What I Learned from Working at a Movie Theater

In mid-August I said goodbye to my job. I had been working there on and off for the last six years, managed to get a leadership position for the past two, before bouncing off onto a new adventure. However, no matter where life takes me next, there are certain parts of working in a movie theater that I’ll never forget. Some can be applied to any customer service job while others are specific; I thought it’d be interesting to share some of the scenarios that had stood out to me over my tenure as a send off to that era of my life.

Nobody Can Read

Would you believe me if I stated that the number one question we get from customers is “Where do I buy tickets?” The majority of problems that managers have to deal with at a cinema is ticket related, but we get asked by customers this question so often you start to wonder if anyone can read because we have two giant signs (one in front of the old Box Office and the other in the lobby) telling you where to purchase tickets. Then if you get the rare customer who did read our signs they’ll inevitably walk up to Guest Service asking where Concessions is.

Nobody Understands Tickets

With how much our society relies on digital literacy it’s honestly shocking how many people don’t know what to do with their tickets. A lot of customers assume their digital tickets need to be printed when really they could walk right in. When buying tickets a common mistake made would be purchases for the wrong day, or wrong cinema. With how prevalent digital tickets are for concerts, plane tickets, general daily life, there’s still a large portion of people who don’t know how to buy (correctly) or use them and they’re not just older people. I’ve seen people my own age being stumped by digital tickets which really threw me for a loop. It is eye opening to see how many problems people face just trying to get into their auditorium.

Even more befuddling, nobody looks at their physical tickets. When they are handed printed tickets by an employee, who tells them which paper is their ticket, inevitable when it comes time to check said tickets 7 times out of 10 times they’d hand you their receipt. Or worse, they’ll hand you the entire pile of papers and say something like “it’s one of those.” It doesn’t help that customers almost always get angry when we tell them what they handed us is not their tickets, to which they’ll confidently say “I wasn’t given one,” when that is clearly a lie. It’s incredibly exhausting how many people do not give a shit about their tickets, making a simple entrance procedure so much more difficult than need be.

Poor Bathroom Etiquette

I’m not a germophobe, and I’m sure any customer service worker who needs to maintain public bathrooms have had similar stories, but boy-howdy do public bathrooms have me wishing I were one. It was eye opening to see how different strangers acted whilst in a bathroom than what I thought was the norm. For instance, many men don’t wash their hands. In fact, men in general really don’t care about anything regarding bathrooms. Toilet not working? They’ll crawl under the closed stall and use it anyway. There’s a mysterious puddle in a stall? They’ll stand in it and not close the door while they pee. Some men drop their pants to their ankles while at the urinal. I swear going in to do bathroom checks is like a mystery box every time. And that’s only in regards to the men’s room.

But what makes my skin crawl so much is so many people bring their food into the bathrooms. Some guy will come out to get a refill on their popcorn and immediately walk into the bathroom. Other people will buy all their concessions and then take it into the bathroom before they head into the theater. If someone needs to use the restroom in the middle of their movie, instead of leaving their food in their seat, they’ll take everything into the bathroom with them. This really gets to me. Who would steal your food? On what planet is bringing food into a public restroom, a bathroom you (the customer) have no control over in regards to sanitation, is a safe space for what you’re about to consume? Is any reason justifiable to sit your popcorn on top of a urinal while you pee?

Parents Don’t Give a Fuck

Since the pandemic I’ve felt nobody pays any attention to the rating system anymore. Policies haven’t changed. Viewer habits absolutely have. Before the world shut down there were times when kids snuck into R-rated movies, and parents trying to buy tickets for their kids, but from what I remember it never became hostile. Since the world has ‘come back’ it genuinely feels like a constant battle with the ratings system that we are forced to follow.

I understand that parents need a break, but getting upset that your kids can’t see an R-rated movie is such a small thing to get overworked over. I’ve had parents really lay it into me, shaming me, verbal accusations, whatever they were holding back for who knows how long, we were their outlet for all their frustrations. Their kids response? Not nearly as heated. They’ll complain, some will be understanding, most will be disappointed, others wouldn’t even pay attention to the film if they got in, but their response was never nearly as emotionally damaging as their parents.

You’ll Never Know if it’s a Hotdog Day

As a business, we tried to have food ready so that customers could grab it and go with ease. However, it’s really hard to know what type of day it is. Some days are hotdog days, and on hotdog days you’ll constantly be adding those meat sticks to the rollers because we wouldn’t be keeping up with their orders. Other days it could be pizza. You’ll never be able to predict which day it is, trust me we’ve tried, and each day there’s no rhyme or reason for the masses to demand a certain type of food. It just happens like a hive mind while we rush around trying to stock up as much as we could.

The Wine Snobs are Coming

Honestly, calling them wine snobs is too generous. The theatre I worked at didn’t have a full bar. It does serve alcohol, though, with options being beer-in-a-can, draft, and wine. Before the pandemic we did have a machine where you hooked up wine bottles, but we got rid of that and now sell wine assortments in cans, and an option in a shot bottle.

I’ve mostly had good experiences with alcohol focused customers. The beer lovers are super easy. Pour a draft, crack open a can, and if we didn’t have something they moved onto the next option without much of a fuss. Of course we got a few disturbances mixed in, but in the grand scheme of customers… they’re the easy ones. Then there’s wine.

