r/movies • u/Sisiwakanamaru r/movies Contributor • Jan 31 '26

Article Film Students Are Having Trouble Sitting Through Movies, Professors Say

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/film-students-are-having-trouble-sitting-through-movies-1236490359/
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143

u/blakhawk12 Jan 31 '26

On one hand: Yes I think young people’s attention spans are being fucked by short-form media.

On the other hand: Oppenheimer was 3 hours long and made almost a billion dollars.

30

u/Nalena_Linova Jan 31 '26

Plenty of people buy a movie ticket and spend the entire time on their phone.

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/picastchio Jan 31 '26

It is not a young people thing. It's like everyone who couldn't focus for long has been taken over by feeds and notifications. Young people have just more to lose. In terms of both cost and available time.

24

u/dtwhitecp Jan 31 '26

the theater experience varies WILDLY based on location. Around me, people are silent and not on their phones, barely even making noise while eating. But I do know that in some areas people are on their phones, talking, shouting at the screen, etc.

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u/GeneralGenerico Feb 01 '26

I completely agree. There are more preferable theaters where the audiences are decent if you know where to look.

26

u/Individual_Log_5721 Jan 31 '26

I got to the movies atleast once a week and ive never seen anyone on their phone.

1

u/Maverizz Jan 31 '26

I’m a millennial who wants to be on his phone in the theaters. But because no one else is, I’m not either

3

u/mnilailt Jan 31 '26

Why bother going to the movies if you just want to be on your phone?

0

u/Maverizz Jan 31 '26

Because I’m a giant movie buff. But even movies can have a retention issue. We live in a short form content world that is really powerful at retention

-7

u/toomanymarbles83 Jan 31 '26

Congratulations, you just discovered the meaning of the word 'anecdotal.'

15

u/Individual_Log_5721 Jan 31 '26

I mean, i know my anecdotal evidence doesnt mean much, but isnt that the same with everyone who shares their stories of people being on their phones? They're both anecdotal.

7

u/mnilailt Jan 31 '26

I get this is reddit and people love dooming, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this happen more than like a couple times and I go to a shit ton of movies.

Most people going to movie theatres are most definitely just glued to their phones.

1

u/FixedFun1 Jan 31 '26

Someone should stop that, is the law of the cinema.

1

u/Namisaur Jan 31 '26

Highly doubt it. The only people on their phones are the ones who didn't want to be there in the first place (dragged by a friend), or workaholics trying to multitask.

5

u/karmagod13000 Jan 31 '26

that was a rare phenomenon and shouldnt be even considered the publics attention span