Movie Madness Has Movie Goers Running for Exits
HAMMER: Welcome back to this special edition of SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, "Reel Controversy." I`m A.J. Hammer. Well, we`ve certainly all been there: you`re in the theater enjoying a good flick and suddenly a cell phone rings and somebody actually answers it, this after you`ve sat through 20 minutes of commercials and paid a small fortune just to buy a ticket in the first place. This movie theater madness has got film goers fuming everywhere, and it`s hurting Hollywood in the wallet. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`s David Haffenreffer is back once again in New York with more on that -- David.</s>HAFFENREFFER: A.J., you know, going to the movies used to be considered a glamorous night out, but with rising ticket prices, ad-filled previews and a room filled with less than considerate moviegoers, it`s turned into movie theater madness, leaving many running for the exits.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty annoying just being...</s>HAFFENREFFER: Movie goers are fed up with going to the movies. In between rising ticket prices...</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The price of the movie theaters is actually getting ridiculous.</s>HAFFENREFFER: ... too many movie ads.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The most annoying thing are the ads.</s>MICHELLE PFEIFFER, ACTRESS: He made love to me. I had to leave.</s>HAFFENREFFER: ... all of the noise.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They be talking a lot. Or a phone be ringing.</s>HAFFENREFFER: ... and generally obnoxious behavior you`d expect to see from Homer Simpson on a good day.</s>DAN CASTELLANETA, VOICE OF HOMER SIMPSON: If you don`t mind, we`re trying to watch the movie.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Bert. Help me get my head out of this toilet.</s>KELSEY GRAMMER, VOICE OF SIDESHOW BOB: Oh, really. Now, that`s too much.</s>HAFFENREFFER: It`s all making real-life movie goers go crazy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes I feel like if I was bigger, I would just turn around and pummel them.</s>HAFFENREFFER: And some of them aren`t going at all anymore. A recent "USA Today"/CNN/Gallup poll found that 48 percent of adults are going to the movies less often now than they did five years ago. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT took to the streets and gave P.O.`d movie goers a chance to get on their cinema soap boxes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People start having their phones on, and it starts ringing during the movie. I hate that (expletive deleted). I`m sorry.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes people are yelling and screaming in the middle of the movie and you can`t see it. You go tell the ushers, you go tell the people, and sometimes they don`t -- they don`t even cooperate with you sometimes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I find that most of them, they`re only worth seeing on video. And they`re out like, you know, two weeks after they`re in the movies anyway.</s>HAFFENREFFER: Actually, movies tend to be out on DVD about four months after they leave the theaters. That`s still two months earlier than it was 10 years ago. And with spiffy home theater systems that rival anything you`ll find at the multiplex, it seems movie goers have a choice to either watch movies from the jerk-free privacy of their own homes or to let the movie madness drive them mad.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s kind of like that whole road rage thing. I think there`s people that have movie rage.</s>HAFFENREFFER: Road rage. Moviegoers appear to be voting with their wallets, too. Hollywood receipts have sagged for most of 2005, running about seven percent behind 2004`s revenues --</s>A.J.  HAMMER: David, I am certain you put your phone on vibrate or power it down before you sit down to enjoy the film.</s>HAFFENREFFER: I leave it at home,</s>A.J.  HAMMER: OK. You`re never one of those jerks in the theater.</s>HAFFENREFFER: Not me.</s>HAMMER: Thanks very much. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`s David Haffenreffer. So if you`re going to the movies, you`re probably noticing so many more movie stars are playing gay characters. What about the impact that it`s having on their careers? We`ll talk about that coming up.</s>ANDERSON: Plus, he plays a terrorist on the big screen so often his young daughter thinks that he really may be a terrorist. Tonight, is Hollywood typecasting Arabs as villains?</s>HAMMER: And Oliver Stone`s 9/11 movie with Nicolas Cage. The cameras are rolling, but is it to soon to dramatize on film what could be the most dramatic event on U.S. history? This special edition of SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, "Reel Controversy," is back after this.