I’m working in a movie theater. It’s in the middle of the busiest rush of the night, and a massive group of people who are speaking with some form of strong, vaguely Caribbean accent suddenly crowds my line. I can’t quite place my finger on the exact accent. A woman steps forward and takes charge, and she almost immediately has a bit of an attitude. She’s not necessarily mean, but she gives off a very entitled vibe and an air of haughtiness.

Throughout the conversation, I need her to repeat much of what she says at least twice if not three times because her accent is almost impenetrably thick, and she speaks incredibly loudly and quickly.

Me: *Chipper* “Hey there! Welcome to [Movie Theater]! How can I help you today?”

Customer: *Bluntly* “You must give me twenty-five of the $5 packs.”

Our $5 packs are a limited-time deal and are popular since they come with a small popcorn that’s just big enough for a snack and a sixteen-ounce refillable drink cup. They are also the single most annoying thing to make because the popcorn bags are relatively small so they’re difficult to fill properly.

Getting an order of twenty-five all at once isn’t exactly the best news. But it’s a good sale, so I’m not complaining. A coworker begins filling up the popcorn, and I go through the huge hoopla of ringing up twenty-five packs, which necessitates scanning a special code for every item at the checkout screen since it’s not part of our regular menu.

It takes about five seconds to do each code, so I literally am scanning for over two minutes straight.

Customer: *Repeating every few seconds* “What is taking so long?!”

I repeatedly explain why it’s taking so long, but she still keeps asking. Finally, I get them all scanned.

Me: “That will be a total of $135.”

Customer: “What is this, $135?! It’s $5 a pack!”

Me: “Yes, and you ordered twenty-five… with tax, twenty-five packs come out to $135.”

Customer: “I only pay for eight! The rest pay for their own.”

This is incredibly annoying, as it means I have to go back, cancel out the sale, and rescan the eight she wants, but I do it. Nearly a minute later — with her repeatedly getting annoyed about the wait — I finally get eight rang up.

Me: “That will be $43.20.”

Customer: “Add two more. I pay ten!”

I go back and ring up more, which means more time waiting since I now have to scan them in again.

Me: “That will be $54.”

Customer: “No, I decide I only pay for five. They can get the rest.”

I’m about to scream as I go back, remove five from the order, and rescan five codes.

At this point, it’s been like five full minutes of scanning while my coworker finally gets all the popcorns filled, and it’s clear all the customers in line are angry that this one lady is hogging one of the registers to herself. Thankfully, we have two other registers running, but still.

Me: “That will be $27.”

She puts a credit card into the reader, and I grab twenty-five cups and straws and set them down next to the twenty-five popcorns. A coworker shouts that everyone in the group can grab a popcorn and drink on the counter. Her group starts to grab their popcorns and drinks.

One guy picks up a cup and then decides to set it down for some reason. He wanders away. Another person from the group comes up and asks to ring out five more of the packs, when the guy who put down the cup comes back and whispers something to the original woman. She leans over and SHOUTS in my face.

Customer: “WHY IS MY FRIEND NOT GETTING A CUP?!”

She then starts shouting in another language, and I’m presuming it’s insults given the death glare she is giving me.

Me: “Ma’am, he literally had a cup in his hand and set it down. It’s right there on the counter.”

Customer’s Friend: “Oh, that was mine?!”

He merrily picks up the cup, but the woman clearly is still angry at me for… reasons. I want to note that there are still several cups on the counter, so multiple people haven’t grabbed theirs, even though all the popcorns are now gone. I ring up the rest of the packs with multiple other people in her group.

The woman returns and resumes screaming in my face with a death stare.

Customer: “My other friend didn’t get a cup! Awful service! You dunno what you are doing!”

Me: “Ma’am… we put the cups on the counter. They’re still there. It’s not my fault if some of your group didn’t grab them.”

She does that angry inhale thing people sometimes do, still glaring at me, and then she turns and wanders away.

Customer: *At full volume* “F****** fatso doesn’t know what he’s doing!”

About thirty seconds later, she comes up AGAIN and screams AGAIN.

Customer: “MY FRIEND DIDN’T—”

Fed up, I cut her off, grabbing the cups and shoving them into her hands.

Me: “HERE ARE THE CUPS! Kindly stop yelling at me and stop wasting my time!” *Turning to the next customer* “Next, please.”

Cue her screaming for several seconds before storming away. For the final kick to the gut, her group utterly decimated the theater. It was pretty easy to tell it was her group given how much popcorn and spilled soda there was… and the fact that they all tossed their twenty-five bags and cups onto the floor.

Related:
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 19
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 18
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 17
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 16
Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn, Part 15

Back in the late 1990s, a brand new multiplex opened in a major city near me. At the time, this was quite exciting since we had few of these around, and it was apparently looking to be some kind of local hotspot with different bars, restaurants, and nightclubs all under one roof.

By chance, I won some free tickets to the first-ever screening at the theatre, which was for one of the “Free Willy” movies. My dad, my sister, and my friend were all able to go as we had four free tickets. I wasn’t massively excited about the film, but it was still pretty cool.

When we arrived, the place certainly looked new and impressive, and we got some free popcorn to boot. There were a number of families in attendance, and everyone looked happy.

Then, the strangest thing happened when the movie started. Literally five seconds into the movie, the curtain suddenly went down and the house lights came up! Everyone in the cinema sat there perplexed at what was happening.

