So how much does working at a movie theater suck?

[Bomont the Destroyer]

I wasn't sure where to put this, so please move it if it's the wrong section.

I'm looking for a job, and I've kinda screwed myself so I need a job within the next 5 days. I'm probably going to put in an application at AMC theaters tomorrow, so I guess the point of this post is me asking anyone who has worked, or currently does work at a movie theater how bad is it overall? Does it pay the absolute minimum, do you want to die while you're working there, stuff like that.

[movieguy1021]

Both my brother and I work at movie theaters. I work at an independent, non-profit art house, and he works at an AMC.

I love my job. Right now, on weekdays, we only have two showtimes. I have time to do homework inbetween, as well as whatever needs to be done around the theater (which usually isn't much). The customers are rarely unruly, although sometimes they're assholes. We get a good amount of asshole customers, actually, but it's simple to keep your temper.

My brother also likes his job. His has 9 theaters, and he doesn't really have assholes, either. How big is the place you're apllying? Is it a huge multiplex, because a place like that would have a lot of assholes.

I'm paid $6.50/hour, $7.25 for weekend evenings. My brother's like $6.00/$7.00 or something like that. It's not great, but it's fine for me.

Also, working at a non-profit place, I can eat or drink whatever I want from the concession stand :D

[Korny]

My dad owns and runs a couple of his own independant cinemas here in the UK, which i've worked at a couple of times.

It's been a really good experience for me and can be great fun, as you usually get a lot of nice and interesting people coming through the doors on a daily basis.

Howevever don't go there expecting to be able to watch films all day and dos about, you will get the odd awkward customer plus sometimes cleaning the screen after a show can be a pain the arse if there has been some little twat in there throwing stuff about or sticking chewing gun on the seats or the floor.

Anywho, good luck getting a job.

[B1rd_Po0p]

dude, it's gotta be better than fast food: which was my first job...

[Madhatter]

I used to work at General Cinema until I got laid off. It only had like 5 screens so at some ponits in the day there would be like 45 minitues when nothing is happening. Also the mangers were really cool they were like all young so felt like you could talk to them. there was also a chinesee resturant near by and they would exchange moive passes for food, so once and awhile we would have chinessee food.

Overall the people that came in were all right. Also one time whiel i was doing concessions this perosn offered me a 5 dollar tip, but we couldn't talk tips so being the good employee that I was i didn't talk it

[freakandgeek]

i worked in a theatre, being a floor staff is cool. but i was promoted to chief of staff (assistant to the assistant manager) and i hated it. if you work there, just don't take a promotion. its NOT worth it.

[Weapon X]

God, I could write a fucking fifteen-volume epic on my experience working at a movie theater. But because the forums only allow so many words per post, I'll stick with the important bits.

I shoveled popcorn for 4 years for minimum wage at an indepedent 4-screen theater in Milwaukee. We had off-and-on moments of good and bad business; on certains weekends we might have a few sell-out shows, then we'd have days where there was one customer the entire evening. I liked the job, I liked the coworkers; odds are you'll meet all manners of movie geeks, on or off the staff. I got all the free popcorn and soda I could consume, occasionally I could take home a movie poster or other bit of memorabilia (I have a 4'x6' vinyl "Reign of Fire" banner), if I was cleaning out the theaters after a packed house - or even a not-so-packed house - I might find some loose change, some uneaten candy (in the box, of course), or other weird odds and ends...you'd be surprised the kind of shit people sneak inside and leave behind. There are of course the free movies. And best of all, I had an hour to an hour and a half in between shows to basically do whatever - homework, art, get food from across the plaza, take your pick.

The cons mostly involved the dress code; black pants, white shirt, clip-on bow tie. I'm thinking, I'm a fucking popcorn jockey, not a maitre'd, know what I'm sayin'? There's also the more than occasional nut job who complains about our outrageous price of $2.75 for a small popcorn, or questions why we only gave refills on large items, or demands to get an extra popcorn bag or soda cup to divide the snacks among their bratty kids. Then there are the absolutely inane questions I got while working the concession stand - such as how much an item costs when EVERYTHING WE HAVE IS LISTED ON THE MENU ON THE WALL BEHIND ME, or if we have a certain product that is NOT LISTED ON THE MENU ON THE WALL BEHIND ME...and so on. Probably my biggest peeve was changing the letters on the giant sign facing the freeway; basically I've got a twenty-foot metal pole with a suction cup on the end, and I've got to stick the plastic letters on it and position them on the sign high overhead. Now imagine doing that in the dead of winter when it's so cold that the letters won't stay on the suction cup for more than a second. Yeah, that sucked.

