Teenagers wearing suits have been banned from some screenings of Minions: The Rise Of Gru due to a TikTok trend that has prompted rowdy behaviour.
Large groups of young people following the #gentleminions trend, which involves dressing in smart attire while attending showings of the new animation, have been accused of disrupting other audience members by making noise and throwing objects.
In some cases, videos of those participating in the viral fad have racked up millions of views on TikTok.
While the majority of social posts seemingly don’t depict any disruptive behaviour, there have been complaints about some individuals yelling at the screen and throwing popcorn at each other.
This has led to some cinemas enforcing dress code restrictions, with one independent cinema in Wadebridge, Cornwall, banning teenagers wearing suits from watching the film.
Why Minions is crushing the box office. pic.twitter.com/IsFSW7Tkrf
— Rob Keyes (@rob_keyes) July 3, 2022
Meanwhile, Guernsey’s only cinema had to cancel all further screenings of the movie, blaming “stunningly bad behaviour”, including vandalism and abuse of staff.
The Cinema’s manager Daniel Phillips-Smith told the BBC: “It’s been absolutely heartbreaking. We’ve had families who won’t even go back into the screen when we’ve tried to sort it out, families leaving before the film has even started, and of course the children have been in tears.”
Phillips-Smith claimed that the cinema had suffered a “massive” financial impact due to the number of refunds it had issued to disgruntled customers.
A staff member added: “We were trying to talk to people on the way in after a while, but that wasn’t really getting anywhere.
“So we had to just decide to put a stop to it and say thanks very much, but we’re not doing the whole TikTok trend thing,” a staff member said.
“We had people coming in with children for their first cinema trip ever and we wanted to protect that, really.”
Elsewhere, images on social media showed Odeon cinemas displaying warning signs for customers, which read: “Due to recent disturbances following the #GentleMinions trend, any group of guests in formal attire will be refused entry for showings of Minions: The Rise of Gru.”
The #gentleminions trend has been endorsed Universal Pictures, who recently tweeted: “To everyone showing up to @Minions in suits: we see you and we love you.”
Minions: The Rise Of Gru, which sees Steve Carrell voice the younger version of the titular supervillain, was released in cinemas on July 1. Fans at Glastonbury Festival were able to view an earlier screening on June 24.
