued. Further speaking/yelling to them was rude to the other patrons. You couldn’t possibly be rude to them.
I agree with** Zebra** & ** Kamino Neko.**
Right – you said you would get management and then you didn’t. Consistency, followthrough. Cursing them out was called for but also rude.
I was accused of being rude (by my friends’ friends) for asking them to be quiet in the first place rather than just getting up and getting management, because in doing so I was also creating a distraction for other people in the theater and “what the girls were talking about was none of your business.” But they also were texting and didn’t turn off the sound that you hear when someone is pressing the keys!
One quiet, firm & courteous request is always called for.
That is kind of a legit point, actually. Instead of creating further distraction, it really would have been better for you to just get up and go get a manager or an usher or somebody.
Edit: But yeah, asking quietly the first time was okay. All subsequent requests were 1) doomed to failure and 2) prolonging the problem, though.
You weren’t rude, just ineffective. The problem is that you are dealing with a bunch of presumably drunk and coked up bitches who don’t give a shit that they are disturbing everyone. And they know that you don’t really have any authority to do anything but call management so you might as well skip a step and let management deal with it.
And technically, once they started throwing stuff at you, you could probably have had them arrested for assault. Make a big show of it like “MY EYE! I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO GET ARTIFICIAL BUTTER IN IT!” I suspect that cops wouldn’t normally make a big deal about something like that. But I also suspect those idiots would shoot their mouth off and dig their own hole for you.
Are you serious? This happens exactly as you described it --there were girls talking loudly, being shushed by everyone, they threw popcorn down your shirt-- and people told you that you were the rude one for telling them to shut the fuck up already? Really?
The only way that I can see you as the rude one is that maybe you were too wordy – and maybe loud – in your request. Even then it’s a real stretch.
My sister’s response to this statement: “But I’m not bothering anyone.”
BTW, stories like this are why I’d be willing to pay (I don’t know…$30-$50) to see a first-run movie in my basement, which features a 55" screen and a kick-ass sound system.
In real life everyone clapped as they were kicked out.. in person when I retell the story I am told I was rude, by some, and applauded by others.
I find it shocking - SHOCKING, that Sevencl is the one person who thinks the OP was more rude.
…a fire extinguisher.
I quote from an actual Letter To The Editor that was published in the local newspaper here a number of years ago:
(Yes, this actually happened. It even made it into a Dave Barry column.)
I can’t imagine on what planet these brats would not be considered rude and 100 percent at fault.
The only mistake the OP made was to delay (having his/her friend) having them kicked out. Next time, be firmer.
JERRY: I have to say, those people talking behind us really ruined that movie for me.
VANESSA: Why didn’t you do something?
JERRY: What do you want me to do? I gave the guy the half-turn. Then I gave him the full-turn with the eye roll. I mean, beyond that, I’m risking a punch in the mouth.
They were more rude, but you should have gotten management sooner.
Ah hmm. It seems pretty absurd to me that this could have unfolded the way you say it did, and there are still people on Earth who would claim you behaved rudely here. I reckon you’ve either taken some great liberties in your retelling of the story here, or the people who criticized how you handled the situation weren’t critical of how rude you were, but thought that you handled it pretty poorly, which I could see.
I’d like to point out that Fire Extinguisher Avenger would make a pretty good band name. 
Like many of us have said, *after the OP’s first perfectly acceptable threat to take a complaint to management, he was being rude to the other patrons *by continuing a loud argument with the girls.
I think that the op was spot on.
All too often people take the easy option and ignore the anti social behaviour, let alone fighting back.
Result ?
Everyones enjoyment is spoiled on that occasion, and the idiots carry on practicing their anti social behaviour whereever they are because they think that no one will stand up to them.
I don’t rate the cinema where it happened much, didn’t seem to be anyone keeping an eye on things, let alone doing anything about it.
Unhappy customers tend not to come back.
And their money stays away with them .
At that point, the damage had already been done. And when most people tell you you are being rude, without other qualifiers, they mean you were the rudest one in the situation. The rudeness, if you can call it that, was justified.
I mean, the OP doesn’t ask if he was rude, but who was ruder. It’s clear that the message he is getting is that he was the rudest one in the situation.