Movie Theaters Are Turning Away Wicked Fans With Their Faces Painted

Wicked fans unite! But...don't unite too much. Here's why some green-painted Wicked fans are leaving theaters feeling blue. The feature-film adaptation of "Wicked" flew into theaters on November 22 and cast a spell on moviegoers everywhere, smashing several records with a worldwide $164 million opening weekend. It also turned out to be the perfect Friendsgiving movie event. The film, based on the wildly popular theater production, centers on Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) before she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, and her friendship with Galinda (Ariana Grande).

Cue the pink fairytale dresses and green face paint as besties everywhere hit the premiere dressed as their favorite characters. Except, as some fans found out when they showed up for the film in full Wicked regalia, theaters wouldn't let them inside. In a video posted to TikTok, user Jamie Forst shared herself in the theater bathroom wiping off her face paint with text that read: "PSA: Do not show up to an AMC wearing face paint they will not let you in."

Forst wasn't alone, either. Another TikToker detailed her makeup process as she prepared for the film, only to cut to her dejectedly walking through an AMC lobby because the theater staff wouldn't let her into her showing until she scrubbed it all off. She said in the video: "Apparently AMC won't let you put face paint on, so they're gonna make me wash it off in the bathroom."

Both of those fans reported that their experiences happened specifically at AMC theater locations, though another person claimed that the same thing happened at a Cinemark. Plenty of other fans, meanwhile, claimed that they were able to see "Wicked" with no problems — face paint and all. One person said: "I saw so many people painted in green at regal but they let people in with no problem."

So what in the land of Oz is going on? As USA Today pointed out, the discrepancy may come down to how strictly individual locations or employees enforce the rules. The AMC website does state that they don't allow decorative face coverings, saying: "Face paint, helmets, masks (except for standard face masks used explicitly for health and safety reasons), or anything that covers the face are prohibited."

This latest trend of asking fans to wash off their face paint has some commenters confused, though, with one person posting, "So many people did this for inside out though. [...] That's so weird!"

Other commenters brought up Minions, Scream, and Halloween as examples of when they'd seen people allowed into the theater in face paint or masks. Another person wrote: "I went to the minion movie painted as a minion and they let me in."

But one of the most common explanations in the comments was that the rule stems from the horrifying incident at the premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012. There, a gunman killed 12 people and injured 70 others in one of the worst mass shootings in modern history. The incident prompted multiple policy updates in the entertainment industry in the interests of security, and AMC, for one, officially updated its rules to ban masks and fake weapons from its theaters.

It's a somber reminder for an event as joyful as "Wicked," but any fans who are asked to change at the theater should remember that the staff members are just doing their jobs.