Problem in theater? Just buzz manager!

08-04-2006
The News Journal (Wilmington, DE)

Sick of folks talking on cell phones during movies? Movies that are showing half on the wall? People cursing or behaving inappropriately? Weird sound levels?

Regal Brandywine Town Center 16 in Brandywine Hundred is one of 13 Regal Entertainment theaters testing a new Guest Response System that will allow theatergoers to buzz management if there's a problem.

While Regal workers routinely patrol auditoriums, the company hopes the system will make moviegoing a more pleasant experience.

Under the program, theater workers will invite selected patrons to carry a paging device into the theater. Each device has four buttons. Each button alerts management to a different problem, such as sound or picture problems, a disturbance or piracy. When the patron pushes a button, a message goes to a device worn by a manager that tells the nature of the concern and the auditorium.

"If something needs attention, we want to know about it and respond as quickly as possible," Dick Westerling of Regal said in a statement. "With the Regal Guest Response System, our patrons provide us extra eyes and ears, and can immediately report concerns without leaving their seat."

i saw John Tucker Must Die the other day at the AMC on 42nd and there were a bunch of kids who seemed to fancy themselves gangstas, who were using their walkie talkie phone functions, talking, standing up, changing seats and finally, eventually leaving when they decided the movie was 'whack'

audience members were actually yelling at them to sit down and shut up, but i guess they had to prove to each other that they werent intimidated by ignoring others around them.

I saw this on the news about a week or so ago. It's an amazing function! They should do this for Broadway shows, too.

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This is nice. I hate being in a movie with stupid teenagers who are throwing things and talking the entire time, I really don't get why they bother paying.

Go Regal!

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I really dread going to see movies anymore - especially if it's a big movie.

It's funny how when I go to see movies like UNITED 93, FRIENDS WITH MONEY, A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, etc., there is no one there that behaves like a moron.

I absolutely hate it. I hate to say it - and I know it's probably unfair (or probably just because I see most of my movies on E. 86th St.), but it seems that more than half of the offenders are either hispanic or black. Just last weekend there were a huge group of kids in front of me who talked through the whole thing. They answered their phones, texted people, and even used the obnoxious NEXTEL walkie talkie function with the ear piercing BEEP. I asked them to please stop being disruptive, and they said "White boy, know who you're messin' with because you speak out of turn again."

I didn't say anything - I didn't want to get shot - but I was so mad I ended up leaving the movie early.

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Munk - the staff at that theater and the one on 3rd/86th aren't much help either. In fact, they are equally if not more clueless on proper behavior. Quite sad

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The same thing happened to me BettyBoy. A group behind me kept yelling "BEEP!" when Mark and Rogers answering machine went off. And a few people even got up and danced at La Vie Boheme. I saw Phantom opening night in hollywood, besides a fight breaking out in the first 5 mins the audience (full of phans) were quite well behaved.

They should just electrify the seats so you can “buzz” the annoying guest yourself.

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Broadway houses should REALLY look into getting this system. My FIRST ever broadway experience was almost ruined by a couple teenage girls. The show was spamalot and the jokes were usually ruined by the loud girls ruining the punchlines.

I *finally* decide to go to a movie theater to see something and I had a man and (unfortunately) his roughly 8 or 9 year old kicked out of XMen 3 a couple of weeks ago at the AMC 42nd St. I was apparently sadly mistaken that there would be next to no one in there. It was a smaller theater and packed.
The guy and his daughter didn't want to sit in the first row or two, sat on the stairs next to the row in front of me and proceeded to talk without whispering through the movie. He wouldn't sit in the first 2 rows. Three theater employees came in, including a bouncer looking guy, when I went out to complain about him. Making much more noise he finally left, after calling me a couple of choice names quite loudly.
The buzzer would've come in handy so I didn't have to get up.
I had a kid on a cellphone 2 seats down, too, with Dad right there.

Three days later I encountered the tourists who rummaged through a plastic grocery store bag through 3/4 of the first act of The Lion King, where I turned around half a dozen times to see if they'd get the message to stop, but didn't until I turned around to ask in the loudest whisper I could, "What is in that freakin' bag?!!*
A buzzer would've been quite handy there, too.

i never understood why there wasn't atleast a panel near the door, should the sound or picture be "off" that you could notify. I missed the opening of a number of movies by having to go find a person who could help.

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This sounds like a great idea, but the cynic in me wonders if the manager will come and do anything.

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