Movie theaters: Rants and raves

[Damaramu]

I'm 24. I've graduated college, have a career, bought a house, have a wife and have a child on the way.
So umm....I can't buy more than one rated R ticket?
They really should lower that age to 21. It can be a double-whammy on your 21st b-day. "Hey guys! I'm going to go get hammered and then buy tickets for my little brother and his friends to see a rated R movie!"

 

[909]

have a child on the way.

I don't recall you mentioning this anywhere. Congrats on that, bro.

 

[Damaramu]

have a child on the way.

I don't recall you mentioning this anywhere. Congrats on that, bro.

Yeah. We just found out last week.

 

[Smues]

I'm ok with the have to be a certain age thing to buy more R rated tickets. Especially if it keeps kids who have kids from bringing their babies into an R rated film that I'm trying to watch in peace.

 

[Damaramu]

This thread made me glad that I have a mother and mother-in law that are desparate to babysit. They want to babysit all the time. So luckily I don't have to drag an infant to the movies. Not that I would do that anyway. If I couldn't find a babysitter I'd STAY HOME.

 

[KingPK]

I also wouldn't ever go to a weekend movie. I'm perfectly happy to go to a 4PM Wednesday showing because A) It's cheaper and B) You basically can sit wherever you want to get the best view.

 

[The Metal Maniac]

What's all this talk of secret pockets in purses to sneak in food? Are some places that anal? I just bought candy that'd fit in my pockets. I do get popcorn now and again though.

 

[the max]

Some places are pretty bad. The theater we go to the most is mostly overrun with teenagers every night so they search pretty much everyone. Most of the people doing the searching are people who take it waaay too seriously and treat it like they're searching for bombs at the airport. The manager is a dick too.

Our trick is that we buy candy and put it in ziploc bags because they are much, much quieter than the noisy bags that most candy comes in.

 

[wnyxmcneal]

What's all this talk of secret pockets in purses to sneak in food? Are some places that anal? I just bought candy that'd fit in my pockets. I do get popcorn now and again though.

Yea, putting food in my backpack doesn't work anymore

 

[Vitamin X]

There was this one theater near my house when it was still Mann Cinemas that was really anal about the 17 year old age thing, which was always kind of funny when it was some douchebag from your high school. We all just started to go to the Edwards that was at the mall, which was way bigger and way nicer. They didn't give a crap at all as long as you weren't ridiculously young or anything, just teenagers and above.

Both places, however, were awful about bringing in outside food, which is dumb. To counter this at first, I tell them that I'm bringing in something that theater doesn't have at their concession stand, so they should either provide it or let me bring it in, which usually worked. If not, or if I was bringing in something they stocked, I just didn't let them check my bag or whatever, simply telling them "no." Movie theaters- or anywhere else, for that matter- don't have the right to search you anymore than the cops do without a warrant, especially when you've already bought something form them. It's like the same thing when Best Buy or whatever want to check your bags. You have the legal right to go tell them to fuck themselves and the constitution's on your side. It's hardly really that warranted to escalate it that far, but you could. Okay fine, I've done it. And it's worked.

 

[KOAB]

I love the Edwards that has Subway right across from it. Always buy my ticket 10 minutes before showing, then get my footlong tuna and no problems there. Back during my shithead days with friends... we used to bring liquor in our satchels(who the fuck has satchels?) and never got searched or anything.

 

[Vitamin X]

There's this ghetto chain of movie theaters called Cobb Theaters down in Florida, and the one in Miami was at the largest but most ghetto fabulous mall (by that I mean that the place itself was really nice, but filled with like outlet stores and ghetto trash amongst nicer folk) in town, and they never gave a shit about me and my buds bringing in alcohol.

I don't even have to fake bring it in in Portland. There's a bunch of movie theaters around here that openly serve beer and liquor. Another reason I love this town.

 

[the max]

I don't even have to fake bring it in in Portland. There's a bunch of movie theaters around here that openly serve beer and liquor. Another reason I love this town.

Cinema Pub? Those things are fucking great.

 

[Damaramu]

Yeah we have a Warren Theater here in OKC that has a balcony that serves dinner and drinks.

 

[KOAB]

I might go to the movies more if there was something like that in my area.

 

[Smues]

We've got a 2nd run theater that does the dinner and drinks thing. I don't go that often as it's usually crowded and parking sucks, but I really like it otherwise. They have really good pizza, and the bar is in the theater, so you won't miss any movie while waiting in line.

 

[Jingus]

The only theater in the entire greater Nashville area that served drinks was one way out in the suburb boonies. And they only served beer. I think Tennessee's liqour laws are such that you can only buy hard drinks in an actual liqour store or a designated bar (i.e., an adults-only place that does nothing but serve alcohol). It also had a kickass seating arrangement where there were a bunch of big, comfy chairs circled around low tables. That theater also used to be the only place that showed Rocky Horror at midnight on a weekly basis in the entire southeast quadrant of the country. They stopped the midnight shows a while back for some stupid reason, I have no idea if it's even there anymore.

