My friend narrates every movie and says silence defeats the point of watching together

I invited a friend to a Sunday matinee because we had spent months saying we should see more movies together. We bought seats in the nearly empty back row, split a bucket of popcorn, and agreed afterward that the movie was good. The problem is that I barely heard half of it because he talked through almost every scene.

He did not have one long conversation. It was a running layer of commentary: predicting who would betray whom, identifying actors, repeating jokes, explaining references and whispering “that is not how that works” during anything remotely technical. When the movie became quiet, his voice seemed to get louder because there was nothing else covering it. A woman two rows ahead turned around twice. On the third time, I asked him to save it for later.

He looked genuinely surprised. He stopped for about ten minutes, then leaned over during an emotional scene and said, “You cannot tell me you did not see that coming.” I missed the next line while trying not to snap at him.

Over coffee, he said he thought watching together meant reacting together. Sitting silently beside someone for two hours felt no different to him from going alone. He also said I had embarrassed him by correcting him in public instead of mentioning my preference before we went in. I pointed out that a movie theater full of strangers seemed like enough of a clue.

The frustrating part is that I like his observations. On a couch, with something we both know, his commentary can be funnier than the movie. I just do not want a live director’s track the first time I see something, especially when other people paid to hear the actual dialogue.

We are supposed to see another movie next month. I could tell him directly that first-time theater viewing is a no-talk activity for me, but I am worried that he will spend the whole night feeling policed and I will spend it monitoring every whisper. Is there a way to set this boundary without turning the next movie into a silence test? Or are we simply incompatible theater companions even if we are good friends everywhere else?