The lease on the property was supposedly bought out and the place was closed down last February. Although I think the biggest cause of our defeat was the fact that a 12-screen Marcus cinema was located not 6 miles north of us, coupled with our tendency to either have the critically-acclaimed art house stuff that nobody's heard of, or the mainstream crap that nobody else wants. Proof? One of the last movies were had was "Torque". We did occasionally get something that brought in lots of business; we got The Fast & The Furious "by accident" (Universal's one of the companies that didn't like us), and we got MAJOR business for stuff like Barbershop and Bad Boys II (which, thanks to our showing it on two screens and its 2.5-hour runtime, got me some sweet overtime $$$).

So all in all, I had a few problems with the place, but I wouldn't trade my time there for anything in the world. Besides, now I get to regail (read: bore) my new coworkers with all my kooky movie theater stories.

[Raymond Babbit]

Well, I worked at the local AMC here, and it sucked. I got 5.50 an hour, lower pay than anyone else I know my age. Dress code sucks, you can't have long hair if you're a guy(I'm tryin to grow mine out).

The worst part was the schedule though. At AMC, or at least the one I worked at, they had what were called "alternate" shifts. Basically, if you were scheduled as an alternate on a certain day, you had to call in an hour before you were scheduled to work to find out if you had to come in. So, 6-close alternate on Friday, you gotta call at 5 on Friday. This sucked, cause you couldn't make plans. If it had been a for sure "yes" or "no", that's cool, but maybe sucks when your friends want you to hang out

[Badbird]

Well, I've been doing it for ten years now. I only did the corperate whore thing for a year and a half, the rest has been with independant companies.

First off - it doesn't pay that great. The hours are wonky. And at AMC, you'll most likely have to be a ass-kissing drone.

But, you are in the movies. If you like it, you can never get out. I know people who've been in it longer than me. It just sucks you in and keeps you.

There will always be good times and bad times. I've worked with great people and I've worked with awful people. But the one constant is this:

Customers are assholes.

Not all of them. In fact, most of them pass by without incident. But probably about 2% of them will make you want to kill. My biggest complaints are:

1 - Customer talking on cell phone durring entire ticket/concession transaction, not paying attention to you for one damn second.

2 - Customers coming in late and making a big scene when they go in a dark theater ("I can't see!" "There's no seats!").

3 - Customers bitching about the price of anything - then buying it anyway! (Way to take a stand.)

4 - Customers are pigs, IE, the messes they leave in the theater will astound you. You will never leave a drink cup behind again.

5 - Children suck.

6 - Customers who have the wrong theater and/or showtime, swear they "read it in the paper" and get pissed at you.

7 - Customers who can't read. They look right at the showtime board, then ask you "What's showing?"

8 - Customers who name drop. This is specific to locally owned/independant theaters. The owners of my theater are well known in the area. Occasionally I'll get someone saying "Oh, I know Brian..." as if to impress me. I wanna say "Yeah, me too!" Thing is, they don't really know them - they talked for ten seconds once after buying a ticket.

9 - Our box office is on the outside, so everyone constantly bitches. "It's too cold." "It's too hot." "It's too windy." "Can we buy our tickets inside?" Ah, no fucktards, otherwise the box office would have been built that way.

10 - Assholes who don't even think twice before slapping down a hundred dollar bill to pay for a $3.25 popcorn.

[Cyclonus]

@ Weapon X

Ever been to the Oriental Theater, or the Downer Theater? If so what do you think of them? Just curious.

EDIT: For the record, I've never worked at a theater, but I'd do so if I needed the money or something.

[KillBill]

Oh man, I'd love to work at a movie theater. How old do you have to be to work at one in the UK, is it 18?

[B1rd_Po0p]

Originally posted by Bomont the Destroyer
I'm looking for a job, and I've kinda screwed myself so I need a job within the next 5 days.

I'm just curious - but did you ever get the job?

[Raw Chili]

I've worked at two theatre's in the past, an AMC and a Showcase, and it wasnt that bad. I completely half assed everything and it was a pretty cool laid back atmosphere with decent managers close to my age but a lil older(I was 19, 20 at the time) and cool sociable co workers. Didn't really have to bother working my ass off, and it was pretty easy work stocking candy, popcorn, or fucking around on a register. Dealing with angry customers wasnt too bad, im a pretty calm laid back guy so it didn't really bother me, just let them babble then tell them to talk to a supervisor, all and all it was a good time.