A lonely night at the movies

“Are you sure their open tonight?”

After parking in front of the local movie theater, we walked towards the darkened ticket office sitting between two entrances. There was no line of people buying tickets and no one was selling tickets behind the window either.

“They better be open. I already bought our tickets online.”

When we walked inside, all the lights were on but no one was home. There wasn’t a single person in the lobby. No one was collecting tickets and directing people to their theater.

We were the only ones there.

I was prepared for this. You see, we had come a few weeks before. On that occasion, I didn’t buy my tickets in advance. So when we arrived, I had to negotiate a five by three foot touch screen kiosk. It wasn’t hard to find my movie, pick my seats, and pay with credit card. But the printer was out of paper, so I had to track down a human to print out my tickets on another machine. Then that same human ran back and scooped up a bag of popcorn for me. I kidded her, “You must be the only one working here!” Now I always buy my tickets online before I leave to go see a movie.

So, with my cell phone in hand, with my ticket bar code on the screen, I walked right in. At least there was no line at the unattended snack bar. No, we didn’t just help ourselves. We could have. But then a teenager appeared from the back and got my small popcorn for me. I wondered, “Is he running the whole place by himself?”

When we got to the theater showing our film, we were the only people there. Even though we had picked our seats in advance, I could have sat anywhere I wanted. In a younger life, I might have moved around and watched the movie from many different vantage points. But on this night I behaved and stayed in my assigned seat.

I’ll bet it doesn’t take more than one person to run the whole theater on a weeknight. From what I’ve read, projectors are now run by computer, so no humans are needed. A single person could unlock the doors, turn on the lights, pop some popcorn, sell snacks, and then lock up after everyone has gone home. Maybe there’s someone else around, napping in the back room. Who knows?