Alfred Hitchcock Had Strict Rules For Audience Behavior At One Of His Movies

Although many now-beloved older films were underappreciated in their time, the same can't be said for Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 thriller "Pyscho," which was controversial but still a clear-cut hit. The movie earned over $32 million at the box office against its $800k budget. It might've earned even more money if Alfred Hitchcock hadn't decided on a new rule for the audience. Hitchcock insisted viewers could only show up to the theater at the beginning of the movie so they could enjoy the full story in the right order. This might sound obvious today, but he was going against a common theater behavior of the time. 

Moviegoers would often show up at the movie whenever they felt like it, and if they missed the first part they'd simply wait until the movie replayed. This behavior was aided by the theater business model of the time; theaters would play movies on a constant loop, rather than clear the theater out to clean the place like they would today. The benefits of this approach were clear: theaters wouldn't lose money if the moviegoer happened to be late. The downsides were also clear: people weren't watching movies from the proper start to finish, and the constant stream of people walking in was disruptive to the viewers already seated.

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For Hitchcock, the cons clearly outweighed the pros. Not only did he advise theaters to not let anyone in after the movie began, but he even scolded viewers in the trailers and marketing material. "No one ... BUT NO ONE ... will be admitted to the theatre after the start of each performance of 'Psycho,'" he famously said. It sent a clear message to potential viewers that this movie was something special, a movie to be treated with reverence. 

Not only was Hitchcock's rule featured prominently in the marketing, but newspapers included a notice for the movie listing that stated, "No one admitted after feature starts." It made "Pyscho" stand out among all the other movies on the page.

The rule complemented the rest of Hitchcock's approach to marketing the film, which was to reveal as little as possible and aggressively hype the story up as a life-changing experience. "I must warn you that PSYCHO was designed to be as terrifying as possible," he wrote in one newspaper ad. He noted that his admission rule was "a revolutionary concept," but a necessary one to make sure everyone watched "Psycho" the right way. As he put it: 

"We have discovered that PSYCHO is unlike most motion pictures. It does not improve when run backwards. This applies even to that portion of the film in which I make a brief but significant appearance. I have therefore asked that no one be admitted to the theatre after the start of each performance. This, of course, is to help you enjoy PSYCHO more.
More important – I insist that you do not tell your friends the amazing secrets of PSYCHO after you see it."

It was a grandiose approach to movie marketing — and it changed movies forever. People often cite "Star Wars" for changing cinema more than any other popular release — that's the film that helped do away with opening credits in movies by replacing them with its famous opening crawl — but it's even easier to draw the line between the marketing for "Pyscho" and our current spoiler-averse movie culture. The actual movie "Pyscho" is a total gem, but in terms of cultural impact, its marketing might actually have it beat.