Teen Theater Trouble

Many popular movies that are coming out are rated R, like the recently-released Deadpool and Dirty Grandpa. These movies are are attracting many teenagers who are under 18. Once they get to the movies, however, they are told that they cannot see the movie unless their parents sit next to them throughout the entire movie... but if the adult approves and buys tickets for the viewers, then the teenagers should be able to watch the movie without parental supervision - their parents approved it under the assumption that they wouldn't be spending money on an extra ticket, so it's an unnecessary and inconvenient rule.

Oftentimes, many parents hear that they have to sit and watch the movie with their kids, decide that it’s not worth it, and leave. Most parents don’t watch the movie because the movie does not look appealing to them. By having this rule, the movie theaters are losing money by making people walk out. The other thing that parents do is buy a ticket for themselves and one for their kid walk into the theater and stay there for a few minutes and then just sneak out. All this does is make parent waste their money by having to buy more than one ticket. Either way, if the parent didn't expect to have to sit with their child throughout the movie and approved it anyway, it's not the theater's business to overrule that and force the parents to spend extra money, and everyone involved is being negatively affected.

Many people will argue that some movies are just too inappropriate for some viewers and they shouldn’t be exposed to certain topics that are displayed in the movie, but it’s the adults’ choices as to whether or not their children are allowed to watch the movie, not the movie theaters’ choices. If a parent buys R-rated movie tickets for their child, then the kid obviously has approval from their parent, so why aren’t movie theaters letting the child into the movie? The parent made their own decision and a movie theater manager shouldn’t be allowed to disregard that. In addition, parents have things to do! They don’t have time to sit through a movie with their kid in the middle of the day, and most kids don’t want that, either!

Carley Rogers, a fourteen-year-old student went to the movie theater to see the movie Deadpool. At first, the theater wouldn’t let her into the movie, and even when Carley asked her mom come in and buy the tickets, the theater still wouldn’t let her into the theater without making her mom sit through the movie with her. “I think it’s ridiculous that they wouldn’t let my friends and I into the movie. I understand that it’s R-rated, but my mom obviously approved of it and she doesn’t have the time to sit through a movie with me when she doesn’t need to. This issue ruined my time with my friends,” Carley argued.

Others may still argue that kids might bring an adult other than their parents to buy the tickets for them, without their parents' approval of the movie. If a child does this and the parents finds out, then the child has to face their own consequences from their parents. It’s not the movie theater’s responsibility, it’s between the parents and their children. Either way, forcing the adult who did buy the tickets to sit with the children is going to change nothing.

Theaters have to leave the parenting to the parent and the possible consequences to the child. They can’t control everything that the family does. This isn’t fair to all of the kids who want to see rated R movies, because it’s their right to see it, and parents shouldn’t have to sit through the movie with them - just buying the tickets is enough consent.

Article by Mia Rapella and Hali W.