A woman in a business suit suddenly appeared and made an announcement. 

Woman: “Ladies and gentlemen, that is probably the shortest movie we will ever show here at [Cinema], but unfortunately, due to problems with our license, we are unable to show this movie this afternoon.”

There was very confused silence from all in attendance! 

Woman: “We have some free tickets for everyone for a future screening, and we do apologize!”

Everyone filed out and got their tickets, looking bemused and baffled by this whole ordeal. In the end, it worked out okay because I wasn’t bothered about not seeing the movie, and we got to use the tickets for a better film later on. Afterward, my dad took us to see “Men In Black”, which we were more excited to see! 

It was an opening I won’t forget because it still confuses me. What the h*** were they doing? Why did they wait until the opening credits just to stop the movie if they could’ve just cancelled or rescheduled beforehand? The cinema is still going and is very popular, but that botched opening left them with egg on their face!

I work at a theater. As is standard, a little while after the last movie goes in, we close down the stand for the night and lock the doors, which makes them one-way; people can leave, but can’t enter.

We’ve been closed for about thirty-five minutes, and by this point, the concession stand is totally closed down, there’s no money in the registers and they’ve been turned off, we’re in the middle of sweeping and mopping, and we are going to leave soon. We keep a little extra popcorn on hand for refills, but that’s it. We literally can’t sell anything.

A group of men between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five show up outside and knock. I go to the door.

Me: “Do you already have tickets?”

They do, so I let them in. If they already have tickets, we let people in because sometimes they’re just running late. I send our ticket-taker back to the greeter stand to scan them in.

The group proceeds to the greeter stand, and the oldest guy, who seems to be in charge, is immediately and needlessly aggressive and rude to our ticket-taker, who has special needs. He does this weird little “lunge” thing with his neck to scare her and then points his finger literally right in her face.

Customer: “Sweep the floor!”

Then, he laughs incredibly loud and walks to his theater.

A few minutes later, he and several of his friends come out and go into the bathroom. They’re in there for a while, and when they come out, it’s obvious that they did drugs in there. The oldest guy is sniffling quite a bit like there’s something in his nose, his eyes are practically bugging out of his head, he seems very tensed up, and he’s wavering quite badly while he walks.

A coworker pulls out their phone and ducks into the back, ready to call the cops if they start acting up. The oldest guy immediately walks up to me. I’m already angry at the way he treated my coworker, and I’m even angrier that he’s doing drugs, so I’m blunt. He’s also bordering on shouting the entire time.

Customer: “Popcorn!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but we’re closed. I can’t sell anything.”

Customer: “Then what’s that?!”

He points to the small amount of popcorn we have for refills, which is just barely visible in the back.

Me: “That’s for refills for people who bought popcorn before we closed.”

Customer: *Becoming aggressive* “Sell it to me! Now!”

Me: “Sorry, but no. The registers are turned off.”

Customer: “That just means you can’t take cards. I got cash money right now!”

Me: “No, it means the registers are completely off and empty. I can’t accept any transactions, cash or card, nor would I be able to give you change.”

Customer: “F****** white boy here won’t sell me popcorn when I got cash money?!“

For the sake of context, this customer and his friends are Black.

Me: “As I said, we’re closed and the registers are off. I literally could not sell you anything even if I wanted to.”

The conversation continues for about thirty seconds with us going in circles; he demands popcorn, and I keep saying “No.” Finally, he gets really mad.

Customer: “How about this? How about I put your f****** picture online and say you’re a racist-a** white boy who called me a [racial slur]?! I could destroy your whole life!”

Me: “I’m not continuing this conversation. Especially after you scared my coworker.”

I say nothing else; I just turn and walk away, leaving him flabbergasted.

Customer: *Screaming after me.* “What do you mean, you’re not continuing this conversation?! Don’t you f****** dare walk away from me, white boy! Racist! F****** racist! Racist-a** slave-master! Slave-master f***!”

He stands there shouting. I go talk to a manager. The manager comes out and tells the men that they can either leave peacefully WITHOUT a refund or we’ll call the cops and have them physically kicked out and press trespassing charges. They choose to leave and go get the rest of their group from the theater. As they leave, the leader decides to continue his little rant.

Customer: “F****** [slur for white people]s! All of you are racist! I ain’t no slave for the master! You’re all just racist-a** slave-master f***s! I’m gonna go online and destroy your lives! Expose your racist-a** slave-master a**es! F*** all you racist [slur for white people]s!”

They finally left.

We did call the cops regardless since they were doing drugs, but they left before the cops could get there. Just to make it even funnier, the guy called back a few days later and tried to say they were unfairly kicked out and asked if they could get refunds. They were not given refunds, and we alerted corporate to the situation so they wouldn’t get refunds if they tried to lie to our corporate office.

A teenage girl comes up to me at the customer service desk.

Customer: “Do you have any phones in the lost and found?”

Me: “Possibly. What kind of phone have you lost?”

Customer: “Oh, just list to me the ones that you do have, and I’ll let you know if I want it or not.”

Me: “…”

Customer: “Where is your manager?! This movie is not appropriate for my children!”

Me: “That movie is called Lesbian Vampire Killers, ma’am.”

Customer: “You should warn mothers about this movie!”