Teenagers are dressing up in their finest to see the new Minions film, but after complaints of rowdy behaviour, some cinemas have banned young people in suits.
Minions: The Rise of Gru has been quite the hit. The animated sequel knocked Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis off the number one spot at the box office after premiering on Friday. However, not all of it has been positive as some cinemas have had to either completely stop showing the film or ban teenagers in suits from watching it.
It all started with a TikTok trend (doesn’t it all these days?). Teenagers are recording themselves attending screenings of The Rise of Gru in suits, with a hashtag #gentleminions attached to the videos.
Unfortunately, not all of the large groups of teens have been behaving, which has led to cinemas having to offer refunds to other customers disturbed by their behaviour.
to everyone showing up to @Minions in suits: we see you and we love you. 🫶
— Universal Pictures (@UniversalPics) July 1, 2022
The studio behind the film, Universal Pictures, seemingly approved and endorsed the trend by tweeting “to everyone showing up to @Minions in suits: we see you and we love you.”
A cinema in Guernsey – the only cinema in Guernsey, in fact – had to cancel all further screenings of The Rise of Gru due to the amount of refunds they’ve had to give out as well as disruptive behaviour and abuse against staff. The Regal Cinema in Cornwall has imposed a complete ban on young adults in suits seeing the film.
Some Odeon cinemas are seemingly also denying entry to youngsters in suits after signs stating, “Due to recent disturbances following the #GentleMinions trend, any group of guests in formal attire will be refused entry for showings of Minions: The Rise of Gru” were spotted.
There was similar controversy months ago after a recording from a screening of Spiderman: No Way Home went viral where after the exciting reveal of Andrew Garfield and Toby Maguire’s Spidermen, the crowd jumped to their feet and cheered loudly, popcorn flying everywhere. The patrons in that clip were criticised for being disruptive, while others were moved by how excited fans got and noted the emotional power of cinema.
The question is, what is proper cinema etiquette? Where is the line between being excited and being disrespectful to other audience members? True, if people are harassing staff, purposely making a mess and potentially scaring kids, we shouldn’t allow that kind of behaviour, but we should allow people to enjoy films on the big screen.
