19 Fascinating Behind-The-Scenes Stories About What It’s Really Like To Work At A Movie Theater, Straight From The Employees Themselves

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19 Fascinating Behind-The-Scenes Stories About What It’s Really Like To Work At A Movie Theater, Straight From The Employees Themselves

We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to share all the insider secrets and stories that come with being a movie theater employee. Here are some of the most memorable ones:

1. “Sometimes workers would eat people’s leftovers after a movie ended. I judged less harshly when it was inpidually wrapped Starbursts, but Reese’s Pieces? Gross.”

Photograph By Dorisj / Getty Images—jonsharky

3. “I worked in a movie for two years. There were two kids having sex in the parking lot, and we had to call the police on them. Other kids would have sex in the theaters, and we’d have to tell them to leave. One time, someone left a bag of pee from their catheter in a seat. Another person left their kid’s dirty diaper in a seat.”

Michael Blann / Getty Images

—lmm066

4. “I worked at a movie theater as a college student. We all shared the same double-knit black pants and maroon vests. They were left hanging in a basement storage area, and I’m not sure they were ever washed. So, most of us would wear the work pants over our jeans because they were so gross.”

Netflix

—baxterinspace

5. “I don’t know what it is about cinemas that make them such an aphrodisiac for some people, but not only have I caught people having sex, I’ve also been sweeping under seats between showings and found used condoms. I’m begging people to just do it in the bathroom if you can’t wait.”

© Summit Releasing / Courtesy Everett Collection

—tierneyg2

6. “The best part was after the theater closed for the night, we would watch the new movies, just [us] employees.”

Sarah Shatz / © Amazon / Courtesy Everett Collection

—jazza294488329

7. “I worked for a theater that required hourly ‘auditorium checks.’ Basically, every hour, we had to go to each theater, count the people and check that the number of people in each auditorium matched the number of tickets sold. It was supposed to make it easy to tell if kids were sneaking into R-rated movies, or if people were auditorium hopping after their original movie finished.”

Mike Yarish / © Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

—hbarasz97

8. “Our projectors were programmed to shut off after 20 minutes (of the actual film, not just the previews) if no tickets had been sold for that showing. It was always funny to have people come up to the concession stand and complain about a movie shutting off, and then watch them immediately backtrack after telling them about the projector/ticket system.”

Mara Duchetti / Getty Images/iStockphoto

—hbarasz97

9. “My first job was at a movie theater in Alaska, and honestly, I saw it all. From people sneaking wine and champagne into Magic Mike or Sex and the City 2, to a fight breaking out between a girl who was team Edward and another girl who was team Jacob, to serving popcorn to Drew Barrymore and Emily Blunt who were filming a movie in Anchorage at the time, and even when a woman went into labor in the lobby.”

Filippobacci / Getty Images

—jedi11knight

10. “We don’t care if you bring food or drinks.”

Farknot_architect / Getty Images/iStockphoto

—edithmay934

11. “My sister worked in a movie theater in our town that was really poorly managed, so she had a number of horror stories. One was that they never made fresh popcorn to serve to the customers. They’d pop a whole bunch of popcorn and then put them in giant plastic bags, which they would store in the back. [To] make matters worse, this led to a lot of mice and other hungry critters in the back trying to get snacks of their own.”

Fuse / Getty Images

—robert_dunder

12. “Considering how much cinemas up-charge on popcorn, you’d think they could at least make it fresh. No longer work at the cinema because the boss was horrible, and hygiene standards were…concerning. For a lot of reasons. Would have kept going to that cinema if I didn’t know what it looks like behind the scenes; sometimes ignorance is bliss.”

Drs Producoes / Getty Images

—frothinkssotoo07

13. “My first job was at a movie theater. Granted, it was a while ago, but I still can’t eat theater popcorn with butter. The butter is actually thick, flavored oil that comes in big jugs almost solidified until warmed up.”

Karolina Wojtasik / HBO Max

—norenelee

14. “I work at an independently owned single screen movie theater in Napa Valley, California. We pop Orville [Redenbacher] popcorn fresh. [Any] leftover popcorn at the end of the night is thrown out. We use real butter which is a pain to clean the machine every night, but it tastes so much better.”

Daniel McFadden / © Relativity Media / Courtesy Everett Collection

—edithmay934

15. “When I worked at the theater, I had unlimited free popcorn and movies where I could get up to four tickets any day. It was great.”

Andrew J Miller / Getty Images / iStockphoto

—kelsielynnc

16. “Many cinemas will sell off posters, standees, and banners for charity assuming the parent studio doesn’t want them back. Ask your local cinema what their policy is on such things. Staff will usually get first dibs on them, though, although we’d have to pay to the charity, too. Even so, you wouldn’t believe the amount of promo material that just gets thrown out.”

J. Michael Jones / Getty Images

—jonsharky

17. “Contrary to popular belief, staff don’t always get to watch the films for free. For major releases, often free staff tickets will be suspended for the first week or two until the crowds die down. Staff screenings vary depending on the cinema chain and the parent studio of the movie in question. Most movies are sent to the cinemas on drives which are often time-locked so they can’t be viewed until 00.01 on release day.”

© Miramax / Courtesy Everett Collection

—jonsharky

18. “Our cinema was quite strict on exercising the ‘no outside food’ policy, so if you were on usher duty, you totally had the right to search ‘suspiciously bulging or odd-smelling bags.’ If you found any outside food, they’d either be confiscated (for us to eat after) or you were barred from entering. It was quite fun to play bouncer, and we confiscated some real good stuff like an ENTIRE rotisserie chicken.”

Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images

—ravenbard

19. And finally, as this person wrote in: “I have about a million stories about cleaning up ‘biological materials,’ like all of them. Be nice to your movie theater employees.”

—elissad3

Past and present movie theater employees: What else would you add to this list? Tell us in the comments!

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.