The rise of dog-friendly cinema screenings: ‘We never have to break up fights – there’s enough trouble with the humans’

Sun, 31 Aug 2025

Pooches and their human companions are packing out ‘mutt-iplexes’. So what’s the appeal? One writer and his reluctant companion join 30 other dogs at a showing of The Fantastic Four to find out

I know we’re off to a bad start when Jean refuses to board a tube train bound for central London. She plants herself on the platform and will not be moved. In the end I have to pick her up and carry her – squirming in protest and heavy – over the threshold. When the doors slide shut the woman standing next to me in the packed carriage asks if my dog has ever been on a train before.

“No,” I say. “Can you tell?”