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Moviegoers Have Spoken! AMC Theatres Won’t Allow Texting After All

AMC theater
AMC theater

Their bad! AMC Theatres issued a statement on Friday, April 15, noting the theater chain has nixed its initial proposal to allow texting during movies after the internet erupted in anger over the idea.

“NO TEXTING AT AMC. Won’t happen. You spoke. We listened,” the company tweeted Friday. “Quickly, that idea has been sent to the cutting room floor.”

In the attached statement, AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron backpedaled on his initial idea to permit texting in an attempt to lure millennial moviegoers.

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“Unlike the many AMC advancements that you have applauded, we have heard loud and clear that this is a concept our audience does not want,” the statement read. “In this age of social media, we get feedback from you almost instantaneously and as such, we are constantly listening.”

Aron added that due to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to his suggestion (he mentioned the possible policy change during an interview with Variety at CinemaCon on Wednesday, April 13), he and the company would be focusing their efforts elsewhere.

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“In the next few years, we intend to invest more than $1 billion to continuously enhance our theaters and systems,” the statement continued. “At AMC, you’ll feel our commitment to providing you with the absolute best in sight and sound technology, a significant increase to the number of our large screens, including the incomparable experiences created by IMAX and Dolby Cinema,” among other things.

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Aron caused a stir online in his interview with the industry publication after he likened telling a millennial to turn off their phones to cutting off a limb.

“You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone,” he told Variety. “That’s not how they live their life.”

His suggestion? To have designated areas for mobile devices, or “specific auditoriums” made “more texting-friendly.”

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