Somerville Theatre bans (young) kids from entering after 6 pm. Let's discuss it here

[ron_newman]

This week's Somerville News has an article about the Somerville Theatre's policy of banning children under 12 8* from entering the theatre after 6 pm, even if they are accompanied by adults.

Is the theatre's policy a service to its customers who want a peaceful movie experience, or is it unfair discrimination against families with young children?

I'm posting this because we can have a more civilized discussion here than on the Somerville News blog comments. Ian Judge, the theatre's manager, reads this community, so we may be able to provide useful feedback to him here.

* Edited 11:55 am to add: I have a serious factual issue with this article. It says the policy applies to children under 12, but the theatre's website and exterior signs say it's for children under 8. That's a significant difference -- maybe significant enough to change people's opinions.

Second edit, 3 pm: Ian Judge has clarified that the theatre's policy is to exclude children under 8, not 12, from entering after 6 pm. He had made an erroneous statement to the News reporter which very unfortunately made it into the published article. Also, here is Ian's response to the specific incident detailed in the News article.

Comments

[kpht.livejournal.com]

I hear you, but also try telling a group of fucking idiot adults they need to GTFO, they're gonna cause the same scene. They're the same breed of goddamn entitled assholes who have no respect for other people... sometimes they leave their kids at home. Or thankfully, sometimes they haven't yet busted their condom inside their troglodyte girlfriend.

I think the bigger issue is that theaters are totally passive aggressive when it comes to booting people out. They don't want to stand up against people who are being assholes, or kids who are being assholes, so they just let it happen and be giant pussies instead of getting a manager to say "you need to leave now, if you don't, security or the police will escort you from the premesis". It's certainly an added disruption, but I'd rather lose 3 minutes of the movie watching people get owned than still be disrupted during the entire movie by people who cant stop talking, because there's no usher, because hey, if there's no kids, why do they need one?