Unfortunately jammers are far cheaper then heavier construction. I'd prefer thicker walls because that would also help eliminate audio bleed over from the other theaters.

No, the answer is common sense and manners. Most of the population seems to be lacking in both.

Exactly

That's what I do and I don't see why it's so hard for others.

Just like you can't sue when you get hit in the head by a hockey puck at a game, d.espite the warning on the back of a ticket. Oh wait, you can. Putting it in writing, doesn't mean jack shit anymore.

Yes, but this is an entirely different kind of suit. As stated earlier, cellular service is not a right. For someone to win a suit like that, it would set a new precident.

While the circumstances may be different, the situation is the same. Putting it in writing doesn't mean jack. Anyone can be sued at any time for anything.

They have been using them in the coffee shops in Japan.But they came under fire and less people wanted to go have coffees there.So the plan did not work.But Japanese are more considerate and I never seen them use a cellphone in a movie theater.
Every movie preview at the theaters have a warning to turn off the phone and refrain from using them.The commercials are damn funny also.They even got Godzilla to get really angry when one of the actors used a cellphone on his set.

I realize that we live in a "sue happy" nation, but as stated many times here, these jammers are already in use in many places. These have been determined to not be a violation of anyones rights. No lawsuit over this would go anywhere.

Unfortunately, thinking of others is not a common trait in modern society. It has gotten so bad, that even commercials show cell-phone use in a movie theater as a positive. I almost died of shame and anger when I saw this commercial recently in which three youths are in a theater. One youth told a parent that they were going to play football, one said they were going to get some burgers, and the thrid told his parents that they were going to the movies. When the parents compared stories and found they didn't match, they all called their young teens on their cell phones. So we are left with an ad trying to make us feel good about three teens talking to their moms in the theater (while eating burgers and tossing a football in the air.... no less). Sheesh! (Not to mention WHY are we in such a hurry to give cell phones to kids?)

I really have reached the point where I hate cell phones. People talk on them at teh most asinine times. Like on the golf course! If you can't get away for 4 hours to play a round without checking in, then don't plan on playing.

I try to teach my daughter to think of other's enjoyment before doing something at a public event. But it gets to be harder and harder each year, because society doesn't expect the same from everyone....

I saw that commercial last week and felt the same way. It's crap like this that makes people think it's ok to use them in a theater. No one thinks that it might actually be considered rude to others.

Although I truly believe that there is no solution to this problem in theaters, I do think it will get better with time. When you travel throughout Europe, everyone has cell phones and they don't have these problems. I think it's because cellular there has been around a lot longer and EVERYONE has had one for a long time so the novelty has worn off. The U.S. cell phone "boom" has really only been since the late 90s and most people still treat them like they are a neat new toy and not just a tool of daily life.

Ha. I don't care about people talking or answering cell phones. But a gun is the first thing that popped into my head.

Please, tell me where in the US these are in use.

If you read this entire thread, I know that some theaters on Broadway in New York are using them and I have heard of restaurants using them as well. There is one definately in San Francisco I know of. I'll try to find the name.

I'm not a lawyer, but because of the business I am in, I do know quite a bit about the FCC and the laws governing our airwaves, and to grant someone this kind of lawsuit win would set a very dangerous precident that would effect many things in our world.

Please find me the names of these places. It's against the law in the US to possess such a device, do I'd be interested to find out how these places are working around the law.

Hell if priests can get away with it, why can't theaters?

The whole piece is here...

One of my friends is one of those assholes who answers her cel phones at the movies...i give her grief about it. I'm an arson investigator who is on call 24 hours a day. If i do happen to get a page (on vibrate, phone off), I get up, go out into the hall and call in. i can't stand to hear folks talking on the phone in the theater. If I'm not on call, i don't even bring it inside with me. I have missed 'important' calls, but they left messages and i called them back later. Self important, self-centered people make it worse for the rest of us who are courteous enough not to disturb with noisy electronic devices in the theater...


just my .02

Agreed, but the reality is to shoot the phone first. Shoot the person while the phone is ringing etc., and it'll continue to be a problem. So you shoot the phone first, and if they give lip, THEN you go for them.

