Xavier will watch a comedy, Gambit, British Fraud. During the filming, her neighbor took out her smartphone and checked her email. Xavier is disturbed by the light of the smartphone. He asked the person to shut it down. She shrugged and continued. Because of this inability, Xavier searched for a UGC employee who forced the audience to turn off their phones.
The moviegoers are already annoyed by the sound of pine trees crushing popcorn and unnecessary phone rings. Now, they must be moved away from the small screen. Is the theater operator aware of the embarrassment this brings? Yes, UGC, the second French operator after Pathé-Gaumont, replied: “Receptionists should intervene on a regular basis upon request, or spontaneously encourage viewers to turn off the screen.”
In addition, “most rooms are equipped with cell phone jammer” to prevent the phone from ringing and make it impossible to make calls.
The UGC stated that it “pays attention to any content that may interfere with the screening: for example, once a blockbuster movie starts, late movies will not be accepted in the cinema.”
Pathé-Gaumont stated that it is conducting a “temporary campaign against the use of telephones” as it did during the screening of the movie “Hitchcock”:
The nervous host spoke to the audience in person: “Please don’t write any words in the movie, because it will make everyone feel psychologically uncomfortable!”
In addition, Pathé Gaumont displays the “Live My Screening” charter in all movie theaters, reminding you that it is recommended to turn off your mobile phone to watch movies in good condition.
Marc Olivier Sebbag, the general representative of the French National Film Union, assured us that even if some audiences follow the “atawad” principle (that is, “anytime, anywhere”), the use of smartphones in movie theaters is trivial. , Any equipment”.
Ifop’s survey on mobile phone addiction released on February 22 found that only 9% of smartphone owners would use them in movie theaters to check their messages (SMS or MMS), emails or voicemails. .
(From January 24 to 25, 995 people were interviewed online and participated in a one-on-one meeting on digital transportation).
Therefore, they do this much less frequently than watching TV (54%).
Mr. Sebbag added that the public is divided about the embarrassment caused by popcorn, for example: “In the United States, in movies, the audience gets up to buy things, and the light in the room is much stronger than… France,” he said. .