Five Nights at Freddy's

[Jon Dent]

So we've had three showings of this movie, and tonight we had a trashed theater, a hugely disruptive audience, and several bad Google reviews because of it.

I know nothing about this franchise but is it inspiring this kind of behavior anywhere else?

[Frank Cox]

You had nobody in charge there?

If it's a few people misbehaving tell them to shape up. If it's "everyone" stop the movie and tell everyone to settle down or leave.

[Jon Dent]

Yes, but they're teenagers, and we've never had a disruptive audience this bad since I started here, so we've never really worried about the 'atomic option' of stopping the movie.

Thankfully yesterday's audience was much better behaved. Hopefully all the asshats got their viewing in Friday night.

[Randy Stankey]

Back when the movie, "Set It Off," opened, we had a full-blown riot in the theater during opening night.

The crowd was already stoked before the movie even started. People were smoking weed in the theater and I was ordered to go around and tell people to stop. That put me in a difficult situation because, personally, I didn't care but I still had to enforce "House Rules." It doesn't matter to me whether somebody is smoking weed or drinking a six-pack of beer. There are just certain things you shouldn't do in public. If you want to toke it up, I think you should do it at home, not in public. There I was, in a room full of rowdy, urban types who were, shall we say, "young, dumb and full of...ambition..."

All I could say was, "Hey, my boss is riding my ass! Keep it below deck. Will ya'?"

We did, eventually, get the crowd calmed down enough to start the show but, mid-movie, something went wrong and the projector stopped. All hell broke loose and people started rioting.

It was a busy, Friday night and we didn't want any violence to spill out into the lobby where families with children might be so we just shut the theater doors, jammed a couple of broomsticks through the door handles then called the cops. They showed up in full force, with riot gear and backed a paddy wagon up to the rear exit. A bunch of guys got handcuffed (zip ties) to their seats while the cops sorted people out. About half a dozen of them got hauled off in the back of the wagon.

So, yeah, there are certain movies where one should expect the crowds to be extra rowdy. I wouldn't think that "Five Nights" would be one of them but I guess you never can tell. Can you?

[James Wyrembelski]

I kind of avoided this one knowing it would largely be the 12-16 year old boy groups coming out. They are really the only ones that ever cause issues here. And I thought the forecasts were gonna stick to the 30-35 million mark so I wasn't too concerned about passing it up. Yoooooo, was that a wrong call.

[Jon Dent]

https://movieweb.com/five-nights-at-...laints-tiktok/

Knew it wasn't just us.

I expect it'll die off quick. It's gotten terrible reviews and both our Saturday and Sunday crowds were much smaller (and more manageable).

We took the movie because after nearly three months of shit releases we are getting really close to redline. Probably should've taken the Swiftie fan movie instead.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Haven't seen anything similar happening here. I didn't even know about the franchise until I saw the movie. The movie itself...pretty underwhelming stuff... Chuck-e-Cheese meets Frankenstein, but in the worst way possible...

[James Wyrembelski]

https://movieweb.com/five-nights-at-...laints-tiktok/

.

We took the movie because after nearly three months of shit releases we are getting really close to redline.

I hear that. We're down 6% compared to last year. After Barbie, films just stalled out. We ended up doing some classics the last couple weeks. I was surprised to find out that Clue, all the way back from 1985, did just as well as anything we've brought in over the past three months.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I've watched this last Saturday night at the prime showtime. There were like 6 or 7 people in the room, including me and the wife... I had hoped for some classic Halloween Horror, but we got served some repetitive drama with some rogue robots sprinkled in. Whatever this franchise represents, it's not connecting over here, neither to the troublemakers...

Interestingly, the new Scorcese movie, now running for the second week, almost sold out that same evening.

[Mike Blakesley]

We didn't take the Freddy movie because I figured it would be a huge flop. Ooops!

However, I was moderately excited to book the new Exorcist movie over Halloween week, because a couple of people had asked about it and we don't usually have a horror movie on Halloween. I knew the movie wasn't a huge hit so I wasn't expecting miracles.

It was worse than awful. Friday, we had zero people. Saturday, we had two pre-sold, but they never showed up. As far as I know, it's the first time in 93 years that this theatre has had zero people on a Friday and a Saturday.*

Sunday and Monday were slightly better, but not much. So I figured everyone was waiting for Halloween night.

But nope. Right now it's 5 minutes past showtime and I'm sitting here with 9 people.

All of which goes to remind me why we hardly ever play horror movies.


* except the times it was closed in the summer, or during the pandemic.

[Frank Cox]

You beat me tonight. I had two.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Maybe, after so many failed attempts at making a halfway descent sequel or prequel in this whole "Exorcist" franchise, people realized that this entire franchise now is synonymous with crappy cash-grabs and that's why they all stayed away in droves? I'm not sure, it's just a hunch...

[Carsten Kurz]

I think that currently, this world prefers comedy.

[Jason Speers]

Rowdy audiences can be a downer. It's not just this franchise; it can happen with any popular movie.

[Frank Cox]

The turnout for Freddy last night was mostly teenage girls, and everyone was well behaved.