The concept of ‘spoilers’ is a trick foisted upon us by the creators of entertainment in order to sell more tickets. Our experience is more likely to be enhanced by anticipation and the greater understanding of what is happening and where it is heading.
Some more evidence: think about how often people ask and talk about their ‘favourite’ movies. If I told you I had only seen all my favourite movies only once, you would be somewhat doubtful that they were really my favourites. Surely I’d want to watch them again? That logic appeals to us because we know that watching a really good movie again is often more enjoyable the second time, ie when everything has been spoiled already.
If a movie is ‘spoilable’, that’s a tacit admission that it’s not worth watching again, ie it’s not a very good movie. In that case the person ‘spoiling’ it for you is doing you a favour if that means you save the time and money to see it.
Another way to think about it is to break up the experience of a movie into the immediate sensation and the narrative information we extract from that. If there is some enjoyment to be gained from the narrative information itself, then the quantum of that enjoyment is independent of when I receive that information. If someone ‘spoils’ me, I just get the info (and hence enjoyment) earlier on. On the other hand the immediate sensation aspect itself is unchanged whether the viewer possesses prior knowledge of the narrative information or not.
To perpetuate the concept of 'spoilers' is to be a patsy of the media imperialism of Disney, Viacom, Sony, TimeWarner and NewsCorp. So there!
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-14521627
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51571027_Story_Spoilers_Don't_Spoil_Stories
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