My husband and I were very excited to go to the movies. We did it all the time before having kids, but after, we never really had the time. This time, we were child-free for a few hours to see this movie we were both very excited about.

Because of the new rules after the global health crisis, we weren’t allowed to bring our own snacks, as they needed to get money back in order to survive after their losses, so we ended up spending quite a lot of money compared to our own income. But it was worth it, we thought.

A few scenes into the movie, the screen went black. We still heard the sound, so at first, we thought that maybe it was supposed to be black, but it just kept going. We were wondering when the staff would fix it, but no one did. Seeing as we were in the middle, we were quite happy to see someone go out to tell the staff. The image was fixed, and they rewound the movie. It was annoying, but they did fix it the best they could.

Then, it happened again. They were quicker to go and get the staff this time, and they did come after a while to fix it so we could actually see the movie and not just hear it, but this time, they did not rewind. So we decided we should get our money back for the tickets.

We went out and found the one service desk they have. Once it was our turn, we went up to the girl standing there.

Husband: “Hello. We were watching the movie when everything went black, twice, and we didn’t even get to see the whole movie.”

The girl listened and seemed to understand, but then she just stood there, waiting, not saying anything. We were waiting for a response but she was avoiding eye contact.

A man entered the service area and she let him by, and he printed something and went away again. She was still just standing there.

Me: “Um… Excuse me? Are you waiting for something, or…?”

She just nodded, still not looking at us. Then, the man from before came in again.

Girl: “Um, they also need help.”

Man: “Oh, you were also at that movie?”

Me: “Yes.”

Girl: “I thought you were printing it out for them.”

He hadn’t even been there when we explained, but we realised now that he was probably the manager and the only one who could fix it.

Man: “Oh, I am so sorry for the inconvenience.”

Then, he printed something and handed it to us: two new tickets.

Me: “Um, would it be possible to get our money back, instead? We aren’t sure when we’ll be able to go the movies again.”

Man: “Sorry, this is all we can do, and we are so sorry.”

With that, he left again. The girl still hadn’t even looked at us or said a word to us. We were rather confused not to get any information on what they could do or offer before they just shoved tickets into our hands. Well, at least we got something.

Back in college, my friends and I decided to go to a midnight showing of “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull” on the day it came out. The movie was released on a Friday, so the midnight showing was Thursday night/Friday morning. The official ticket time read as 12:00 am Friday.

We bought tickets online and showed up early to the theater to get food and seats. But when we handed our tickets to the ticket attendant, we ran into trouble.

Ticket Attendant: “Uhh, you guys bought the wrong tickets. These tickets are for tomorrow night. Today is Thursday.”

Me: “Well, today is Thursday, but the movie starts at 12:00 am, which is the beginning of Friday. 12:00 am Friday is just a few minutes from now.”

Ticket Attendant: “That’s not how it works at this theater. You should have purchased tickets for 12:00 am on Thursday.”

Me: “12:00 am Thursday was almost twenty-four hours ago. The movie comes out at 12:00 am on Friday. The whole point of a midnight showing for a new movie is you get to see it at the earliest possible point on the day it’s released.”

Ticket Attendant: *Pauses a bit while thinking* “I don’t know what to tell you. The midnight showing is sold out, and these are the wrong tickets. Next time, just be more careful and make sure you buy the right tickets.”

Me: *Exasperated* “We did!”

Eventually, the ticket attendant refunded our tickets and we were able to buy tickets to a showing at 12:01 am at a theater across the street.

There was recently a “National Cinema Day” on which major theater chains in the US offered tickets for only $3 for one day only. Naturally, this turned our theater into a madhouse. Virtually every single show sold out from open to close, which never happens, and people were showing up literally by the hundreds at certain points of the day.

Even with extra people scheduled, it was essentially Hell on earth. Box office lines were out the door the entire day. The concession lines were wrapped around the lobby and there was up to a twenty-minute wait at times just to order. And it got so hectic that even with the extra popper running, it was physically impossible to make popcorn fast enough to keep up with demand. It was madness.

Because it was so busy, we were only able to clean the lobby and bathrooms in the brief time we had after each rush. We’d clean and get the place looking immaculate… and twenty minutes later, the next rush would start and it’d be totally destroyed again within minutes.

It was the very end of the night, and we had just finished our final rush, which was about 300 people over the course of a half-hour. The lobby was, of course, totally destroyed. Popcorn, wrappers, straws, and napkins were everywhere. There was spilled soda around the Freestyle machines, etc.

We started to clean the lobby when a lone woman wandered in through the front door. She looked around, her face turned sour, and she exclaimed:

Customer: “Pfft! This is pitiful! I’m the only one here and it’s this dirty?! How lazy can you guys be?! I want a manager! Clearly, nobody here knows how to do their job!”

And that was the night I got mad enough that I almost killed a woman with my bare hands.

I had just bought a drink at the movie theater. I have a thing about bugs, so it seemed perfectly logical to smack a fly that had landed on the lid of my drink. The drink flew into the garbage can where it luckily made no mess. I couldn’t help myself, so I looked at the man (an older fella) manning concessions.

Me: “Probably not the stupidest thing you’ve seen in your life, but did I make the top ten?”

Concessions Worker: “It’s not even a contender.”

The look on his face said it all…

CONTENT WARNING: Animals In Distress

Many years ago, I managed a movie theater. Late one night, I was in a storage room and thought I heard a cat crying in the wall. It was a 1920s theater and in rough shape, so mice and even possums have gotten inside, so this was not a surprise.

At the time, no one believed me, so I went home and forgot about it until right before a matinee show I heard it again, and so did my coworkers.

We figured out that the cries were coming from under the wood-slat stairs in the storage room. I quickly called the owner to get permission to remove some wood from the stairs. Having only a hammer I was making more noise than progress, so I announced to the guests who could hear us what was going on.

A guy quickly piped up that he had carpentry tools and could help. A lady said she has experience feeding bottle babies.

So, we got to work and pulled out five tiny kittens, cold to the touch and covered in fleas. The audience applauded, I gave the helpers gift cards, and we started the show. I did find out later that at least four of the kittens survived.