“Advertising increased on the principle of creeping tolerance. If we put up with two commercials for a while, why not give us three? If we kept coming, try four. After the hissing in the theatres stopped, owners assumed that we had adapted to the new order. We hadn’t. We had simply fallen into a sullen silence. After all these years, some, like me, still grit our teeth and acknowledge that we’re so desperate to see movies on a big screen with an audience that we’ll tolerate almost any indignity. Other patrons apparently decided that enough was enough. They began staying home. Even if they saw movies on commercial TV, they at least had a mute button to protect themselves.”