Recently, the Fox Theater changed their admittance policy so students under the age of 16 must be with an adult over the age of 21 on Friday and Saturday nights. Students must show a school or government issued ID. The change was made because of growing complaints from other paying customers about disturbances from cell phones and talking during the feature. 

“I understand that staying connected is important, and their reasons for having cellphones, but what we were hearing from the audience ‘was do you think we can get through a two hour block without having that distraction imposed on us’… this has been a growing issue,” manager of Fox Theater Clay Campbell said.

The use of cellphones during the feature has been a growing problem. The blue lights from the cell phone has caused distractions from the feature playing. This cellphone issue has been mostly problematic from students under the age of 16. 

“Their behavior chased away some people during the movies. I can tell there has been a big difference with complaints,” said sophomore worker Tatum Dyer.

Complaints have been on the rise since mid January, according to Tatum, causing fewer families to attend a movie together at the local theater. The theatre reviewed the many complaints, and found the main disturbance being the disruptions of cellphone blue lights during the feature. Despite having a reminder before every feature starts to turn off phones, the problems is still significant. 

“If you need to be on the phone do you think you can stop out of the auditorium so you are not distracting to other people.” said Campbell.

After many attempts to stop the use of phones throughout the feature and much discussion, they chose to place an age restriction as a last resort. After the restriction was placed there was a noticeable difference. While there are many teens who do follow the rules, overall, the community has been thankful for this restriction.

“But people have thanked us a few times I have had some comments form the members of the audience coming in to say we really appreciate that cause it was really getting out of hand,” Campbell said.

Since this policy has been put in place there has been a difference and a change in the audience. With debate and work from the management and ownership the policy was placed to help everybody and still make the Fox Theater a fun community area. Noticeable differences have been made and the community has been thankful for this new policy.