We saw Black Panther tonight, but this isn't about the movie itself.
First we went out to this local "indie" theater that usually is pretty quiet and has great theater seats. The parking lot was almost full which is rare for that place. The ticket counter was closed with signs taped to the windows to go inside and use automated kiosks instead. Weird, but OK. Inside the place a madhouse. It was also hot as hell in there, like the AC wasn't on. Absolute chaos-- lines trying to go to the food counter, lines trying to go to restrooms, and lines trying to get to the kiosks. I think I saw maybe one person behind the food counter (there's usually at least a few and someone over 21 to dish out the booze) and the manager standing between the ticket kiosks. He was acting like a total asshole and was talking down to people instead of helping them. I didn't talk to him but after standing in this crowd for several minutes, seeing people confused and listening to him being a douchebag, we left and drove to another theater down the road. (As it turns out, this theater is about to close down for renovations because they got bought out by someone. So I guess they fired 99% of the staff or they quit.)
The second theater was also packed. By this point, my wife was starting to get irritated because she's not big on movie theaters. The next showing of the movie was going to start in 30 minutes or so but the girl at the ticket counter said we should go for the next one, since there were barely any seats left. So I got the next showing which was another 30 minutes after that- we had an hour to kill and at this point I started hearing "I want to go home. Let's just go tomorrow morning. I hate this." I got her to walk around the area with me and she found a Home Goods shop with some mugs she liked and bought. That pretty much turned her mood around and we went back to the theater.
She waited in the ticket line while I waited in the food line to get us a drink. I had to listen to these two women act like know-it-all bitches talking shit about their friends and boyfriends, while not paying attention to the line and generally holding everybody up. Was glad when they weren't in the same theater.
Everything seemed good when I went inside. My wife found great seats and it wasn't crowded initially, although when the movie started it was full. The audience in general was fine and was pretty into the movie, applause at the end, etc.
Except for these two kids.
Who just so happened to be sitting next to my wife. I didn't even notice anything until halfway into the movie when she started talking to herself in Japanese, muttering things like "stop it, you're gross" and "shut the fuck up brats." I look over and the kid next to her is sort of "dancing" around in his seat, mimicking stuff being done in the movie and playing with his hoodie like it was a mask or something. TBH I pretty much figured that he was just super-excited and into the movie, but it was really pissing her off. I told her to ignore him since he was just a kid and he wasn't making noises or making physical contact with her. Then at the end of the movie, he started play-fighting with his sister and that just set my wife off. I don't know why she didn't say anything to them though. What I couldn't believe was that their parents sat there the whole time just ignoring it. It also hit me that maybe the kid had a mental problem because it really was pretty abnormal behavior.
Anyway, this just made her explode and she sat there cussing up a storm for the next 15 minutes, exiting the theater, and in the car ride home. I finally got her to calm down after getting her some food. Now she doesn't want to go back to the movie theater again.
