For years now, movie theater operators have been trying to dissuade their customers from chatting on cell phones or texting during shows. Some issue stern pre-show warnings that anyone caught texting or talking will be shown the door. 
 
 It's not surprising then that the new chief executive and president of AMC Theaters, Adam M. Aron, caused a stir by suggesting that nation's second-largest movie theater company would consider the idea of making certain auditoriums "more texting friendly" in a bid to get millennials to go to the movies more often. 
 
 "When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don't ruin the movie, they hear please cut off your left arm above the elbow," said Aron in an interview with Variety published online Wednesday. 
 
 "You can't tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That's not how they live," said Aron, who hailed from outside the movie business before taking the reins of parent company AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) in January. 
 
 His suggestion that the company might revisit its stance on texting during shows didn't sit well with many movie buffs, who flooded AMC's social media accounts with objections. Some threatened to take their business elsewhere if AMC followed through with the idea. 
 
 The company quickly responded to the backlash with the following post: "Press reports we are considering test allowing texts in a very few screens. We know vast majority of audience wants no texting. If ever, we only would pursue this in a way that we can be totally confident ALL our guests will fully enjoy the movie-going experience at AMC." 
 
 That still wasn't enough to quell critics on Twitter and Facebook. By Friday, AMC retreated with a company statement that included the following tweet: 
 
 NO TEXTING AT AMC. Won't happen. You spoke. We listened. Quickly, that idea has been sent to the cutting room floor. pic.twitter.com/JR0fo5megR — AMC Theatres (@AMCTheatres) April 15, 2016 
 
 Aron, former CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts (HOT), is no doubt mulling new ways for AMC to woo an increasingly distracted and demanding audience. Rather than turn off their smartphones, many millennials would rather skip the theater altogether, or kick back at home and stream movies on their flat-screen TVs or mobile devices, via Netflix (NFLX) and other services. 
 
 In 2015, America's 18- to 24-year olds represented 10 percent of the U.S. population and bought 14 percent of all movie tickets sold here, down from 16 percent in 2014, according to Stan Meyers, a Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst who covers media and entertainment companies. 
 
 Teens, somewhat surprisingly, are going to the movies more often these days, as are those in the 60-plus set, as measured by their percentage contributions to overall ticket sales between 2014 and 2015, said Meyers. 
 
 "One of the things keeping millennials away from the movies is that they need to be on their phones all the time. What [Adam Aron] wants to do is segregate different groups so that people don't want to be on their phones, i.e., older demographic groups, and those who do could be in different [auditoriums]," said Meyers. 
 
 In his first few months as CEO, Aron has taken other steps to ensure that AMC, known as an innovator in the movie business, stays competitive in the face of demographic shifts and rapid technological change. In March, AMC announced that it has struck a deal to acquire Carmike Cinemas (CKEC), a merger that would create the world's largest chain of movie theaters. 
 
 AMC, a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, is also reportedly close to a deal with the Screening Room, a startup that will offer new releases in the home, via a set-top box that transmits movies, for $50 per view, according to Variety. 
 
 The venture is controversial within the movie business, but Variety reports that the Screening Room, backed by Sean Parker of Facebook (FB) and Napster fame, is seeking to pave its way by sharing its proceeds with distributors and providing customers with two free movie tickets per view, which would help boost concession sales for theater operators. 
 
 But it's the texting controversy that has put AMC in the hot seat in the eyes of some moviegoers. That is perhaps not surprising given that some people feel so strongly about the etiquette surrounding cell phone use in theaters that the issue has sparked violence. In early 2014 an argument between two men in a theater in Wesley Chapel, Florida, over texting ended in a fatal shooting. Before the argument erupted, the man who was eventually shot was sending text messages to his daughter during the previews to the movie. ||||| CLOSE On Friday the AMC movie theater chain scrapped its tone deaf idea of attracting millennials to its theaters by allowing movie-goers to text while watching films. AMC says the proposal it floated this week has been relegated to the cutting room floor. USA TODAY 
 
 Texting-friendly screens — coming soon to AMC? (Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN, AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 AMC Theatres is changing the script on plans to allow moviegoers to text in the theater. 
 
 The movie theater chain said Friday it will scrap plans to allow some theater patrons to text during movies, a move its CEO had said it considered to attract more millennials. 
 
