Cinemas ban unaccompanied kids from Minecraft movie screenings after Chicken Jockey trend

10 April 2025, 17:19

By Sam Prance

Disruptive behaviour at Minecraft screenings has led certain cinemas to ban children from attending without adults.

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If you've seen the viral chicken jockey trend at Minecraft screenings, you may be wondering what cinemas are doing to stop it. Well, now certain cinema chains are banning children from attending Minecraft screenings without adults.

As soon as A Minecraft Movie came out in cinemas, the film became one of the biggest blockbuster events of 2025. To date, it's the fourth highest grossing movie of 2025 so far with over $300,000,000. People can't get enough of seeing stars like Jason Momoa and Jack Black bring the beloved Minecraft video game to life on the big screen.

However, a trend at Minecraft screenings has emerged that is so disruptive that unaccompanied children are now being banned from seeing the film. What is the chicken jockey trend and what rules are cinemas implementing?

Read more: What does 'reheating nachos' meme mean? The viral trend explained in full

What is the chicken jockey trend?

A Minecraft Movie: Chicken Jockey and cinema chaos explained

The chicken jockey trend has gone viral on TikTok and it's inspired by a scene in A Minecraft Movie where Jack Black shouts "Chicken jockey!" when he sees a baby zombie riding a chicken. As for the trend, it involves children filming themselves in the cinema jumping up, cheering and throwing popcorn when the scene happens.

In one heavily criticised viral clip on TikTok, people were escorted out of a cinema by the police for taking part in the trend. Comments under the video slam the cinemagoers for being "disrespectful".

One person wrote: "I feel bad for the employees that have to clean up afterwards."

Another wrote: "You can have fun without trashing the place."

So how are cinemas responding? According to the Independent, a cinema in New Jersey called The Township Theatre has issued a statement on Facebook saying minors going to A Minecraft Movie must be “accompanied by a parent or responsible adult". In other words, if you are under the age of 18, you will need an adult present to see the film.

As for the UK, Witney Cineworld has warned A Minecraft Movie viewers: "Any form of antisocial behaviour, especially anything that may disturb other guests such as loud screaming, clapping and shouting will not be tolerated. Anyone who is found to be acting in this manner will be removed from the screening and not entitled to a refund.”

More generally, Cineworld has announced one-off showings where fans can jump and cheer in screenings. However, they've specified "no mess please, just good clean fun" to discourage fans from throwing popcorn and other food items.

Meanwhile, A Minecraft Movie director Jake Hess praised the trend. He told Entertainment Weekly: "It's been so bananas. It's been way too fun. It's so hysterical, man. I'm staying up way too late."