A week or two ago I saw Shaun of the Dead...some kid comes in and sits in the row in front of me and like one seat over from me. Basically no one else in the theater, but he chose that seat. That's fine...just one person...or so I thought. Soon after, a few more friends strolled in (one or two of them late), and upon entering they're on the phone. My friend and I exchanged glances, and we got up and went to the back row. That pretty much solved the problem, but we're not huge fans of sitting in the back row.

Just today I went to see Cellular...what a fucking SHOCK that within the first five minutes of the film a CELLULAR PHONE would start ringing. I sat in my own row, with no one in front of me, but about 3 or 4 couples in various rows behind me. One guy's openly burping and chatting with whomever is with him...the couple just behind me has their own food supply. I never understood the gripe of not bringing in "outside" food, but now I have my own understanding of it (surely not the theater's problem about it): one of them opened a can of soda. Nothing like the sweet sound of a can POPPING open and fizzing etc. Then they went for whatever chips etc. they brought in with them. CRINKLE CRINKLE CRINKLE. Couldn't break out a napkin and pour it out onto that to avoid the repeat crinkle effect.

I always get a pretzel (if the theater sells 'em), and they come with those noisy wrappers. USUALLY I'm done with it by the time the previews are over, and if I'm not, I'm dropping the wrapper and just dealing with the fact that my hands will get messy. If I'm having popcorn, I grab a small enough amount that I can close my lips together BEFORE I start chomping down. Why are people so unaware that there are other people around them? Why is this so difficult?

EDIT: Ultimately, words cannot express the sadness/depression/sorrow that I feel at my fellow human beings.

I just think some/most of you are way too full of yourselves.

I'd ban any kid under 3 in a theater far before I'd ban cellphones. I'm bothered rarely by a cellphone in the theater. I'm bothered by a screaming child quite often.

When a cell phone rings, I like to scream "I'm going to kill you motherfucker, the one who has the cell phone. " Usually they panic and leave the theater. Or if it isn't at a theater, they get confused and more scared than the person in the theater. After the movie, I go up and tell them that I overreacted and then I would punch them in the face and kidnap their kids. If they didn't have kids, I would steal one of their ovaries or testicles.

Why would it have to be a right before they could sue? Would the case even be a rights issue? Can't they say the jammers endangered them or something?

When I was a kid, my father had one of those old-style, non-digital pagers that didn't have a vibrate function (and couldn't because it relayed a spoken message rather than a number to be called or a text message). Because my father was partially deaf, his even had an extra-loud speaker on it so he could hear the message.

I recall several times, as a kid, hearing these things go off in movie theaters (including, sometimes, my own father's going off).

I never heard a one complaint about such things back then. And there are probably quite a few people who were in need of emergency surgery who probably appreciate that the signal wasn't jammed at the time their physician was needed.

And today, physicians don't need the gadgets that make noise, and most that I know (including my father) have their's perpetually set on vibrate and are as courteous as possible. They aren't, by and large, the problem (though they will be the ones who are punished the most. If they are unreachable in a theater, they simply won't be able to go to the theater, or else risk that you'd be okay without anesthesia for your emergency operation, in the case of my father's specialty).

And, in my experience, the folks who aren't curteous and leave their phones' ringers on or have conversations on their phones during the movie are the same people who talk to their companions sitting next to them or bring small (and uncommonly loud) children with them or are otherwise distracting and annoying in the theater.

So, personally, I don't know that jamming cell phone signals really solves anything.

I know some people who, if seeing a sign saying cell phone sigals were jammed, would take that as a challenge to find new and interesting ways to annoy the other theater patrons. But I am friends with a lot of jerks.