The movie going experience was much different during Hollywood's golden era. Moviegoers were presented with an entire program of content- newsreels, cartoon shorts, a B picture and the main attraction. As a result, theaters would allow moviegoers to show up whenever they wanted. During a film, audience members would go in and out of the theater constantly and nobody would think anything of it.
Flash forward to 1960. Even though the days of multiple features, newsreels and cartoon shorts were waning, theaters were reluctant to change audience habits. It was still common for audience members to show up late then stick around to catch the part of the film they missed. Few theaters dared clear the auditorium between showings and viewers would drift in and out of the theater as they always had. Alfred Hitchcock, meanwhile, was betting a ton on the success of
Psycho. How could he make his film stand out? By eliminating the tradition of flittering in and out of the picture.
Ads for the film featured Hitchcock himself somberly looking at the viewer pointing at his watch. He wanted theaters to strictly enforce his policy of making theatergoers arrive on time. Theaters were skittish. This was seen as not being a customer friendly policy. Hitchcock was firm, however, and he eventually won out. Instead of angering customers, it greatly piqued their interest. On opening day, theatergoers lined up around the block at theaters around the country, eager to get into Hitchcock's latest film on time. Psycho became his greatest hit and his biggest success. Psycho's influence, however, was far reaching. It practically changed moviegoing habits overnight- no longer was it considered polite and normal to arrive late to a film.
