Cinema etiquette

During the era of silent film, recommendations for behavior were displayed on title cards before a screening, offering advice including "Ladies, kindly remove your hats", "Loud talking or whistling not allowed", and "Please applaud with hands only".

[1] Debrett's five recommendations were to arrive on time, to sit still, to refrain from whispering during the film, to wait for a loud scene before eating wrapped candy, and for couples to restrain from excessive displays of affection.

[1] In 2010, film critics Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo proposed a "Code of Conduct for Moviegoers", suggesting among other things that cinema patrons should refrain from slurping drinks or eating "anything harder than a soft roll with no filling", should not use cellphones even in flight mode, and should neither remove their shoes nor rest their feet on other seats.

[7] To address the need for a code of conduct during film screenings, various theaters and cinemas have proposed special showings in response to patron complaints and requests.

[12] Even prior to the invention of motion pictures, the darkened auditoriums of opera houses were associated with physical intimacy between couples, particularly in the expensive private boxes ("loges") in the balcony, which had curtains that could be drawn.

[14] These etiquettes include rules such as moviegoers using parking lights when parking or driving their cars inside the lot, keeping car headlights and brake lights off throughout the film to decrease distraction, having bigger vehicles moved to the back or to the side in order to accommodate for other movie viewers, as well as the prevention of littering.