I'd rather have an app that screens all the other moviegoers so that I can arrange to sit in an area where I'm not surrounded by people who have some kind of Pavlovian response that 'movie' = 'feed my face with crunchy popcorn, slurpy drinks and sweets from a noisy plastic bag'.
People: You will not die if you go without carbs for a couple of hours.
For many, including me, going to a cinema is to treat ourselves and have a good time. If all I wanted was to watch a movie, I could've done that at home.
Well, like you, I go to the cinema because it has the facilities I can't afford to have at home - but while I sit there quietly, trying to enjoy a movie and not disturb anyone, all I can often hear is the noise of people around me eating, spilling popcorn, passing trays of food between family members and friends, or rummaging in packaging to fish out more food.
Seriously, this isn't worth developing into a long thread, and it's not personal, but it's not my idea of a "treat" to sit passively for an hour or so while ingesting over a thousand calories or pure carbs* - that's a diabetic and heart-crushing, self-harming time bomb.
*WebMD: "To save you money (how thoughtful), theaters offer combos. For example, for a mere $12 Regal hands you a medium popcorn and a medium soft drink, and AMC dishes up a large popcorn and a large soda," write CSPI researchers in their report published in the Nutrition Action Healthletter. "Where else can you be so distracted (by the movie) that you don't realize you've just swallowed 1,400 to 1,600 calories?"
I don't think you need an app to screen moviegoers for that, you need an app (or, really, a website) to rate theaters for that...Type and level of distracting behavior (whether its food related or conversation related) is a cultural preference, and different theaters serve different client bases with different dominant cultural preferences. This is in part an effect of geography, and in part self-selection through experience, but making it easier to share experience would make it easier for people to align their theater choices with their cultural preferences.
It is a really interesting idea dragonwriter, but it'd be rather impractical. most theaters within the driving distance you'd typically consider cater to basically the same kind of audience - so the culture would be the same. I'm sure there's some theater in South Dakota where they behave exactly like I want, but... I'm not going there to see movie!
In really urban areas, different theaters do attract distinctive clienteles. However, out in the 'burbs where most people live (and definitely in South Dakota), it's true that theaters basically just catch everyone nearby.
> In really urban areas, different theaters do attract distinctive clienteles. However, out in the 'burbs where most people live (and definitely in South Dakota), it's true that theaters basically just catch everyone nearby.
The experience I drew the principle from was experience in the suburbs; its true that theaters are more widely spaced there, but since people have to use cars to get anywhere anyway (which is less true in the city), the radius of consideration tends to be much larger, too. It evens out.
There are theaters that don't have plastic bags, though. The best ones are all 21-and-over, in the US, which cuts down on the noise and crowding considerably. I like CinéBistro, for example.
People: You will not die if you go without carbs for a couple of hours.