Bloke sparks massive debate after refusing to give up seat at Barbie movie

A moviegoer has sparked a massive debate online after telling how he had refused to swap seats with a mum and daughter at a showing of Barbie.

The man had been going to see the film, which stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, with his girlfriend.

He then took to Reddit's Am I the A**hole page to get people's responses to the situation.

According to him, they had arrived at the cinema to find a mother and daughter sitting in their seats, with the daughter being about five or six years old.

joshblake/Getty

The woman explained that she was there with her daughter but they had been unable to purchase two tickets together and asked if it would be okay for them to swap so that she could sit with her daughter.

However, the man said that they had paid for the cinema seats and reserved them in advance before asking the woman to move.

He wrote: "I let the woman know that they were our seats and I even showed her the tickets. She said when she purchased her tickets they only had two seats available, one in the front row and another in the far back.

"She said she wanted to sit next to her daughter and she didn’t want her sitting that far away from her so she asked if my girlfriend and I could swap seats.

"I told her that wasn’t my problem and I paid for those seats, so I politely asked her if they would get up. The woman said she understood I paid for the seats but I didn’t have to be rude and inconsiderate."

Heath Korvola / Getty

Fortunately, someone else was on hand who spoke up and offered to switch seats with the mum so that she and her daughter could sit together.

The man continued: "As we were leaving the theatre my girlfriend said she felt bad for the woman and giving up our seats would’ve been the right thing to do and I was being a bit inconsiderate.

"At first I didn’t think I did anything wrong, I paid for those seats and the woman purchased the tickets knowing she wouldn’t be able to sit with her daughter."

And Redditors were divided on the situation.

Warner Bros

Many were quick to say he was not at fault.

One wrote: "NTA the woman should have chose a different movie time instead of assuming people would move for her. She was being inconsiderate to her own daughter in the situation no one would move."

Another replied: "NTA. Poor planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on your part."

However, some thought the opposite.

One person took a more nuanced view of the situation, saying that while he may not have been technically in the wrong, they had acted unkindly.

They wrote: "You could have helped them out, and it would have made that little girl's day, and taken a huge load of that lady's problems, and all it would have cost you was not sitting with your girlfriend during the movie.

"So, no, you weren't an asshole, and you didn't ignore any social obligations, but you also didn't do the kind thing - the nice thing - when you easily could have."

While someone else said that the situation was 'reasonable for the people sitting together to want to sit together' and that his girlfriend even 'disagreed with him', so they gave him 'a light YTA'.