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Author Topic: 13 Things A Movie Theater Employee Won't Tell You Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-11-2012 08:40 PM                        quote: Frank Angel For the first month or two of screening, money from ticket sales goes to movie studios. This is stupid. Money from ticket sales ALWAYS goes to the studios. They make it sound like we give 100% to the studios for a month or two, and then get to keep all the money after that. quote: Frank Angel Combination deals don’t save you money at some theaters. You’d pay the same price if you purchased the items separately. So what? Math aside, combos aren't really designed to save people money as much as they're designed to ease decision-making. I do think you would find that most combos really do have some discount built in though. (Ours do, at least.) quote: he’s just putting on a show to calm you down. The manager might pretend to yell at me for a minute, I don't believe in reprimanding an employee in front of a customer, or in front of anybody for that matter. Just do what's necessary to make the customer satisfied and then talk to the employee in private. quote: Frank Angel Theaters tell you to come in early so you have time to watch commercials and previews. No...theatres tell you to come in early so you can get to your seat while the lights are on and without stepping on the other patrons, and also so you can see the whole movie you paid for.  |  IP: Logged Pravin Ratnam Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 844 From: Atlanta, GA,USA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 01-11-2012 10:31 PM                     I dont know how prevelant it is now. BUt when I worked 20+ years ago as an usher out of high school at the RKO Shore Quad in Huntington, Long Island under Cineplex Odeon, the management would have several garbage sized bags of day old popcorn and mix it with the fresh popcorn popped. What I didn't understand is why they were bags. Once you get to a bag full of excess, why not pop more prudently? Last week, I was at a Regal and they had the $2 popcorn night for Crown members. I pretty much told them I wouldnt mind waiting a few minutes instead of having the guy scoop the half kernels at the bottom of the popper area. And we had clear logoless cups to have free cokes so the inventory wouldnt be messed with.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 01-12-2012 12:11 AM                     quote: Pravin Ratnam the guy scoop the half kernels at the bottom of the popper area. Wonder how many comment cards that the manager got due to this sloppy service...  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-12-2012 12:36 AM                     At Cinemark, it was free popcorn and soda while on your scheduled breaks but you had to bring your own containers.  |  IP: Logged James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 01-12-2012 03:53 AM                     I love Frank's point by point breakdown of the "13 things." Frank is officially my favorite Film-tech forum member, hands down.  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 01-12-2012 08:48 AM                        Thirteen Things a Movie Theater Employee Won't Tell You (tesg's version): 13. That popcorn smell? It's actually my cologne. 12. The stadium tier floor is one-way see-through so we can stand in the space under the tiers and look up girls' dresses. 11. The snack bar has a secret menu that includes reasonably priced fresh lobster. 10. Every seat has been peed on by previous customers. You're always sitting on somebody else's crusty pee. 9. After hours, we're totally playing X-Box on the main auditorium screen. 8. All theatre employees are virgins. 7. All of the popcorn we vacuum up off the floor between shows is put back in the popcorn machine and re-sold. 6. You know that time your car radio was stolen while you were watching "Avatar"? My bad. 5. You know that time when during the most critical part of the movie I came in with my orange cone flashlight and shined it right in your eyes? That was on purpose. 4. I actually DO have Michael Bay's home phone number. 3. As a matter of fact, I DO know what that sticky substance on the floor is. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh. 2. When you're supposed to take your sister to a movie and you just drop her off and do something else instead, I'm totally nailing her. 1. I really don't get paid enough for your bullshit.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-12-2012 11:22 AM                     You guys are missing the obvious one. "Is this movie any good?" "No. Actually everything we are showing is crap."  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 01-12-2012 12:17 PM                        I've always been amused at the "fresh" popcorn topic. It's been a few years since I've been there, but I know that the local AMC theatre (formerly a General Cinemas outlet) popped their corn upstairs in one of those double-kettle machines. They did popping runs maybe a couple of times a week, stored the bags in a stock room and used them to fill warmers downstairs. Until maybe 10 years ago, prepopped corn was widely available to theatres. Here in the Northwest, the same major concessions company that sold 5 lb bags of prepop to theatres also sold the stuff to sports stadiums and Costco. A couple of indoor theatres and a whole drive-in chain in my area had no poppers at all... only prepop. Only within the last couple of years has demand for the stuff dropped to the point that nobody's making it on a large-scale basis. The concessions company ran one of those big Cretors machines that continuously ground the stuff out. Coconut oil came in by rail car, was stored in heated underground tanks and was sprayed on the airpopped corn , along with a little salt, as it ran up a conveyor to a storage bin. A "case" was something like 6 bags. That was about as big a box as you could fit through the side of your Corvair van. As for taste... for the palate of the masses, it wasn't all that bad. For the more "refined", maybe not so much, but it certainly wasn't repulsive. The part that's always been so amusing: Today, people walk into a theatre and fuss if they think the corn wasn't popped within the last 5 minutes. The prepop many of them used to eat might have been in the box for a week before it was sold by the wholesaler. It might have sat in the theatre's stock room for a month before it was opened, with no discernable deterioration. Marketing really screws with people.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-12-2012 12:45 PM                     Ugh. That reminded me of the experiment in Supersize Me where they let French fries from some fast food restaurants decompose in closed containers. The McDonald's fries never really changed their appearance. Maybe the pre-pop popcorn uses some of the same preservatives as those McDonald's French fries.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 01-12-2012 01:43 PM                        Maybe, but as I recall, it was just popcorn, oil & salt... or maybe Flavacol. They filled & sold cans of Vo-Pop from the same tanker loads.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 01-12-2012 02:17 PM                        Mcdonalds burger after sitting for one year  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-12-2012 02:48 PM                     But Jack... "We pop our popcorn FRESH" ...at the time.  |  IP: Logged Gerard S. Cohen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 975 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 01-12-2012 05:42 PM                     Regarding the nature of The Readers' Digest: When I was in high school in the 40's, some English teachers had students subscribe to it in the classrooms, thinking it might encourage a love of reading. But critics charged it was not a true digest, a sampling of literature in magazines and books, abbreviated and simplified in style for younger or less literary readers. Many articles, they maintained, were written only for the Readers' Digest, and tended to promote a one-sided political viewpoint. Teachers finding this to be true, stopped using it in class. I find the articles selected are superficial and mildly entertaining "gee whiz" presentations, and seldom can be relied uopn for penetrating journalism or reliable first-hand information.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-12-2012 10:42 PM                        Readers Digest is trying to morph itself into a modern "fun-to-read" magazine, rather than a serious condensation of articles from other places. A much better magazine, for my money, is The Week ( http://www.theweek.com ). It summarizes articles from many other publications into short, easy-to-digest articles and it covers pretty much all viewpoints.  |  IP: Logged Michael Putlack Expert Film Handler Posts: 187 From: Fort Collins, Colorado Registered: Sep 2011 posted 01-15-2012 03:57 PM                        I would love to see The Week do a similar article on the secrets theatre employees keep from their patrons.  |  IP: Logged

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