Memoir from a Theater Staff: Box Office
The first person you most likely see when entering a theater is the nice gentleman/woman whom greets and assists you in buying your ticket(s). They are the first line of defense in a movie theater, and their station is called the Box Office. You choose your seat, add those member points, and around this time of the year continually sell gift cards. This is also the most verbally abusive assignment one can have when working at a movie theater.
Because we live in the modern age of 2018, soon to be 2019, most theaters have been upgrading their seats to lounges, or recliners if you will. This is one way that theater owners are combating against streaming services and home theaters. To do that we at the Box Office have a computer screen where every seat in the theater pops up and you, the customer, pick your own seat before entering. Now this may seem alarming, as I've heard numerous times from our elderly patrons, but don't fret. It's quite easy if you pay attention, but sadly that's where the biggest problem when working the Box Office occurs. Nobody pays attention to you.
Like Concession there are many questions, or in this case details (exposition) that we have to tell you in order to make your theater experience as easy and painless as possible. Example: "This is what Bumblebee looks like at 10:30. Top row is where the screen is and the ones in green are what's available. This is not a touch screen." Where most patrons go wrong at this point is not listening to where we tell you how to navigate a 'complicated' screen that already has labels. The number one question I get when someone is picking out their seat is "Where's the screen?" even though I've told them where not a second ago, and the computer labels the screen in big letters: SCREEN. Similar questions are "What seats are available?" and "So the screen is at the bottom?" and "Is this for the 10:30 show?" and so on.
Another huge problem that people have when it comes to choosing their seats is not being a dick when it comes to the handicap section. What shocked me when I first started this corner of the theater business is how many people will fight for the handicapped seats when they are in fact not handicapped. If they're buying tickets online more often than not they won't know the difference between a companion seat (which is an actual physical seat) and a wheelchair spot (which is a space with no seat for wheelchair users). On busy weekends my managers are frantically trying to refund and reseat, if possible, many customers who thought they were beating the 'system.'
Then we have the people who go to the Box Office and demand those seats. I'll ask if they are handicapped to which they reply, no, and expect me to give it to them anyway. Their reasoning is either A) They're the best seats, or B) They don't want to sit near anyone. When I tell them as politely as I can that I can't give them those seats they turn angry, and demand to know why not. To which I say because you are not handicapped. I know, it's a difficult concept to accept, but I assure you every seat in there is a recliner, and every spot except for the first row is a good spot. But what do I know, I'm only the guy who knows the theater better than you and am trying to help you as best I can.
In between this, and more than likely during your slow times, you'll come across the more difficult customers. My theater is in a unique position where it's next to a busy intersection by a mall. That means cars constantly drive passed it to get to the other sections of the mall, and the Box Office is located right near that road. Often I'll get people who park on the road and walk in to buy tickets instead of parking. To give them tickets is against company policy, and when someone does do this I tell them so, as well as in violation by parking their car on the fire lane. If that wasn't enough the little road/intersection is so small that by parking their car in front of our business they are indeed blocking traffic.
Apparently people do not like to be told this as I get the most verbal abuse from them. Sure I'll get the occasional sailor language from customer who have come on rainy days and their showing is sold out, but it's when you tell someone that they can't do something that they truly get sour. If they move their vehicle I can sell them tickets, but not when they're breaking the law and endangering other cars. I've actually had some very heated customers over this, one of them being close to physically assaulting me and filing a complaint with the general manager.
Other than those quick adrenaline rushes you generally come across the same questions from the same people whom never listen to you. After a long shift that slowly turns into a torture device that can get on your nerves. You start questioning humanity, the intelligence of your own country, and by the time you're driving home you realize that you've lost all hope for the future. A slow, yet effective, way to drive a person crazy.
Gift cards are generally fairly easy. That is until you find out how cheap people truly are. I've had many a customer come to me and ask for X amount of free tickets. When I tell them we don't do that (look we have gift cards!) they ask I put the exact amount of X amount of tickets on said gift cards. Not $20 or $25, nor a generous $50, but the exact amount with change on those gift cards because they don't want the recipients to have any extra spending. That is difficult because those types of people don't understand that we have different prices concerning matinee times, 3D movies, and our premiere theater whether it be IMAX, Dolby, or RPX. Even once I explained this to them they merely retort with a "Just do two movies."
Box Office may not be a glamorous job, but for whatever reason anyone who does it is looked down upon by the majority of their patrons. The elderly will attack them with words and confusion, the young (while the most polite) can be quite annoying, and anybody in between just seems to be a douche more often than not. These people handling the Box Office are troopers and have to take so much shit daily that it's a wonder they haven't quit. They are here to help you, and if you listen, maybe, just maybe, you'll understand how easy and painless grabbing your tickets can be. Oh, and usually I say "this should go without saying," but after being a Box Office attendant this really does need to be said; please be respectful to anyone who works at a theater. A simple hello and thank-you can go a long way.
