A Movie Theater Experience

We arrived at the theater Tuesday evening at 7:20 p.m. for a7:35 p.m. showing of the movie, "Beowulf," and were surprised to find folks lined up and the house dark. After we'd waited in the car a few minutes, lights came on in the theater, and a young man came out. We joined the line to see what the problem was, and were told that when staff arrived for work, they couldn't get in. Fortunately, a projectionist had stayed in the theater when it was closed after the previous showings, and he let the rest of the staff in.

It seems that the theater manager had changed the locks on all the doors, unbeknownst to anyone, and had left town that day, failing to alert the staff, or provide them keys before the evening showings. Staff had tried to call him, but he was out of pocket and didn't answer his phone.

Since ticket-sellers couldn't get into the ticket booth, they asked customers to line up at the concession stand to pay. This caused a delay, since folks also wanted to load up on goodies at the time they paid for a movie. Naturally, because staff couldn't get in earlier, there was no popcorn prepared, and those of us way back in line had to wait until popcorn and other goodies orders were filled for folks ahead of us, before we could pay for our movie.

The staff, who were mightly frustrated themselves, knew that some customers were a bit frustrated, too, so those of us who were there to see "Beowulf" were given free 3-D eyeglasses (I don't know what they normally charge for them). Also, as we left the theater after the movie, we were given complimentary n0-expiration-date tickets to see another movie at the theater. We'll probably use them to see "Sweeny Todd," starring Johnny Depp, in December.

We hope there will be no glitches then, but if there are, we'll just roll with the punches, like we did for "Beowulf." No big deal...just a an unexpected adventure.