From Minecraft To Barbie And Minions – Like It Or Not, Gen Alpha’s TikTok Trends Are Shaping Cinema

A Minecraft Movie may have been panned by critics, but not only have audiences given it an impressive 88% score on review site Rotten Tomatoes, it’s also proven to be a box office smash hit. 

However, the cost of a film that took £128m domestically in its first three days seems to be chaos. Specifically, Gen Alpha chaos. 

The mayhem erupted from a a meme-able moment involving a character from the game called “Chicken Jockey”. According to cnet, Chicken Jockey is a “quirky deep-cut reference pulled straight from Minecraft lore” – and its relatively brief appearance in the film has sent fans into a frenzy.

As a result, kids are filming themselves cheering, whooping, and throwing popcorn while viewing the film – which led one cinema to call the police and issue warnings.

Still, it’s not the first time Gen Alpha have made unmissable online moments of cinematic releases.

Minions: The Rise Of Gru led flocks of teens to assemble, clad in formal suit and tie, to cinemas as part of a #gentleminions trend. 

They, too, were accused of being rowdy and throwing food during screenings; interestingly, the movie was a massive financial success. 

Meanwhile in a more cross-generational trend, TikTokers keen to watch the Barbie movie donned vibrant pink outfits. There was a solid week where a quick glance at a cinema-going group’s outfit would tell you whether they were about to watch Margot Robbie joke about a dolls’ lack of genitals or not.

And we don’t have to remind you that Barbie grossed over a billion worldwide.

Though some cinema workers find Gen Alpha’s TikTok trends disruptive, it doesn’t look like they’re going to go anywhere in a hurry. 

In fact, speaking to HuffPost UK, a spokesperson for Cineworld said that while “we ask that all cinemagoers respect cinema etiquette”, the chain has actually created special screenings for particularly eager viewers.

“For fans wanting to whoop, yelp and clap their way through this block-busting adventure, we have created special Chicken Jockey 4DX screenings at Cineworld cinemas nationwide,” they said. 

And parents have compared the highly engaged, highly interactive, half-ironic engagement with movies to how audiences in the ’80s interacted with subversive hit Rocky Horror. 

Others said that – a bit like 2003 movie The Room, which became popular among fans who threw spoons during screenings – the disruption has become the whole point of seeing the movie. 

Whatever you think of the phenomenon, it seems to be here to stay; and it may all but guarantee a movie’s success.