Like cinema owners around the world, Brandon Jones is thrilled to see fans queueing up for tickets to see A Minecraft Movie, the first breakout hit in an otherwise dismal year for the industry.
But his excitement is tinged with anxiety as he thinks about what could happen to The New Canaan Playhouse, his lovingly restored, century-old cinema in Connecticut, when the audience hears actor Jack Black shout out the words “chicken jockey”.
This phrase, as any teenager with a TikTok account can tell you, has become the cue for Minecraft fans to stand, scream, toss buckets full of popcorn, hurl soda, and — in at least once instance — hoist a live chicken into the air. Police have even been called to some American cinemas.