The cinema is one of the few remaining shared public experiences where the behaviour of one person genuinely affects the quality of the experience for everyone around them. Most people know the basics. Fewer people know the finer points, and those finer points are often what separates a genuinely pleasurable cinema experience from one that leaves everyone in the row mildly irritated with someone they have never met.
The phone is not on silent enough
Silent mode is the minimum, not the standard. A vibrating phone on an armrest is audible in a quiet cinema. More significantly, a lit screen in a dark room is visible to dozens of people sitting behind and beside you. The correct phone protocol is silent mode, face down on your lap or in your bag, for the duration of the film. Texting, even silently, is not acceptable. Checking the time is not acceptable. If you genuinely cannot be unreachable for two hours, consider whether this is the right evening for a cinema trip.
The middle armrest has an unwritten owner
When three seats are occupied in a row, the person in the middle gets both middle armrests. The people on the ends have access to an outer armrest each. This is the unwritten social contract of cinema seating, and violating it is the source of low-level resentment in cinemas worldwide. If you are on an end, you have the armrest to yourself; the middle one is for the person beside you.
Arrive before the film starts
Previews exist partly as a buffer for late arrivals. The film itself does not. Arriving after the feature has begun and edging along a row in front of seated viewers, blocking the screen and apologising in a whisper to each person you pass is one of the more socially costly cinema experiences available. If late arrival is unavoidable, enter as low and quickly as possible, move to the nearest available seat that does not require passing others, and settle.
Your children and the rating on the door
Bringing very young children to films with mature content affects the experience of everyone in the room, including the children. Age ratings exist as a guide, and a three-year-old in a late-night screening of a horror film or an adult thriller is almost always going to cry or ask questions during the film. The same applies to very young children in packed sessions where silence is expected. Family screenings and matinees are designed specifically for this reason.
The post-credits convention
If you plan to leave before the credits end, do so quietly and do not stand in front of seated viewers who are waiting for a post-credits scene. If you are not leaving, do not rustle loudly with bags, announce the post-credits scene to those around you, or take calls in the auditorium while others are still watching. The credits are part of the film.
Snack choices and timing
Loud snacks are a genuine issue and most avid cinema-goers have a view on this. Popcorn is loud but universally accepted as a cinema food. A bag of boiled sweets opened very slowly, one at a time, throughout the film is more disruptive than it sounds. If you are eating something crunchy, the appropriate time to eat it is during dialogue-heavy or action-heavy scenes where the ambient volume of the film absorbs the sound. Eating through a quiet dramatic scene is the snack timing equivalent of answering your phone at the wrong moment.
The conversation limit
Talking to the person beside you during a film, not whispering but actual commentary or questions, affects everyone within earshot. A brief whispered exchange, fine. Running commentary or plot questions, not fine. Talking to the screen, to a character, to express a reaction at volume: this is something that feels organic in a living room and is surprisingly disruptive in a cinema. The experience of everyone in the room is diminished by it.
Recliners
If you are in a cinema with reclining seats, check behind you before reclining fully. In many modern cinemas the seats are spaced to accommodate this. In older conversions they are not always, and a fully reclined seat can significantly reduce the sight line for the person directly behind you.
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