The movie you’ve been waiting to see for two whole months is about to show on the screen, but out of the corner of your eye you see a light.  What on earth could that be?  You look down three rows and see a kid on his cell phone.  Really?

     The movie theater is a place where people go to have fun and relax, but it is hard to have a good time when you have to deal with numerous distractions.

     Katie Peters, MHS junior, says “Seeing people using their cell phones during a movie is always distracting.”

     MHS freshman John Peck, says, “I don’t like it when people laugh at everything even if it isn’t funny.  Another thing that bugs me is when cell phones go off.”

     Disagreeing with both Peck and Peters, Jeff Guggenheim, MHS sophomore, responds, “People are usually pretty good about not being distracting.  There are the occasional petty distractions, but those are pretty rare.”

      Brian Austin, MHS senior, says, “I don’t mind distractions unless it’s obnoxious.”

     When distractions occur during the middle of a movie it is difficult to confront the perpetrator and tell him or her to stop.

     Peters states, “Typically, I don’t say anything . . . confronting someone during a movie just distracts other people.”

     Often, there are times when the distractions are so unique that you can’t forget them.  Peck recalls a significant experience in which he was annoyed.  Peck says, “I was at a 12:00 showing for Harry Potter and someone fell asleep next to me and was snoring.”

     Alice Barnes, sophomore, also has a unique experience with distractions.  Barnes said, “One time I was at a movie with a friend and a couple continually got up throughout the movie. On their way back from what seemed to be their 5th exit, the boy tripped and spilled his popcorn and his drink all over us . . . it was sticky and a little uncomfortable.”

     A senior at MHS, Haley Fallon, is an employee at the Mariemont Movie Theater.  When asked if she had ever witnessed complaints by viewers, Fallon responded, “I’ve never had any complaints.  The theater I work at is small and we get the same group of customers each week, so everyone is pretty considerate.”

     So as you can see, people are pretty laid back when distractions occur in a movie theater.  There are, however, those rare moments when people actually do react.

     Peck states, “There was one time where I laughed throughout a whole movie, and someone decided to throw popcorn at me.”