Cinemas Unhappy With Messy “Minecraft” Meme

While the “Minecraft” movie seemingly saved the box-office after a sluggish start to the year, it has also come under fire for the bad behavior of patrons attending screenings of the film reports The Guardian.

It all ties to one scene in which Jack Black calls out “Chicken jockey!” at the appearance of a baby zombie riding a chicken. That has become a meme spreading like wildfire on TikTok that encourages filmgoers to disrupt screenings of the movie.

Footage has emerged all over social media of audiences engaging in rowdy behaviour – cheering, throwing buckets of popcorn and other candy, shouting during the film and some even bringing live chickens. The result is cinemas being left with significant messes for theater staff to clean.

Online talk about the behavior has drawn widespread criticism online for its disrespect towards cinema employees (often underpaid) and other patrons and the larger debate about etiquette in public spaces.

Cinemas themselves have had enough, with several UK cinemas warning audience members will be ejected if they disrupt screenings too much. Cineworld is steering more vocal fans towards special screenings of the film where people can ‘let your hair down’ and shout ‘chicken jockey’.

The talk comes as the film’s director Jared Hess indicated this week he’s keen to return for a sequel which was teased in the end credits, while it was also revealed that UK comedian Matt Berry was up for the role of Steve but was prevented by scheduling conflicts. Jack Black ultimately took on the role.

The film is reportedly tracking for a $65-82 million second weekend, a decline of around 50-60%, but others are suggesting considerably higher with a drop of around 40% (ala “Super Mario” and “Barbie” in 2023).

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