I don’t understand why this happens. Almost every wine customer I’ve served had been rude, difficult, or annoying at best. It’s frustrating. The first thing out of their mouths will demand Red or White wine. Nothing specific, just the color. If you try and tell them what we have they’ll glare at you as intense as Vicky from Fairly Odd Parents. They’ll repeat themselves as if they weren’t heard, or they’ll throw down the “well that’s not really wine,” line. And half the time they’ll end the transaction complaining about price, or how little amount of wine they paid for, and then come back for more! Wine days are never fun.

Operas are No Laughing Matter

With box office being such a hotly debated subject in the world of film discourse, and franchises trying to get the younger crowds, it may surprise you that the majority of our business throughout the year went to the senior citizens. They’re mostly the customers we see during the week, and when there’s a movie aimed at them (looking at you A Man Called Otto) that sucker is packed like a superhero movie for weeks.

Naturally, with that in mind, one of our year long events are the Met Opera showcases which sell out fast. Senior Citizens would come early in the season to try to buy as many tickets beforehand. They’re big events, and sometimes a headache when you’re dealing with live shows with estimated times on when to turn lights on for intermission and such.

Movies Stay in Flux

I am always surprised by how many people assume that we keep movies in theatres for a specific time before they play. I always assumed that was common knowledge no matter how into film you are. Inevitably, the question “How long will ____ be playing?” Will grace our ears, and unfortunately we can’t give an answer. Unless it’s an event, movies are played as long as they make money. We set the schedule one week in advance, and even that’s subject to change sometimes. So, if you want to see a movie there’s a very good chance you’ll see it definitely within its first two weeks. Rarely does a movie make so little money it only stays for one week (although it does happen a few times a year) and after that window it depends on how popular it is.

Not Enough Material for Kids

Behind senior citizens, the second largest demographic that our location served was kids and family. 2022 was tough for them. There were options, but they were usually months between them. The reason we had Sing 2 for three months or longer (December to Feb/March) was simply because there was nothing else for families to see until Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The big movies at the beginning of 2022 I believe were A Man Called Otto and The Batman, and contrary to popular belief not all superhero movies are for kids and a story about a dying old man who’s known for his grumpiness wouldn’t enrapture the youth.

PG-rated movies feel like a rare event. Outside of animation how many PG-related films have come out? The live action remake of The Little Mermaid was a big contender this year and I’m sure Wonka will have families eating out of the palm of WB’s hand this coming holiday season. Outside of that? Not much. PG-13 movies have lately been pushing the boundaries, although they’ve been doing that for awhile with Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland kicking off the decade by featuring a moat with severed heads, and that was rated PG (shockingly). If he was able to get away with that just imagine how intense PG-13 movies can get when you don’t research the film beforehand. That said, with what has been listed on studios priority lists across Hollywood, it seems the family demographic isn’t high on any of their priorities outside of animation.

No Respect for the Disabled

One of the biggest eye opening experiences I’ve had while working at a movie theatre was seeing how people react to the handicap row. Every. Single. Day. We would have customers arguing that they should sit in handicap seating, when they are not handicapped whatsoever, simply because A) nobody is sitting there now B) They’re better seats. Movie theatres, at least the big chains, are all fancy with reclining chairs now that technically every seat can be considered the better seats. There’s plenty of leg room, there’s usually a bar that hides the people in front of you, and you can recline as if you were at home, but no. You still want to stake a claim at seats reserved for people who truly need them.

It’s exhausting telling people up front that that row is reserved, and then they ask if they could sit there. So. Many. People. Want to take advantage of those seats simply because they hate people around them and it has ‘leg room.’ There have been arguments inside the theatre where somebody who shouldn’t have been sitting in that row wouldn’t give their seat up to someone who needed to sit there. And the disrespect people have when they are told that row is reserved, and their only comeback is “they’re not here yet,” or “they should have come early.” Like, do you not hear yourself? Sometimes coming to the theatre quickly means they’re walking in as the movie starts, or worse, late, because that’s what they have to deal with and you’re trying to convince me to give those seats up because you want ‘better seats?’ Nope, nu-uh, I hate those customers the most.

Trailers Come from a Higher Power

Every time you go to a movie these days someone inevitably says, “There’s too many trailers.” They’re right. Ads, pre-show, trailers, and then the theatre chain tag before the beginning of the movie is a lot. When Fate of the Furious came out we had 30 minutes of trailers before the movie, which was 10 minutes longer than usual. People noticed. People complained.

The thing is, we have no control over trailers. Our site programs each movie with a playlist of trailers based off a downloaded set list. Every movie has specific trailers that have to accompany it and sometimes it’s a lot. Our site has no control because studios check. There is a specific job where somebody will go to a theatre and watch only trailers to make sure we did our job. Although I think the checking process is mostly digital now. So if you’re ever going to complain about trailers, blame the studios.

I can go on for days about this job, but I think these are the big subjects I wanted to get off my chest. I appreciate the time I had there and many coworkers felt like family to me. It feels sad to close that chapter of my life but sometimes that’s what you have to do to move forward.