Movie Spoiler Etiquette – For Avengers Endgame and Beyond

As #FirstWorldProblems go, this one is a biggie: don’t spoil an entertainment experience for others.

If you don’t watch a movie/TV show on opening night you’re taking a huge risk of being spoiled, due to the ubiquity of social media. There are two sides of this to consider: what responsibility lies with the person getting spoiled, and what responsibility lies with the person who does the spoiling?

The heartless person would say:

It’s all on you: if you don’t want to be spoiled, then watch it opening night, or crawl under a rock until you do.

But consider something like Avengers: Endgame. There simply aren’t enough theater seats for every fan to see the opening show, or possibly even on opening weekend at all. So at what point is it ethical for someone to tweet about the fate of our beloved characters?

Quick Aside on Analytics

Movie	Opening weekend %
Jurassic World	38%
Captain Marvel	36%
Infinity War	33%
Deadpool 2	31%
Ant-Man/Wasp	30%
Solo	25%
MI-Fallout	25%
Aquaman	23%
Black Panther	19%
Incredibles	16%

Here is a breakdown of the most popular movies in the RunPee database over the past year and what percentage of RunPee fans — we don’t have users — saw the movie on the opening weekend of its release. (I would project that #AvengersEndgame is going to break 40%.)

Each person has to decide for themselves when it’s appropriate to share spoilers. I would urge restraint. It’s easy enough to express excitement at the outcome without revealing critical spoilers, at least for a few days.

But you really want to share your excitement!

On the other hand, it’s exciting to share this experience as soon as possible, with as many people as possible.  No one is going to see the public premier of  #AvengersEndgame by accident.  Everyone who got tickets had to go out of their way to know when tickets went on sale and planned everything so they could be there. Why should they then sacrifice their excitement for those who clearly don’t want it as much? Now those who aren’t there opening night are spoiling the fun of those who are.

If you see #AvengersEndgame opening night when do you think it’s ethical for you to tweet the fate of the characters? #HulkNoLikeSpoilers #DontSpoilTheEndgame https://t.co/gaoiL65rZm

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Kyritame2, 09/06/2021

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— RunPee (@RunPee) April 18, 2019

I’ll be there opening night — it’s my job — and I feel the same urge to express my excitement for the outcome. However, I want to respect those who can’t see it opening night.

With that in mind I offer this pledge:

I pledge not to reveal any critical spoilers from #AvengersEndgame until after opening weekend. #HulkNoLikeSpoilers #DontSpoilTheEndgame

(Please retweet if you support it.) pic.twitter.com/WMJPsVe6CN

— RunPee (@RunPee) April 18, 2019

Let’s be fair, the gloves come off once the work week starts after opening weekend. You want to be able to go to work and discuss the outcome with your co-workers, friends, whoever, without worrying about someone in earshot getting upset about being spoiled.

(Although please don’t start a conversation with: can you believe *character name* died? First, ask if they’ve seen Endgame.)

It would be disrespectful of someone to expect you and your friends to contain your excitement for their sake. At this point they should be wearing noise canceling headphones if they care enough about being spoiled, but couldn’t see Endgame on opening weekend.

I would love to hear what you think. Share your thoughts in the comments down below or on Twitter.

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