Wonder Boy and I joined the throngs of people who went to see The Fault in Our Stars this past weekend. I cried my way through the book in 2013 so the decision to see the movie was an easy one. The fact that Wonder Boy went along with me? Just an added bonus.We got to the theater just in time, on the Friday night of opening weekend, and the room was packed. As we made our way up to the last row, some girls needed to scoot down to make room for us. Each weighed no more than 90 pounds, had braces, lips shiny with lip-gloss and were drinking bucket size glasses of icees. It was the perfect introduction to the evening and I sat down with a big grin on my face.

I could share a review of the movie, but there are already so many online and I agree with most of them. What was so much more interesting to me was the crowd.

Scanning the theater, I think it’s safe to say that Wonder Boy and I could have parented most of the people we saw watching The Fault in Our Stars. At a minimum, we could have babysat for them. There were so many points throughout the movie where I was laughing at the cuteness of the crowd, which was a welcome break from the crying, because of the antics of teens.

  • In Anticipation. I feel like it’s safe to say that most of the audience for The Fault in Our Stars had read the book and were waiting in anticipation for this movie. When the lights finally dimmed and the opening credits started, there was a smattering of applause and stifled cheers. Normally I hate applause at movies, but this was okay.
  • Collecting Swooning. During the beginning scenes of the romance between Hazel and Gus, in a theater that was probably 95% girls between the ages of 11 and 16, collective pronouncements of “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw” would happen and Wonder Boy and I could do nothing but look at our knees to avoid audible laughter.
  • Tissues for All! I still recall the horror I felt when seeing the movie Titanic in the theaters and hearing the sloppy sniffling occurring all around me. Maybe I was more cynical then or just confused because I thought the end of the movie was a given and didn’t understand the emotional reaction. During The Fault in Our Stars, which had already caused plenty of tears for me in its book form, got going, people all over the theater were crying. Wonder Boy and I included. When you go outside at night and you hear cricket noises coming from all directions? That’s what seeing the movie was like, only instead of cricket noises it was the sound of people sniffling and trying to quietly cry.
  • Smart Lighting. The movie theater we were at sort of screwed up and forgot to up the lights at the end of the film while the credits were rolling. The beauty of being surrounded by an always-connected crowd of teens is that hundreds of smart phones lit up and people were able to see just fine.

Back in 2000 I saw N Sync perform at Riverfront Stadium and it was my first (and last) boy band concert. I loved it for the theatrics of it, the free-ness of my tickets and just what a production the whole show was. But the best part by far was the audience. Before the band came onstage, girls were reapplying their lip-gloss as if the band members might see them. There was tearful screaming at the excitement of seeing some specific singer. There was screaming just because. It was sweet. Deafening and sweet.

A roomful of sniffling girls watching The Fault in Our Stars was similarly sweet.

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.