My wife and I had a chance to go see a movie the other night. For a few weeks we had wanted to see “Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning”, the eighth and final chapter of the series.
When I went to buy our tickets online, I was surprised to find only three rows of seats to choose from. I thought, “Maybe the rest of the theater is sold out.” I nabbed a couple of good seats. (More on that later.) I knew we would buy popcorn, so when I was offered the chance to buy some along with our tickets, I added it to our checkout total.
I saw very few people as we walked into the movie complex. An attendant scanned my online tickets, and we headed towards the concessions. When I arrived, a young person handed me a large bag of popcorn. When my tickets were scanned, the concessions got a notification, bagged up my popcorn, and met me at the counter. Impressive.
I forgot to put a drink into my wife’s purse, so we had to buy one there. You don’t order from a live person. You poke a finger at a kiosk, scan a credit card, and someone brings a bottle of water to you. Again, impressive.
The reason I only had three rows from which to choose seats is our theater only had three rows of comfy reclining seats. We were in the back row, but we had great seats. I’ll bet the whole theater only had forty comfy reclining seats. Nice.
What a different moviegoing experience. Assigned seats, comfy reclining seats, and no wait prepaid concessions. Going to the theater is a much different experience from buying a ticket at a window, waiting in line for popcorn, and finding an unoccupied seat.
I think I like it.
Waite for it... 