My day at the movies or why I hate AMC Seatac North (1 Viewer)

[Brett Hancock]

Ok here is a little story of my move going adventure at this theater called Sea-tac North in Federal Way, WA. I was going to a 2:15 showing of Frailty with 4 of my friends. Only 2 of the 4 of them were 17 and over. I am 17 however so seeing R movies is now not a concern for me. So we get out of school at 2:05 we figure with 10-15 minutes of previews we can still make it there. So we try. We get there I dive out of my car and I go up and pay. No problem. I go into the theater and I'm there right as the movie starts how cool is that. However my other 2 friends try and pay and they tell them that they have to be 17. So they are shit out of luck. Then my next 2 friends just buy a ticket for another movie. Gee I don't think the theater can pick up that one. SO they buy a ticket for some pg-13 movie and run into Frailty. 3 minutes into the movie the manager comes in and ask us all to leave. I figure I don't want to distract the other people in the movie so I will go out show the manager my ticket stub and go back in. He tells all 3 of us to leave. I show him my ticket stub and say see it says Frailty heres my id im 17 im gonna go back and watch the movie. He says no you have to leave. I say why I payed. He says they are your friends you have to leave. I said this is fucking bullshit why do I have to leave I payed to see this movie. So he stands infront of the doorway until I go over and get my 5 dollars back and he makes me leave. Bye this time there would have been no point in trying to stay and see a movie that was 15 minutes over. I told him it was bullshit one more time and then left. Why did I get kicked out of a movie that I payed for? That is complete bs Not only did I waste my time driving down there but the gas that I could have saved bye not going. I am going to find the AMC complaint number tonight and tell them about this. Just thuoght I would vent. Peace

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

This whole problem could've been avoided if everybody gave their money to you and you bought tickets for everybody. Then everybody has a ticket to Frailty.
Also, you need to go to the movie theaters on Friday nights or the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) when all the teenagers are working. See, I'm in luck since I know people who work at the movie theaters near me.

 

[Brett Hancock]

Yeah see but I can get into rated R movies. So it doesn't matter because I wouldn't have cared if they didn't get in that's not my problem. Thanks for the tips though

 

[Scott L]

That is wrong that you were forced to leave imo, but when I was 17 and a few of my friends were under we all had to make sacrifices to see movies we could all watch. That's just the way it is. At least the age gap between all of you isn't huge, you won't have to wait much longer.

 

[Duane Robinson]

That's what you get for being a selfish bastard. You should have looked out for your friends then the manager wouldn't have been able to screw with you. Plus I think theaters have a rule or something where they reserve the right to refuse service and refund your money and not allow you to watch a movie or some crap like that. Oh well, maybe next time you guys will think up a plan and work as a team so some loser theater manager won't be able to ruin your little movie-watching outing.

 

[Brett Hancock]

Point well taken. However with already being 10 minutes late nobody seemed to want to come up with a plan but I still see what you guys are saying. To clarify I didn't mean that I really didn't care if they got in I guess I was just still a little pissed off. Next team yeah we will have to think of something better. Hopefully next time we wont show up with -10 minutes left.

 

[Malcolm R]

I wouldn't have cared if they didn't get in that's not my problem.

These are your friends? Really? Again, I have to wonder, if you all went with the plan to see "Frailty," what would you have expected them to do if they didn't get in? Wait in the lobby while you enjoyed the movie?
I understand you were upset, but from an outside perspective the priorities seem to need a little work here. And Matt's right, I think you might have been OK if you'd bought all the tickets. Purchasing tickets for another movie then "running into 'Frailty'" was a bit transparent. Once they were denied the R-rated movie yet still bought tickets, they were automatically under surveillence by the theater staff.

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Once they were denied the R-rated movie yet still bought tickets, they were automatically under surveillence by the theater staff.

Exactly. They should've bought tickets to a PG-13 movie before buying tickets to Frailty. But, the theater staff still might've put them on surveillence cause they would've noticed you guys coming in as a group and it would be weird for two guys going to another movie and two guys going to another movie.
See, you have to think about this before you see an R-rated movie. When you're a teenager, getting into an R-rated movie is very complicated and you have to use logic. You can either:
1) Get a parent to buy the tickets.
2) Buy a ticket to a PG-13 movie and sneak in carefully when nobody is looking OR if the ticket taker is in the front of the theater.
3) Get a friend who is 17 to buy all the tickets.
4) Know somebody works at the theater who sells tickets.

