Yeah. I am often appalled by the ages of kids whom I’ve seen exiting very adult movies! When hubby and I went some years ago to see Saving Private Ryan, after the movie let out I saw a woman leaving the same movie with kids who were, maybe, 7 and 9 at most! I considered that movie too intense for even my 13 year old!
That’s nothing. I went to see Alien3 on its opening weekend, and caught the 12:00 noon show on Saturday.
The theater was 90% full.
Of that 90%, more then 75% were 17 years old or younger.
Of that 75%, more then 80% were under the age of 8.
Needless to say, virtually all of the dialoge and sound effects in the movie were drowned out by a continual chorus of shriekings, screechings, screamings and cryings, all of it made by the younger crowd.
The best part was how shocked, confused and surprised the parents were that their little Bobbi and Susie were so upset.:rolleyes:
AssHat 'rents.
Yeah, I wouldn’t shut up for weeks after seeing all the 12 and unders in The Ring and Red Dragon.
Those movies gave me nightmares, and I’m 25!
And I know they didn’t sneak in b/c the majority of them were with their clueless parents. :mad:
I was four the first time I got to see a movie in a theater, and since I remember going to other movies not too long after it couldn’t have gone that badly.
You wanna talk about people taking kids to inappropriate movies, my husband has the story to beat all stories. He went to a 9:00 or so showing of Monster’s Ball back when it was new, and there was a family with several small children in the theater. They stayed till the end, never once taking the kiddies out, even during what I hear were some pretty damn graphic sex scenes. He swears the parents must have thought they were going to Monsters, Inc., which was out about the same time. I, however, think that a) the posters out front b) the previews for other non-kid-friendly fare and c) the fact that it wasn’t a bloody cartoon would have tipped them off.
I took my son to Hercules, his first movie theater movie, for an afternoon matinee just before his third birthday. I prepped him with some useful info–that he was expected to not talk, that he could whisper if he needed something, that he could take in his stuffed Shamu and hold it during the scary parts, and that my lap was always available. I also warned him that it would be very dark, and that the screen was really big–things that a kid might not know.
The biggie–I offered to take him out with no fuss if he wanted to leave. I was thinking of either boredom or fear, but I had already seen the movie myself and was truly willing to leave.
Didn’t have to, though…he crawled into my lap for the scary parts, and made it all the way through just fine. Bonus–he wasn’t potty trained yet, so no bathroom breaks!
The best part was at the beginning, when I took him to the candy counter and told him to pick any one thing for a snack–and he yelled out, “Hey, MOM! They got POPCORN here! RIGHT in the THEATER!!!”
Bottom line- I agree with the previous posters: go for a matinee, be prepared to leave without anger if you need to, tell your kid what to expect, and go ahead. You’ll never know until you try!
Have fun!
Yeah, this is gonna be an issue for us. My little one has been potty traied for about 4 months, and is at the phase where she is thrilled and delighted by all public bathrooms. If we go for a day of shopping, and in the course of the day, go into 6 different stores/restaurants, she will, indeed, have to use the potty 6 different times, in spite of the fact that the same amount of time at home results in her using the potty, oh, 2 or 3 times! The upside to the potty issue is that my two older daughters are both old enough to take her, so if we take turns with the potty breaks, none of us should have to miss too much of the movie.
Have you considered making a practice run at home? Rent a two-hour movie and see if your child can sit through it without talking loudly or wandering off.
Just make sure that leaving is a bad thing for the kid. A lot of the kids I’ve known don’t mind going to hang out in the lobby or whatever, cause there’s games and other stuff to look at and do. And a lot of kids I know have a fascination with public bathrooms, the movie theater being no exception, so I’d consider that as well. Hate to pay 8 bucks for a movie, then be in the bathroom for half of it.
If you think this might be an issue, please, I beg of your sit on the isle. I saw a movie awhile back (don’t remember which) and there was a family of 4 sitting to my left, I was near the isle. Throughout the course of the movie, this kid (probably about 5 or so) went to the bathroom no less than about 5 or 6 times. Drove me nuts because each time it was the same thing:
Pee-Pee Faucet: mom! (alas, the little kiddy hadn’t learned the fine art of whispering in a theatre yet)
Bitchy Mom: what? (ah, it’s becoming clear to me why jr. hadn’t learned the fine art of whispering in the theatre yet)
Pee-Pee Faucet: I gotta go to the bathroom!
Bitchy Mom to Pee Pee Siblings: Betty Sue, you take him!
Betty Sue: But I don’t wanna!
Bitchy Mom: Bobby Joe! Take him
Bobby Joe: I don’t wanna!
Bitchy Mom: TAKE HIM!!!
Bobby Joe: sigh FINE!
They would then proceed to climb over my friends and I. This same freakin’ routine happened every goddamn time the little pee machine had to go (which was about every 20 minutes). I almost had a nervous breakdown by the time the movie was over.
Please, please please don’t be one of those.
I took my kid to the first Pokemon movie when she had just turned three. She was really, really looking forward to it, though–a big Pokemon fan.
Her only problem (and she still has this problem, to some extent, as a six-year-old) is that the exciting part of the movie, especially when the hero of the movie is in some sort of danger, is always scary to her. She really identifies with the movie. She doesn’t cry or run away, but she does sometimes hide her eyes and squirm. She says she likes the movie when it’s over, though. I think that now it’s like going on a roller coaster for her…scary, but you come out OK, so it’s fun.
You may want to read a spoiler, or preview the movie, so that you can whisper a bit of what’s going to happen next or tell her that the hero will be OK if she gets too anxious.
Bring a blankie. Theaters are cold.
I’ll try to keep this from being a hijack. Of course, I could post one of those blasted threads called “Ask the former disgruntled movie theater employee”
You know, I haggled with the upper management about how to do something about people for quite some time. We suggested a lot of ideas, including having an employee come in for a shift in plain clothes and just kind of bounce around the theaters, keeping an eye on the crowd. The solution: corporate didn’t care. You see, we made next to nothing on movie tickets. I’m sure most of you have heard this before. And the sad fact is, it’s more convenient for them to refund tickets of three people who are ruining half of everyones movie then to fund a project that could stop it before it started. And if people complain, give them a pass for their next visit. Why should they care? They’re losing less than 8 cents per ticket (about the price of the paper + the money we make off of them from the studio) and making about 1000% on the price of a large popcorn.
Oh, and about shocking seats, I don’t think that’s happened since Percepto!
I’m one of those moviegoers who begrudges the presence of other adults at the movies let alone kids but I’d say give her a chance.
While my kids were to young too sit through a movie, my wife and I went with friends ( her with her friends, me with mine) to separate sessions or had the kid(s) looked after and went together. Nowadays it seems that people think it’s OK to turn up with disinterested kids to adult fare. I saw Enemy At the Gates and people had children under 8 at the session.
Your daughter has to start sometime and even a grumpy bastard like me would not mind her making noise in a matinee session of a family movie.
Good luck to you because I think your exit strategy sounds very good. Just ask her “Have you seen enough of the movie now?” if she’s passed the point of troubling others and happily head off. Sounds like no future therapy bills coming up in your family.
lezlers, a point well made. But I’ve never, ever “been one of those”, and don’t intend to start now! I would talk to the older girls about this arrangement ahead of time (they’re 15 and 12), so everyone understands the deal, and we would proceed in a polite, quiet, aisle-sitting manner (I always like to sit on the aisle anyway, cuz I have weak kidneys and usually have to get up at least once during the movie).