This depends on the base you are comparing to. In the home country people did not talk in the theater, literally they would sit silent during the whole show. Nor did they eat. So people talking, and loudly chewing, and sipping in the US was a shock to me.
I can see the food being surprising. High concession prices serve as a check on widespread consumption, thankfully. There are theaters that advertise serving good meals during the movie, but they arrange seating, engineer audio and enforce their no-disruption policies so that other moviegoers aren't noticeable.
I've yet to be in a theater in the US where I can't hear people talking and phones beeping unless it's almost empty. The issue is not that I cannot hear the film as theaters routinely crank volume up. My issue is that I expect immersion from a theater, which does not happen with all the noise.
Honestly, I agree with you, there are a lot of people in the US that casually treat public spaces as if they are theirs alone, and this sort of rudeness and selfishness permeates the culture. Some subcultures are worse than others about this.
The only cinema in the US I don’t hate is Alamo Drafthouse.
The sooner you learn not to trust what teenagers and bored 30-year-olds write on reddit, the better. :) It's not healthy when one person's single and potentially unreliable anecdote can be boosted hundreds to thousands of times.
