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I can't remember where I heard of this, but to discourage loitering teenagers, one shopping mall, replaced their Muzak with classical music. It worked! Might that be practical for some cinema lobbies..?

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They also do that in the Metro (underground railway) in Newcastle Upon Tyne; and the city transport authorities claim that it has been very successful in reducing minor crime and public order problems.

However, I'd say that was easier to do in somewhere like a tube station than in a theatre, where you really need to play music that matches the ambience of the place. For example, the bar of my local arthouse/rep theatre (City Screen in York - the other one!) quite often plays jazz and classical: it fits the atmosphere of the venue and the kind of people who use it. But at the Warner multiplex, hearing Scarlatti as you queue up to see Schwarzenegger just seems wrong, somehow. It might deter the yobs, but I suspect that it would also deter a lot of law-abiding customers.

I once got confused between non-sync CDs and ended up making a pretty impressive mistake. There had been a press screening of Pulp Fiction in the morning, and the first public matinee was of Howards's End with reduced price tickets for senior citizens, who usually came in large numbers. I'd left the Pulp Fiction soundtrack CD in the player; and not only that, I'd also left the fader on feature volume. Returning from a hastily grabbed lunch, I realised that there was no non-sync playing and pushed 'play' on the machine. A split second later, the words 'FREEZE, YOU MOTHERF***ERS!' played in the theatre so loud you could hear it through the projection box wall, without any monitor on! There were about 100 elderly customers in the auditorium at the time, and it was a miracle that none of them had heart attacks!

You're right, there's a certain ambience one should expect from the modern multiplex, and for the most part, classical music just doesn't fit. Perhaps in the old opulent lobby/single screen venues, this might be viable. It wouldn't be too out of place to hear some Dvorak on your way to seeing Schwartzenegger...or better yet, WAGNER!

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But the problem there is that this was just done on one movie. I see no reason that it cannot be done theater, chain, or nation wide.

Here is my point, but spelled out a bit more clearer:

First, the MPAA rules are rules that if a theater is a member of them, they need to stick to those rules. However, if a theater chose to implement new rules, such as curfews, parental involvement, etc., the MPAA has no real power to inflict any kind of pain on them.

The only downfall would be that another chain or theater would get the business. Also, distributors could take action as well.

So really the only way to do something like this would be either a community rule or a national rule. The MPAA would still be providing thier advisory on movies, but that would be it. I have yet to see a "ruly" set of teenagers. Even the good ones start acting crazy when they get in groups larger than zero. But with thier parents around, damn, they just get all good, for the most part. That is unless they come from bad stock.

While that may not be possible for chains, independants who are not members of the MPAA and who state so in thier contracts for films can do so if they please, and if it truly calls for it.

I love the IR camera idea, with the video feed pumped to the lobby, so that the future perpetrators KNOW that they are bieng watched. Also, throw in reserved seating, with proper ID necessary to pick up and pay for your tickets, so we KNOW who is sitting where. Not just for prosecution purposes, but it has a different effect. On nights where you have theater jumpers overloading a sold out movie, the ones who all of a sudden cannot find thier stubs, which is half of the ones who are supposed to be in there, don't necessarily have to go. If they are not on the list, they are out.

Yes I know that is way too much work for this day and age of gigaplexes, but its a suggestion none the less.

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The show on the monitors in the lobby may be more interesting than the one on the theatre screen.

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The whole business of unruly patrons really goes to the question of how seriously management takes its responsibility to provide an atmosphere that encourages civil behavior. That means not seeing how few employees can be hired for the shift but how many it requires to actually create an authoritative "presence" that discourages this kind of behavior and more importantly, removes it when it occurs. If it takes hiring off-duty cops, then so be it. Problem is, theatre owners want to run huge multiplexes on the cheap, with everyone on the entire crew making minimum wage.

I've never witnessed unruly teenagers in the nicer single-screen houses. Atmosphere is very important in dictating decorum.

Replace all those stupid driving simulator video games (IMHO they're all the same)in the lobby with "real" videogames like Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Defender, Asteroids, and Space Invaders. Change the lobby/intermission music to New Wave. Soon, today's teenagers will claim the theater "sucks" but not bad enough for them not to just come see a movie and leave. You don't necissarily stop them from coming, but you don't have them hanging around either. Heck, you might even boost your 21-35 audience!