13 Things a Movie Theater Employee Won

[Hum]

1. Why does it smell so good? The popcorn has chemicals in it to make its aroma fill the theater.

2. ?Extreme Digital? is actually lower quality than IMAX digital. We use it because it?s easier to maintain.

3. For the first month or two of screening, money from ticket sales goes to movie studios. Theaters rely on concession stands to make money. That?s why concessions are overpriced. Popcorn costs almost nothing to make.

4. I know all the methods you use to sneak in. I just don?t always care enough to kick you out for it.

5. The only foods I trust are the popcorn, drinks, and boxed candy. I wouldn?t eat the pretzels, hot dogs, or nachos.

6. Chances are, if you complain to the manager and he sides with you, he?s just putting on a show to calm you down. The manager might pretend to yell at me for a minute, but he?ll pat me on the back the moment you?re out of sight.

7. Combination deals don?t save you money at some theaters. You?d pay the same price if you purchased the items separately.

8. Think you?re saving calories by ordering a small popcorn? That ?small? popcorn could have been a medium last month.

9. Stop getting angry that your food isn't ready. Microwaves can't cook frozen pizzas in 30 seconds!

10. No, I can?t give you extra cups. Everything is inventoried at the end of the night.

11. Your suspicions are correct. Sometimes I sweep excess food under the seats. Movies often end every few minutes. Sometimes, three or more screenings end at the same time. I don?t always have time to clean everything up.

12 Yes, movies start late. But they almost always end on time ? otherwise, the ushers wouldn?t know when to clean up. Theaters tell you to come in early so you have time to watch commercials and previews.

13. Popcorn keeps for a day or two. Many customers confuse warm with fresh.

Sources: Movie theater employees in California, Illinois, and Indiana

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I didn't know about #2 and #3, but the others (not including #5) seem to be a mixture of common sense and/or common knowledge. Still interesting to read through though!

[PNWDweller]

Sadly, I believe most of these.

Unless the movie is is a mega hit, or it is new in the theaters, we don't worry about coming in on time because we know that right around 15 minutes after the start time of the movie, the feature actually starts. Sure, we don't get our desired seats, but sure helps if we are running behind.

What really burns us anymore is with any movie now days, to go see one in the theater, it would cost us well over $60-70 (including concessions), by the time we purchase tickets, and buy the goodies for our little one. (I know, that is cheap for most areas of the country, but Cost of Living vs. Wages geographically dictates)

Anymore though, instead of going to the theater, we will usually wait until Redbox or Netflix gets the release and then we watch it at home. But for that extra special treat - the theater is a good destination once in a while.

[_neutrino Veteran]

all of that is common knowledge or at least around these parts it is lol.

still a nice read though.

[ILikeTobacco]

1. Why does it smell so good? The popcorn has chemicals in it to make its aroma fill the theater.

2. ?Extreme Digital? is actually lower quality than IMAX digital. We use it because it?s easier to maintain.

3. For the first month or two of screening, money from ticket sales goes to movie studios. Theaters rely on concession stands to make money. That?s why concessions are overpriced. Popcorn costs almost nothing to make.

4. I know all the methods you use to sneak in. I just don?t always care enough to kick you out for it.

5. The only foods I trust are the popcorn, drinks, and boxed candy. I wouldn?t eat the pretzels, hot dogs, or nachos.

6. Chances are, if you complain to the manager and he sides with you, he?s just putting on a show to calm you down. The manager might pretend to yell at me for a minute, but he?ll pat me on the back the moment you?re out of sight.

7. Combination deals don?t save you money at some theaters. You?d pay the same price if you purchased the items separately.

8. Think you?re saving calories by ordering a small popcorn? That ?small? popcorn could have been a medium last month.

9. Stop getting angry that your food isn't ready. Microwaves can't cook frozen pizzas in 30 seconds!

10. No, I can?t give you extra cups. Everything is inventoried at the end of the night.

11. Your suspicions are correct. Sometimes I sweep excess food under the seats. Movies often end every few minutes. Sometimes, three or more screenings end at the same time. I don?t always have time to clean everything up.

12 Yes, movies start late. But they almost always end on time ? otherwise, the ushers wouldn?t know when to clean up. Theaters tell you to come in early so you have time to watch commercials and previews.

13. Popcorn keeps for a day or two. Many customers confuse warm with fresh.

Sources: Movie theater employees in California, Illinois, and Indiana

13 happens at the mall in town. They reserve last nights popcorn to the first groups in in the morning. Most people add butter and makes you unable to tell the difference anyway. If it was unhealthy in any way(more unhealthy than popcorn already is), inspectors would shut this practice down in a heartbeat. 6 is common all over, except Walmart. They will fire you in a heartbeat.

[webdev511]

#3 is actually a minimum of the first two weekends of release. You can figure it out by looking at if passes are accepted or not.

e.g. You can use AMC Gold tickets for a movie that says "No Passes" because the have a premium attached that goes to the studios versus AMC Sliver tickets which cost about a dollar less.

[Charisma Veteran]

Seems like most of it can be avoided if you just don't buy their food (I don't see the appeal of it anyway really).

Overall, theatres are disgusting though. Watching films at home: good food, comfy seats, can pause whenever you like to go to the toilet, no annoying people distracting you. (Y)

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

i dont know why anyone buys concession food. just bring your own. imo, if im paying $15 to see a movie, im not spending another $10+ for concessions.

i'm also not very surprised by any of these. theaters run so tight that they have to cut corners to keep costs and ticket prices down. imagine if you had a 'luxury' theater? tickets would be double or more.

[LaP]

The joy of going to theater for me is to got out with friends. I like to get there early, sit down and talk while waiting for the movie to start and then watch the previews.

The few commercials i have to go thru don't bother me at all.

The expensive popcorn doesn't bother me more than expensive beer at hockey games. I just don't buy any. I know if everyone would do like me the business model would not work but that's not really my problem as it seems there's enough people buying to make it works.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

The only cinema group I know of in the UK that uses the freshest popcorn is AMC, and there's barely any of those here.

Odeon and Cineworld cinemas have disgusting popcorn. It's so soft and .. eeeeeeeeerrrg. No thanks. Old popcorn no good.

[shakey]

Unless things have changed a lot since I last worked at a movie theater.... 15 years ago, A lot about this list just isnt true, or is only true for some very crappy theaters.

When I was in highschool and working at the mall theater, we always made fresh popcorn every day, threw out the old at night. But hotdogs are not safe. Nachos are, if you trust cheese that is in a sealed bag that can last for like a year :p

Popcorn in general just has a smell that spreads. Ever had someone make some at your office? Fills the ****ing place up! So that could go for just all popcorn available basically.

Everything else is just sort of what comes with the business.

[neufuse Veteran]

1. Why does it smell so good? The popcorn has chemicals in it to make its aroma fill the theater.

no that is actually a lie, their popcorn machines actually have blower fans in the top to force the smell out into the lobby, all it is is standard popcorn and oil with butter on it, no "chemicals" added

8. Think you?re saving calories by ordering a small popcorn? That ?small? popcorn could have been a medium last month.

gawd, the popcorn sizes at our theater hasn't changed in almost 20 years... are some theaters really changing sizes that much?