 

[alkeiper]

We have a second run theatre that is also an ice cream parlor.

 

[mw679]

We have a little second run theater about 10 minutes from my house, called the Elm Theater that serves beer and pizza. Pretty cool, although it's really small, with hardly any parking, so you need to get there early. I was surprised that the crowd really wasn't that rowdy considering everyone was drinking but maybe everyone was just happy to run and get their beer at the movies.

 

[Mattdotcom]

They built a mall in Huntsville to try and rival the big ones in Birmingham and Nashville. Along with it came Monaco, a movie theater with regular floor seats and a VIP balcony area that serves $6 beer and god only knows what price the liquor is there.

 

[Smues]

The other cool thing about the 2nd run theater here that has beer, is that it has an upper level and a balcony up above. Kid are only allowed in the balcony, and in fact you have to be 21 to be on the floor. So you get nice seats with a table, really good food and drink, and no kids to be seen near you. I need to go to that place more often.

 

[Smues]

The other cool thing about the 2nd run theater here that has beer, is that it has an upper level and a balcony up above. Kid are only allowed in the balcony, and in fact you have to be 21 to be on the floor. So you get nice seats with a table, really good food and drink, and no kids to be seen near you. I need to go to that place more often. Movies are just $3, but for $10 you can get a private booth for 2, or $20 gets you a private booth for 4. So for $5 a ticket you get an even better reserved seat.

 

[Mattdotcom]

I can't think of a worse movie theater job than "guy who has to clean up the private booth for two"

 

[Smues]

Luckily for them it's not that private where you could get away with anything they would need to clean up.

 

[Smues]

Huzzah going to Star Trek on Monday at 11am and not during the weekend. So much nicer, only occurrence of note was some guy 20 minutes into the movie angrily saying on the other side of the theater "SO ARE YOU GOING TO TALK ALL MOVIE?" Which I'm guessing shutup whoever was making noise, but I couldn't hear them anyway.

 

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

There was this one theater near my house when it was still Mann Cinemas that was really anal about the 17 year old age thing, which was always kind of funny when it was some douchebag from your high school. We all just started to go to the Edwards that was at the mall, which was way bigger and way nicer. They didn't give a crap at all as long as you weren't ridiculously young or anything, just teenagers and above.

Both places, however, were awful about bringing in outside food, which is dumb. To counter this at first, I tell them that I'm bringing in something that theater doesn't have at their concession stand, so they should either provide it or let me bring it in, which usually worked. If not, or if I was bringing in something they stocked, I just didn't let them check my bag or whatever, simply telling them "no." Movie theaters- or anywhere else, for that matter- don't have the right to search you anymore than the cops do without a warrant, especially when you've already bought something form them. It's like the same thing when Best Buy or whatever want to check your bags. You have the legal right to go tell them to fuck themselves and the constitution's on your side. It's hardly really that warranted to escalate it that far, but you could. Okay fine, I've done it. And it's worked.

Actually they do have the right to check your bag when you enter. If you say no, then they also have the right to tell you you can't come in.

 

[Vitamin X]

No one has the legal right to search you without a warrant, private business or not, especially after you've already paid for something. They have the right to ask, as a consumer and citizen, you have the right to refuse as well.

Then they're going to have to go through the trouble of refunding the ticket and I'd go somewhere else to watch a movie. What's the big deal? I haven't seen anyone get that uppity over checking my bag. It's none of their fucking business whether I have anything in my bag/pockets or not. It's an invasion of privacy.

 

[wnyxmcneal]

I was going to leave and ask for my money back, but I really wanted to see Confessions of a Shopaholic, and it was getting yanked soon

 

[Smues]

Regal Cinemas current 'please turn your phones off and don't talk and text during the movie' pre-show commercial has Sammy Stevens in it. Best 'please turn your phones off and don't talk and text during the movie' pre-show ad ever!

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I think I said something to this effect earlier in the thread but I never have to deal with annoying teenagers since I usually only go to the quasi arthouse theater for movies and usually only during the day so I don't run into anybody at the theater. And if I wanted to, I could probably sneak food in there because I usually know the person behind the counter or am with someone who knows them and besides they're getting paid $8 an hour and generally don't give a shit. But I usually get Five Guys or a slice of pizza before.

Man, I wish we had a movie theater with beer and pizza. There used to be one about a half hour away that did something like that and showed second run movies but it closed when I was 12 or 13 so that doesn't do a lot of good. The movie theater with $11 tickets has a small wine bar in the lobby but I think it's strictly for before and after the movie and you can't take it into the theater.