CEO of AMC has Denounced Idea of Texting In Theaters

In the past week, there were rumors and allegedly reliable sources indicating that popular cinema chain, AMC, would be considering allowing patrons of their theaters to text during the presentation of their films. However, a strong backlash has come about in light of those ideas possibly coming to fruition. Filmmakers, theater owners, and most importantly movie goers have gone on to state their outrage over the idea of "texting" during a film presentation. The idea of texting during the presentation defeats the purpose of going to a theater to watch a movie. And the CEO of the cinema chain, AMC agrees. In a recent report to The Hollywood Reporter, the CEO of AMC, Adam Aron officially addressed the matter of allowing texting during the presentation of films in the theaters' chain of cinemas. The statements made by CEO, Adam Aron go on to say that audiences have spoken out about the issue and the majority of audiences don't like the idea of texting in theaters. This is the complete statement made by Adam Aron to The Hollywood Reporter.

At AMC, we are committed to innovation and to being imaginative in our efforts to deliver you the best. We strive every single day to make your movie-going experience at AMC Theatres simply amazing. You love the magic of movies, and we love doing all we can to make them all the more magical for you.During the past few days, you may have heard media reports about another idea AMC Theatres was considering, testing whether some moviegoers might want texting allowed in a small selection of our theatres. 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. In this age of social media, we get feedback from you almost instantaneously and as such, we are constantly listening. Accordingly, just as instantaneously, this is an idea that we have relegated to the cutting room floor.With your advice in hand, there will be NO TEXTING ALLOWED in any of the auditoriums at AMC Theatres. Not today, not tomorrow and not in the foreseeable future.Instead, we'll focus on our other ideas to delight and entertain you. In the next few years, we intend to invest more than $1 billion to continuously enhance our theatres and systems. 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, much more comfortable seating, including our hugely popular recliners, new sumptuous food and beverage offerings, a more engaging AMC Stubs program, as well as dramatically richer content in an enhanced website and more functional smartphone app. These are all in our immediate future — and yours — across the country at AMC.We’ll continue to be as creative as we can to elevate the AMC experience, doing so in partnership with you, our guests, and never in a way that will compromise your love of coming out to the movies.So, as always, we invite you to join us in sharing the excitement of seeing stories told well. However, when the lights dim, we'll remember your advice that your fellow moviegoers should turn off their phones.

Going along with Aron's statements, it appears that the idea of texting didn't go over so well with the majority of audiences. There must have been some input from somewhere in the theater chain, AMC's corporate sector to implement this type of plan because the fan perspective of theater chains is absolutely contrary to what AMC was suggesting in their initial proposal of allowing texting during the presentation of films in their cinemas. Just from going on to Facebook for a quick second, reviews are coming from all over by fans who are disappointed by the idea of texting during films; and yes there those select few users that think it is a good idea, but most of the comments from those users usually include a tagline as to why they think texting should be allowed in theaters; when it actually just comes down to a personal compulsion to be on their cellphones 24hours a day. No avid moviegoer wants to sit in a movie theater while their unaccommodating neighbor sitting alongside them spends the length of a film texting. It's a visual distraction and a slap in the face to moviegoers who go to cinemas to enjoy the films there. Which is what AMC figured out after the backlash resulted from their initial proposal to allow texting during presentations of films in their cinemas. It's a good thing too because as an avid moviegoer, I'd probably would've been another moviegoer whom decided that the movie theater experience has been lost to the past, and reverted to either waiting for Blu-Ray releases or watching a pirated copy online. Aside from myself, many other moviegoers feel similarly on the matter, and have spoken up in response to the ridiculous notion of allowing texting in movie theaters.

What do you think? Did CEO, Adam Aron make the right decision by adhering to audience appeal? Or is it an inevitability for movie theater chains to begin allowing texting during the presentation of films?