The highly-anticipated Minecraft movie was released in theaters, following a large social media presence in advertising and the popularization of many one liners and bits from the movie – including “chicken jockey,” “water bucket release” and “Steve’s lava chicken.” One student who particularly enjoyed the movie theater experience was sophomore Andrew Glover.
“Every time a meme came up in the movie, everybody would just scream it out,” Glover said. “And even when Steve’s lava chicken came on, everybody started singing it.”
Glover has been playing Minecraft since he was 6 years old, and he went to see the movie with four friends. After buying the bottomless popcorn, he and his friends spent the movie taking turns with the popcorn and throwing it at one another.
At the famous line, “chicken jockey,” Glover took the popcorn and slammed it over his friend’s head, much to the amusement of nearby movie-goers.
“Pretty good movie. It was kind of okay,” Glover said. “But I feel like the experience made it better.”
Senior Lucas Pagano has worked at the Showbiz movie theater for two years, and he has dealt with the chaos caused by excited kids at Minecraft movie showings.
“It’s been a mess, for sure,” said Pagano. “We kick out lots of people. I think opening day it was close to 30.”
Kids throwing popcorn, while a huge problem for the cleaning staff, is not the only problem the theater has had accompanying the Minecraft movie. At the popular line, “water bucket release,” kids have been dumping sodas and slushies on unsuspecting people in front of them.
“It’s so bad, but ingenious and hilarious,” Pagano said. “I really like to say it’s not funny, but every time I say it, I end up laughing.”
There was another incident where five or six high schoolers were seated next to a family with elementary school aged kids, and they were screaming and cursing the whole movie, causing a disturbance and reducing the kids to tears.
Many big kids movies, especially those based on video games, like the Mario or Sonic movies, cause big messes in the theater but never to the extent of the Minecraft movie. The theater has received many complaints from theater-goers whose experience was disrupted by screaming, thrown popcorn and slushies on their heads.
Many other theaters have implemented “loud showings” with no food or drink allowed in the theater, or they require kids to be accompanied by adults over a certain age. Showbiz, however, has not yet done any of these things. Peak times for shenanigans are weekend nights, so those who want to avoid that should consider morning shows or normal weekdays.
“If it wasn’t doing well, it’d be really easy to just get rid of the movie,” said Pagano. “[The showings] are all sold out, and it’s just doing stupid well.”
