Phone-friendly 'cinemas for millennials' are coming & there's nothing you can do about it

Oh god. Grab your pitch fork. Light the torches. We'll be forming an angry mob as soon as this comes to fruition.

The CEO of AMC Entertainment - the cinema operator set to become the largest in the world when its proposed merger with Carmike clears later this year - has threatened everything we know and love about the hallowed silence of the silver screen, suggesting that cinemas need to do more to appeal to millennials.

"We need to reshape our product in some concrete ways so that millennials go to movie theaters with the same degree of intensity as baby boomers went to movie theaters throughout their lives," Adam Aron told Variety. 

That could include allowing the use of mobile phones for texting during screenings.

"When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don’t ruin the movie, they hear please cut off your left arm above the elbow," said Aron. "You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That’s not how they live their life."

WELL MAYBE IT SHOULD BE, ADAM. 

He's a man of sense though, continuing to reassure Variety that "we’re going to have to figure out a way to do it that doesn’t disturb today’s audiences", which could involve specific screenings that are mobile-friendly.

While AMC isn't a huge force in UK cinemas, this could herald a dark, twisted future for all cinema goers, in which the illumination of a hundred touchscreens flashing emoji-filled, vapid messages is tolerated. Selfies in the third act. Candy Crush during the climax. Because 'millennials'.

Hopefully they'll all stick to watching YouTube and leave the films to us old sods.

[Via: Variety]