Some of us have no trouble focusing on a movie. Personally, I feel like I tend to focus more than most typical people. I will get super engaged and analyze every detail, much to the annoyance of those around me.

You should do some real research on this.

Your understanding of ADHD is so far off, this question doesn’t even make sense for many of us.

Good question
EDIT: Because nobody else has explained it adequately: OP, ADHD is not defined by habits of daydreaming. i.e not all ADHD people have maladaptive daydreams . I personally do, so i answered it as if it was specifically for ADHD people who experience Maladaptive daydreams. Those of us who do will have them in varying frequency or varying control over them. I would say I don’t get them a lot but I have triggers for them. For it to happen in a movie someone would have to say something reminding me of trauma anxiety or embarrassment, and I’ll be taken back.

So TL;DR

• daydreaming is not a problem for most adhd people in this way.
• movies provide good level of stimulation. If they don’t, the adhd person is not staying to watch it anyway.
• if someone is daydreaming throughout movies constantly, it’s not the “during movies” part that is the problem, it’s happening all the time.

My answer:

• First let’s clarify how I’m actually watching films:

I am very discerning as to whether I’ll enjoy a film or not. Currently I will only go to the cinema or sit down to watch something in one sitting if I know I’ll like it.

Nowadays I have the privilege of getting to put something on from Netflix, then browse my phone - if it’s good, I’ll put my phone down. If it’s bad, I stop the film. No chance for daydreams there.

• The “talking over the top of it” strategy.

My sister, I think, introduced me to the idea that you can make jokes about a film while watching, and make people laugh. I loved doing that as a kid. A bit too much. I massively disrupted my middle school film club by talking through most films. Feels bad. But with the right company it’s hilarious, it’s good for rowdy film watching sessions with your friends. Nowadays I know how to limit myself and do it to a more charming, non-interruptive, frequency.

• snacks maybe?

I don’t need snacks for films but I think some people choose snacks on the basis of needing them to actually enjoy and focus on the film/ get into the mood of it.

• Personally: I just like films

I don’t daydream often when in a task, and movies actually feel like a task. Since watching a movie has dialogue, it feels like being talked to, and that helps not daydream

Movies probably are the daydream to our brain in that moment. They probably help to encourage daydreaming, and by extension, control over daydreaming, among all types of people.

There must be some movies that would see people daydream in, though. Too boring. But as I said earlier I’m super picky about what I’ll watch. I stopped watching The Prestige earlier just because the sound mixing was bloody awful.

I can’t watch a movie if it’s boring.

I can hyperfocus on one that isn’t.

This exact question was asked by user Darth (or was it Vader?) like two or three months ago. Almost exactly word for word. 🤔

Edit: looks like the Vader post was deleted but methinks OP is doing some ragebaiting under a new account.

Watch a movie you’re actually interested in.

The movie has to keep my interest. If it’s not interesting to me, I just cannot focus.

Back in middle and high school I would get so hyperfocused on novels and read them in a single day. This was well before getting diagnosed and starting meds. Hyperfocus is absolutely a thing.

If a movie is engrossing then I don’t get distracted. It might be due to being good, or just interesting, or maybe it is doing a great job of making me anticipate something without giving it away so my mind gets to do some speculation but when well made it pulls me right back into it.

I only lose interest when the plot is obvious and has been done a bunch before or the way they are doing it pulls me out of the movie. Badly done jump scares that are obviously there to be surprising will break my immersion.

A good movie will keep your attention.

Also watching it in the movie theatre where second screening is a social faux pas helps

watch movies that are not boring?

It doesn’t always work like that.

I hyperfocus on movies, personally. I literally can’t go to sleep watching them.

When I was younger, and I’d watch movies with a big group of friends, I’d always be the last one to turn it off as the credits roll, and they’re all snoozing away. I’d completely tune out outside conversation and other things going on.

Now… if my brain had some other thing it decided to be preoccupied with, focusing on the movie is a forgone conclusion.

In other words:

I’d say a better way to describe ADHD is not a short attention span, but having more “subconscious” control over its direction.

I don’t have ADHD, but I can tell you that most people with the condition aren’t constantly daydreaming. They can watch a film.

In order to watch a film, you have to actually pay attention.

I don’t know if it was the intent, but this gives me bad vibes. You are implying that they are rude because they have ADHD.

ADHD means I am incapable of paying attention to something unless my brain decides I should be paying attention to it. I love watching a very slim collection of movies lol.

I have ADHD and I have trouble even watching really exciting movies. I prefer 45 mins episodes of shows to movies. That being said I have to use a lot of willpower to sit down and force myself to watch them.

If I’m home, I knit during movies and take frequent breaks. Yes, I routinely miss chunks of the story because I’m distracted.

I rarely see movies in the theater, precisely because it’s hard to focus. Some movies grab my attention, then I hyper focus and it’s not a problem.