 

[Malcolm R]

Or perhaps if you'd all scattered and sat in different places in the theater "until the danger had passed," the manager might not have wanted to annoy the entire room by rooting out all five of you. The fact that you were all sitting together when the manager came in just confirmed you were trying to screw them over and made him determined to eject the whole group.

 

[Brett Hancock]

Yeah. They have never had a problem getting in to a R rated movie before. I thought that this time would be no different. It wasn't. We should have thought ahead. It also probably didn't help that we were the only ones buying tickets and the only ones in the lobby.

When you're a teenager, getting into an R-rated movie is very complicated and you have to use logic.

That was the whole point of my original rant. I am 17 I can see rated R movies. We should have used more logic for getting all of them in.

Point being now that my ranting is done it sucks that they didn't get in. Also sucks that I got kicked out. Next time we will all think ahead. Thanks HTF for being the voice of reason.

 

[Chris Lock]

> This whole problem could've been avoided if everybody gave their money to you and you bought tickets for everybody. Then everybody has a ticket to Frailty.
That doesn't work everywhere. Some theatres ask for the ID of everyone in the group. I've seen it happen, say a couple where the girl left her purse in the car & didn't have ID with her: no sale.
Interesting that nobody said if you aren't old enough to buy the tickets properly, you shouldn't be able to see the movie. (I didn't say that was my opinion.)
Brett, your pic makes me wonder if you're really Jack Osbourne using an alias.

 

[Philip_G]

the interesting thing about working in a theater (I was a projectionist for a few years, but hung out in the box office and watched when I wasn't busy)

you can't please everybody LoL

you get parents calling because you refused to sell their 12 y/o daughter tickets to whatever R rated movie, and then right after that you get a call because some 16 y/o got in to see the same movie and the parents are pissed.

basically man, the mananger doesn't care, it's easier to get rid of all of you and not have to worry about it.

 

[Malcolm R]

That doesn't work everywhere. Some theatres ask for the ID of everyone in the group. I've seen it happen, say a couple where the girl left her purse in the car & didn't have ID with her: no sale.

Why would this occur? Only NC-17 films are supposed to be "no one under 17 admitted." If it's rated R, then as long as one person in the group is over age 17, I'd think technically they could claim to be the "guardian" of the group?

 

[Brett Hancock]

Chris I never noticed that. It's freaking me out no. No I'm not Jack Osbourne. But maybe I should grow a fro.

 

[Dennis]

Am I missing something?

What happened to the other two guys?

I find it amusing that you have to pay Adult admission but you're limited as to what movies you could see.

 

[StephenA]

The exact opposite happened to me when I went to see Striptease when it came out in theaters. I wasn't exactly 17 yeat, but would be later that year. I went to see it with my cousin who is 2 years older than me, and neither of us were carded and were let in with no problem. I still don't look and sound 17 6 years later.

Next time try to come up with a better plan, or see a movie that is PG-13 and under that you all wanna see. It sucks that they were refused a ticket and then you were all thrown out. Fortunately I never had that problem.

 

[MikeF]

This whole discussion is odd. I'm sadly well over 17 now, but I can remember being about 12 or so and buying tickets for R-rated films (RoboCop comes to mind) without incident.

Is it that I live in the great, white, liberal north, or have things changed that drastically?

 

[StephenA]

It could partly be due to all the violence and stuff that's been going on. Maybe more parents have been complaining about theaters and rental stores letting kids see R rated movies. Maybe not so much the number of people complaining, but the stink they make about it could be louder and be putting more pressure on the places. Could also be certain areas that are like this. I have no idea.

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

You have to remember when there was all that fuss about two years ago (or so) when the subject of the degeneracy of Hollywood films was a hot topic before Congress. Although the studios did not have to make any concessions to content, one of the effects was that theaters started carding more rigidly than before. As for the subject of someone in the group being over 17, I believe the restriction reads "with a parent or guardian", something a group of friends would not qualify as.

While theaters police this more than previously, if you are under age and really want to get in, you're probably better off not going at a high traffic time (i.e., Friday/Saturday night). This is when I have noticed that theaters enforce this rule the most, more often with a ticket taker at the doors to the individual theaters or a "sweep" prior to the screening.

 

[Philip_G]

Oh I also forgot to mention, when people do what your friends did, the cashiers call the doormen and tell them about it, and point you out when you go back. It's like a game, they keep score.. so you're up a very determined opponent