No Stupid Questions

The Untied States is a big country. I would imagine it varies between different regions. I live in Canada, in my local area moviegoers are usually pretty quiet and respectful. But we get a PSA at the start of the movies warning people to be quiet and stay off their phones, so it seems the theater chain has had issues. And then there was the Minecraft movie, which I personally didn't see, where people acted like idiots at the theatres because of a stupid meme. My cousin who worked at the theatre at the time said they had a lot of issues with that one. Apparently there was a fire at a theatre somewhere in the Untied States when people brought fireworks to the movie

Despite what a lot of tiktoks show for shit like the Minecraft movie, I have never experienced that in real life except when going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show, where audience participation is part of the fun. People are generally quiet unless something funny happens that makes most of the audience laugh.

Like most answers about the US, it depends on a lot, we're a big place. As someone who is at the movies 3-4 times a month I'll say the biggest factors that contribute are

• When you're seeing the movie
• How new/popular the screening is
• What movie you're seeing
• The chain you're at

I typically go during the week after work and generally wait a bit to see new releases and I usually have a couple other people with me in the theater and they're usually chill. If you go opening weekend to a new movie in a crowded theater then I'd say you can pretty reliably count on a few people making quietish comments and a few people checking their/phones a few times. I also find if you tell people to shut up or put their phones away they usually listen. I'll also say if you're going to see the new prestige A24 drama expect less interruptions than say The Super Mario Galaxy movie or The Minecraft Movie

Do you actually want an answer to your title question?
Cause you seem to already know the answer you're convinced of.

And I'm now imagining the eery, creepy atmosphere of a big audience watching a comedy movie in dead silence.

Japanese audiences and just Japanese groups of people in general are quite a unique beast, and not really a great reference point for comparison, IMO.

Stop generalizing the US and the West. Is Japan all the same everywhere? I'm gonna say no. Why should an even bigger country be then? Or another somewhat nebulously defined area that's bigger still?

What the average Japanese person would think a rowdy crowd is the average American's idea of enjoying a communal experience. One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist.

If you go see a kids movie you'll have some parents on their phones as well. The bad behavior is creeping in in Japan too. Plus, a lot of the movies arrive half a year or so later than a lot of other countries. And it's more expensive in my experience. Just for some perspective.

I suspect you look at the term "the West" and you think you're not part of that. You're "the East" if anything. If a jihadist screams "death to the West" they include Japan in there. You are a democracy, a developed nation, and you rely on the US for security, and you are not practicing Muslims either. A person in Central Europe could look at "the West" and might include Finland and Sweden in there but maybe not Ukraine or Bulgaria. And what do we do about Russia? West of Japan, east of Europe. Very big and shouldn't be generalized either. "The West" is an empty vessel people fill with lazy assumptions.

I often hear about people being loud, distracting, and using phones in theaters, but I rarely see it myself. It probably depends on what you’re going to see; when I went to see TMNT Mutant Mayhem, I went in knowing there would be kids, so I expected some chatter. When I saw Barbie a few days later, the theater was pretty quiet.

I go to the more expensive theater with big comfortable recliners now though because I can’t do cheap theater seats anymore, they are horrible for my back. Most of the movies I see are aimed at adults, so it’s probably partly the demographic.

At least where I live, it has turned in a teen hangout. My 14 and 15 year old meet their friends at the movies at least once a week and for them its like a social center. Not how I want to enjoy a movie experience because they treat it like a big shared living room. I actually asked the manager about it and she said they support it because the teens are coming every week and its growing their revenue.

The big exception is our local Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. They still have rules and ushers to enforce them. That's where I go when I want to see a movie with my wife and/or friends. Nice quiet traditional viewing experience.

I go to the movie theater every Saturday and have been since I think 2022. I usually go to one of the earlier showings so I can see the movie and still have the rest of my day. I rarely have problems at a movie theater and the few times I have, usually someone will have sorted it out. Might be because of how early I go and the area I live in (I live in the Midwest 40 minutes away from the nearest major city).

I’m in the UK and only once have I been in a cinema where people were shouting the things. It was some pretty mediocre horror thing and there were some teenagers shouting jokes but it was only like two times. The cinema was pretty much empty and it was just us and them; I think they just found the film a bit boring (we certainly did).

Go, to Alamo.