Movie Theater Secrets Employees Don't Want You To Know

Ever had questions about what happens behind the scenes of a movie theater? Follow Dylan for more!

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[ChoppedByTPodcast]

At our local theaters, there are no ushers near the movie entrances taking tickets anymore, only the cashiers who sell the tickets. You can literally walk right in to a movie without buying a ticket nowadays.

[TheLatinaBabyGurl]

Oh yea the popcorn is definitely fresh because one time my old friend and I came out of the theater and she went to go get a refill for her soda and the guy asked if we wanted this huge big bag of popcorn they were about to throw out because they had to make more before the next movie. We went home and had popcorn to snack on for a few days. No one was really around to see because we had stayed like really behind the crowd getting prepared to walk home so I think that's why he did it lol.

[bingbongplays]

My sister loved popcorn until I started bringing home garbage bags full of it

[darkmyro]

I've started googling certain movies to see if there's an after credits or two. Like I don't wanna be that guy that is The only one in there holding up the ushers and it usually takes like a minute to check.

[samjensen]

I used to work in a big (20 screen) movie theater, and the start times were staggered in such a way that people were all coming in at different times, so our popcorn was pretty much always fresh just out of necessity, unless it was close to the end of the day and we didn’t want to waste more than we needed to (because we did throw away all the leftover popcorn at the end of each day). The oldest popcorn you’d have a chance of getting was if we pre-filled buckets to put in the warmer in preparation for a rush, so that we’d have more space in the popper itself, but that never stayed in the warmer for very long, and even if we did do that, we were more likely to mix the pre-filled buckets back in with the fresh stuff whenever possible, rather than just give you the bucket itself. Selling day-old popcorn just wasn’t necessary, because we generally always had time to pop another batch or two when we started to run low.

[tigress]

This really brought me back to my days of working at a movie theater. My first job!

[wabisabi]

I still watch the credits on a non-Marvel movie becuase I want to see what song was playing on a particular scene.

[atiyah]

When I worked at the movie theater we would bag up leftover popcorn(in huge trash bags) at the end of the night. The next day we would pop fresh popcorn and mix the day-old in with it.

[AgentBlizzaga]

Ima former movie theater employee, can confirm all of this is true. expect the popcorn thing we weren't even trying to hide the fact it wasnt freshly popped, Id whip out the gaint bag of pre popped popcorn and refill the bays as people watched. like we threw out stale popcorn but we knew how to keep it fresh as long as possible. maybe thats a UK thing tough.

[carleighvanderkooi]

I used to work at a single screen theatre that was independently owned. The theatre was only open 4 days a week and the owner was suuuuper cheap. Like you never wanted to be the first in line on a Friday, because tuesdays were super slow so there was a 99% chance you’re eating the 3 day old popcorn he put in a garbage bag under the till to ‘reduce waste’ 🤢🤮

[dreamEnd]

Back in middle school, me and my friend dont have that much money especially for the overpriced snacks the theatre sells. So we brought our own drinks and sneaked it in, even though theres a written rule that you cant bring food and beverages from outside. But the best thing is, one floor below the theatre has this home appliances store where they showcase a popcorn machine, anyone is free to take the popcorn provided there as a sample so my friend just grab like 1/4 of the entire machine worth and sneaked into his big jacket. Looking back, its so comical that I cant really believe we pulled it off. Probably the theatre employee knew about it but just didnt care lol

[ji-soopark]

Hahahah one time my friends and I snuck into a movie and we were the only ones there so it ended up shutting off 😂😂 we got so scared

[Maddiemoo]

Whenever I stay for a post-credit scene (and if it's not Marvel I google first to make sure there is one) I always thanks the ushers waiting at the door on the way out. Doesn't hurt to be polite at least 😊

[pete]

With most ticket sales being electronic, the theater knows which auditorium will be empty. I've been the only person (pre-covid) and one of three just two weeks ago for a matinee.

[morgan]

i once went to see the purge with a group of friends but only half of us were 17, somehow the ticket booth guy didn’t say anything when half of us bought the purge tickets and the other half of us bought hotel transylvania tickets 🥴

[blindmank]

Back in my youth (2001) I would go to the movies twice a week, mid week. I regularly started for two back to back sessions on one ticket and both sessions were empty. I never once had to walk out because they stopped the film. Best value tickets ever.

[missjoshemmett]

I'm 75 and you would not like the theaters when I was your age. First, you could get a ticket and stay all day and just rewatch the movie over and over. Plus there were two movies. They used to let us watch the credits. I still do because they had things in them. And at Young Sherlock Holmes, the old couple in front of us and my friend were getting up to leave and I said, "Wait, there is something at the end." My friend sat down, but so did the couple! It was an actual ending to the movie! We were the only 4 left in the theater. They thanked me and we all agreed to say, "Did you stay to see the ending after the credits? Well, I'm not tell, you should have stayed and read the credits." I can fast forward now, online, and always do...if in a hurry, but I prefer to still read the credits and stuff has gotten funnier or sweet (one set of credits dedicated the movie to Carrie Leia Fisher, just stuck in the middle of it and it wasn't even a space movie!). And two teens would buy two tickets and then let their friends in the back door. Thing I hated most was the sticky floors. Theaters were only cleaned at the end of the last movie of the day.

[briannas]

lol no the movies don't just get turned off, or have the ability to restart them (see the Burbank AMC Star Wars Fiasco a few years ago, that was my last night working for AMC) if no one shows up it will just play that one time until the next scheduled showing.

[TaeNi]

I once watched a movie completely on my own and felt guilty they had to play it just for one person.

[spookerredmenace]

ya i remember when i was 17 trying to see a R rated movie in 1997, they actually asked for id, i showed it, they said nope your too young. i froget what the movie was now, but this was in Cobourg Ontario Canada