I caught a Critics Week film over at the Miramar a couple of days ago. (I didn’t like the film that much so we’ll let that part go.) I was sitting on the right aisle with four empty seats to my right. The theatre was filling up quickly. A group of five well-off Asian kids (early 20s) came along and piled into the four but with one of their group stranded. The kid next to me asked if I’d mind sitting in the row in front so they could all sit together, but the seat in question was two seats in from the aisle and I like to stretch out so “sorry, nope.” So the fifth kid took it.
Then they all decided to sit in the row behind because it had five open seats, but then some guy and his girlfriend returned from the bathroom or someplace and said “wait, two of these seats are ours…we saved them.” The couple had followed the ancient custom of leaving an article (jacket, bag) to mark the seats so the quintet had no argument. So four of them re-occupied the seats in my row with the fifth guy again left high and dry so he sat right behind them.
The four hypers were chattering, giggling. Two girls got up just before the film started (presumably to hit the head), returning about six or seven minutes later. I managed to keep my eyes on the subtitles as I stood up to let them pass.