The game is supposed to be about building things up!
Teens have been wrecking theaters during “A Minecraft Movie,” throwing popcorn buckets, spilling soda, jumping on seats, vomiting and breaking out into fights.
Cops have been called to deal with the unruliness, and staffers are stuck clearing up the awful mess, according to employees and videos seen on social media.
The havoc has been so explosive, one New Jersey theater in Washington Township banned minors from seeing the PG adventure-action film without a parent or adult. Other city theaters are warning kids to behave, sources told The Post.
Township Theatre announced its measures after a group of unruly boys “engaged in completely unacceptable behavior, including vandalism,” the theater said on Facebook.
“We also received multiple complaints from other moviegoers who were trying to enjoy the film with their families. Video footage of the incident has been obtained,” the post noted.
The theater also reprimanded parents in the Facebook post, urging them to teach their kids better manners.
“If your son was at Township Theatre last night, we strongly encourage you to have a conversation with him about his behavior.”
The theater-trashing is occurring during the viral “chicken jockey” scene — in which a character belts “chicken jockey!” while a baby zombie appears on screen riding a chicken like a horse. At that point moviegoers have taken to shouting the token phrase while jumping on movie seats, screaming and throwing popcorn.
Not all teen are on board with the destruction.
“It’s disgusting,” a 16-year-old city public school teen told The Post, asking to remain anonymous for privacy. “I genuinely feel bad for the workers that have to clean it up. [People are] throwing food on the ground — it’s too much. The mess and the vomit or whatever.”
Some theater workers say the mayhem is impossible to stay on top of.
“These teens trashed every single theater playing this movie and since we have so many showings we had to clean them in less than 30 minutes as we had crowds outside the theater lined up to go inside!” a theater staffer commented on a YouTube video Monday.
Other online accounts have detailed shocking behavior.
“In my movie theater someone was yelling ‘WATER BUCKET RELEASE’ and threw a water bottle,” said one poster.
“I got a whole bucket of popcorn dumped on my head,” another movie goer noted on social media.
A staffer from an AMC theater in New Port Mall in Jersey City, told The Post they’ve taken a hard line. Prior to starting the film, audiences are warned that any rowdy behavior will get them kicked out.
The film — starring Jason Momoa, Jack Black and Jennifer Coolidge — is inspired by the wildly popular video game and follows four misfits who get pulled into a mysterious cubic utopia called the Overworld that is powered by imagination. There, they must navigate challenging terrain to get back home.
Despite lackluster reviews, the film has already cemented itself as the highest grossing movie adaptation of a video game. Since its debut on April, 4 “A Minecraft Movie” has earned a whopping $162.7 million in the US and $150.7 million worldwide — for a combined $313.4 million.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
