Working at A Movie Theater

By: Johnny

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I worked at my local movie theater for a little over 2 1/2 years when I was in high school. I started off as a concessionsist, selling popcorn, drinks, and candy to the customers and also cleaning and preparing the food. Since the theater that I worked at had twenty theaters there'd always be at least five or so concessionists working at a time. After about a year I got promoted to selling at the box office, and then soon after that I was promoted to Concession Supervisor, the position I worked until the end of my time there.

Given that I worked these three different jobs and then was also trained as an usher, I've had plenty of experiences working at this movie theater, both good and bad. Sticking to the concession stand, because that's where I spent the majority of my time working, there were a lot of different jobs we were responsible in doing to keep the stand up and running to the managers standards. These jobs included making popcorn, filling up the bags they were sold in, making sure candies up to the required stock level every night, cleaning the self-serve condiment stations that people had no problem making a huge mess at, making the different food we sold like pizza, soft pretzels, nachos etc., filling the many ice bins, overall just keeping the concession stand clean, and many more. At the end of every night there were a list of about 20 jobs the concession stand hand complete before any concessionists could go home, and because I was a Concession Supervisor for some time, I worked first hand on making sure these jobs got done and helping them get done. What I'm trying to say is that there was a surprising amount of jobs that had to be done periodically and at the end of each night to keep the stand up to speed and functioning correctly. There were definitely a lot more than what meets the eye when you think of a concession stand at a movie theater.  

Drawing from personal experiences working at this theater, I have a few cool, funny, and somewhat baffling stories to tell. When I was a Concession Supervisor I learned that there was a man who came to the theater regularly who demanded he be served two fresh hot dogs right off the grill. Because we made our hot dogs in batches on the grill, this made for some major inconvenience for us when we had to make two more hot dogs after already cleaning and turning off the hot dog grill for the night. This man was eventually referred to as the, "Hot Dog Man" amongst the employees at the movie theater. Another experience that isn't exactly mine but a close friends experience was, a lady came in to see the 2016 movie Zootopia, an animated kids film, and as she was buying tickets from my friend she asked, "There aren't going to be any children in the theater are there? I hate when kids are in the theater.". My friend proceeded to ignoring this ever-so-stupid question and comment and gave the lady her ticket. The reason I bring up this certain experience is because I feel this question does a great job capturing the intelligence and ignorance so many customers displayed to us. One more experience of mine that's a more positive experience was when I was working as a Concession Supervisor and was able to be apart of the promotional (promo) team at the theater. The promo team compiled of a select group of employees at the theater who worked together to create a promotional display for one of the most anticipated movies of the year. When I was apart of the team we had the ever-so anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens to tackle, eventually building an X-Wing spaceship that was big enough for two people to fit into. This was accompanied with a very sweet desert setting.

Looking back at all my experiences working at the movie theater, there really are just so many to talk about, with these ones I've discussed just barely grazing my personal compilation. The things I've learned and my biggest takeaways from working here are fairly simple. The movie theater is a great place for a teenager to work. The environment couldn't be more enjoyable, most of the employees were teenagers as well so making friends wasn't a problem in the slightest, hours and shifts were flexible because of how many employees there were, and what's better than getting to see the movies for free?

Downsides that I experienced from working there we're thankfully presented very soon into my time. There weren't many but the biggest ones would have to be the work load, especially if you're a concessionist, there was always something to be done. Depending on the person, this could actually be seen as a positive because your kept busy and time went by faster. I myself liked that aspect of working in the concession stand. Also since movie theaters are weekend-based businesses, your shifts would more often than not fall during your weekend. Again, some might see this as a good thing because of school, but it is something important to have in mind.

I'm very grateful for being able to work at this movie theater for as long as I did and being accompanied by so many fun and kind employees. I learned more than I ever thought I would have and I'll always look back with a smile when a reminisce about the good ole days working at the theater. I hope I was able to provide great insight on working at a movie theater as a teenager.