Picture this:
Recently went to the new Harry Potter flick; near the end, there's a solomn moment of silence. I mean absolute silence: no music, the wind wasn't blowing, nothing.
And, at that moment, from the front section:
"do-do-do DO, do-do-do DO, DOOO!"
There's a few quiet sighs of annoyance. Then:
"do-do-do DO, do-do-do DO, DOOOOOO!"
Then there's a chorus of exasperated groans from us in the audience.
"do-do-do DO, do-do-do DO, DOOOOOOOOOO!"
You can tell people are getting restless, even more so than I, and I was close to getting up to turn the damn thing off myself. I don't know how, but the phone tone seems increasingly insistant:
"do-do-do DO, do-do-do DO, DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
And, for once, my husband cracks before I do: "Answer the !@#$%^& phone already!"
I can tell that not a single person made a move up front to turn off the phone. I think it was probably because they knew that if they moved, we'd know who it was and we'd bum-rush 'em.
The tones didn't stop until after the moment of silence stopped; I have no clue why the hell the person on the other end didn't hang up after the 10th ring, but they were persistant. So, if you come across this kind of thing and you're sitting next to the perpetrator, do us all a favor: take care of the situation. You'll likely have the backup of the rest of the moviegoers.