 "We have heard loud and clear this is a concept our audience does not want," said AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. 
 
 NO TEXTING AT AMC. Won't happen. You spoke. We listened. Quickly, that idea has been sent to the cutting room floor. pic.twitter.com/JR0fo5megR — AMC Theatres (@AMCTheatres) April 15, 2016 
 
 AMC's about-face follows an interview Aron gave to Variety, where he suggested making some theaters friendlier to moviegoers who want to use their smartphones while watching a movie. 
 
 "When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don’t ruin the movie, they hear please cut off your left arm above the elbow," said Aron. "You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That’s not how they live their life." 
 
 On Twitter, reaction to Aron's idea was swift, and overwhelmingly negative. 
 
 So, I guess I won't be seeing movies at AMC theatres. AMC CEO suggests he'll permit texting. https://t.co/nfqEd2rIAO — Augie Ray (@augieray) April 14, 2016 
 
 Do this and I'll NEVER go to an AMC again... 
 
 
 
 AMC Entertainment CEO Open to Allowing Texting in Some Theaters https://t.co/ypLRuczbQF — Jeremy Conrad (@ManaByte) April 14, 2016 
 
 Aron says the company will focus on other plans to entice more consumers to go to the movies, including investing more than $1 billion to enhance theaters and their systems. 
 
 "With your advice at hand, there will be NO TEXTING ALLOWED in any of the auditoriums at AMC Theatres," he says. "Not today, not tomorrow, and not in the foreseeable future." 
 
 The harsh reaction to AMC's proposal falls in line with U.S. sentiment on when it's appropriate to use a smartphone. According to a national survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 95% of Americans polled said it's not OK to use a smartphone "at the movie theater or other places where others are usually quiet." 
 
 Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1Sf2MfC ||||| Source: WCMH 
 
 COLUMBUS (WCMH) — The CEO of AMC Theatres says his company is considering loosening its ban on texting during movies. 
 
 In an interview with Variety Magazine, AMC CEO Adam Aron said his company is looking for ways to reshape the movie-going experience so that millennials go to movie theaters as often as baby boomers did before them. 
 
 When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don’t ruin the movie, they hear please cut off your left arm above the elbow. You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That’s not how they live their life.” 
 
 Aron told the magazine they need to find a way to do it that doesn’t disturb existing audiences. Options include texting sections in auditoriums or making specific auditoriums more texting friendly. 
 
 Press reported we considering a test allowing texts in a VERY FEW screens. We know vast majority of audience wants no texting (1 of 2) — Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) April 14, 2016 
 
 IF ever, we ONLY would pursue in a way we'd be TOTALLY confident ALL our guests will fully enjoy movie going experience at AMC (2 of 2) — Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) April 14, 2016 
 
 Since the article was published Wednesday, Aron has been subjected to social media outrage on the subject. 
 
 AMC is the second largest theater chain in the country and is poised to become the largest after acquiring Carmike Cinemas. AMC operates five locations in the Columbus area including Lennox Town Center, Easton, Dublin, Grove City and Hilliard.
– Well, that didn't take long: Less than two days after AMC's CEO gave an interview in which he suggested the theater chain might allow texting in its theaters, he's put out a statement backtracking. "NO TEXTING AT AMC. Won't happen. You spoke. We listened. Quickly, that idea has been sent to the cutting room floor," reads a tweet Friday accompanying the statement. In the statement, CEO Adam Aron acknowledges the social media uproar that followed the texting news (USA Today has rounded up sample tweets from people who swore never to visit an AMC theater again) and says that the chain will not allow texting any time in the "foreseeable future." One analyst tells CBS that Aron's actual idea might not have been as irksome as it sounded: "One of the things keeping millennials away from the movies is that they need to be on their phones all the time. What [Adam Aron] wants to do is segregate different groups so that people don't want to be on their phones, i.e., older demographic groups, and those who do could be in different [auditoriums]." And Aron tried to make that clear on Twitter Thursday, tweeting that AMC might simply do a test run on "VERY FEW screens" and would make sure it was done "in a way we'd be TOTALLY confident ALL our guests will fully enjoy movie going experience." But that wasn't enough, garnering responses like, "No! Not even one! What a stupid idea."