Everything you know if you work at a dine-in movie theater

This summer I received the opportunity to work at a dine-in movie theater called Studio Movie Grill and those who know me understand that working at a movie theater is a dream come true for me.

I love movies, I love food and I love people so it was an all-around win-win situation. However, there were some aspects of this job I didn’t anticipate, some good and some bad.

It’s a lot like high school

I think at workplaces where most of the employees (aside from the managers) are age 22 and under, a lot of gossip and drama ensues. My very first day on the job I was working with 3 people at the box office and as soon as one of the girls walked away to clean the windows, two of my co-workers started discussing how she was extremely annoying and chatty during training.

I’ve heard plenty of other gossip about people being fired or nearly fired. There’s a lot of joking around and flirting at the theater so of course, there are several people dating each other and breaking up. And like high school, information gets around pretty quickly.

People are messy AF

Although I work mainly in the box office selling tickets, sometimes box office people are called to the kitchen to help run food to theaters when it gets really busy. So for my second day training I had to learn to run food.  I went to help deliver meals to a theater and as I was walking out, a man tripped and (I kid you not) launched his drink at me. Luckily, it was just water and our standard uniform calls for dark pants, so it didn’t look like I completely peed myself, I guess.

You do not realize how messy people can be until you are the one having to clean up after them. After theaters let out, four or five runners gather to sweep aisles, wipe the tables, trash any food scraps and so on. I’ve picked up half eaten pizza off the floor, wiped ice cream from seats and cleaned ketchup out of cup holders. One of the runners and I spent 20 minutes sweeping an aisle blanketed with popcorn. I couldn’t even see the black carpeting underneath all the popcorn, that’s how bad it was. The runner I was with told me a few children were sitting in that row, but still, it was ridiculous. The menus are always sticky with unknown substances and we have to wipe them off before handing them out to new guests.

There’s many perks for movie lovers

On the upside, one of the reasons I chose this job was for the movie perks. All employees are allowed to watch movies for free and can bring up to three guests, which I have definitely taken advantage of. Employees also get half off food, which is awesome because the menu is superb but not the cheapest. Another perk is that if you make friends with a runner/server, they offer you food that a guest refused to eat and returned back to the kitchen or an accidental order that never got delivered. Also, during training I could order free meals at the end of my shift and I probably gained 10 pounds that week. Sometimes the theater holds private pre-screenings for employees after hours or they reserve a theater for us to watch old movies on the big screen.

Teamwork is necessary

Working at Studio Movie Grill involves constant communication between the box office, podium managers, servers and runners. Most of us wear earpieces during shift so that we can stay connected to everyone in the theater. I learned the importance of teamwork pretty quickly while working at podium because there’s usually only two of us and we’re tasked with checking off tickets, handing out menus, announcing theater seatings and directing guests to theaters. We have to radio the runners to make sure the theaters are clean and that a server is inside ready to take orders before sending in guests.

Even the police officer who sticks around during the night shifts to make sure we get to our cars safely, knows the value of teamwork. He ends up helping out every now and then to announce theater seatings and check off tickets when the crowds are overwhelming.

It’s fast paced

People who come to the movies are always in a rush to get to their tickets printed and make it to theater before their show starts, even more so on weekends. Working at box office requires me to keep up with this fast pace. It’s even harder when you have an earpiece in and you’re listening to find out whether a theater is open but all you hear are runners chatting about which guests still need their food delivered. All the while, guests are talking to you, asking questions and sometimes you only hear every other word they say because of the radio chatter. I asked a guest to repeat what they said about 3 times because I could only focus at one task at a time. Multitasking is a must but I’m still working on it.

When guests are eager to get to the theaters as soon as possible and see their movie they get upset when you mess up and say, accidentally charge them twice for the same ticket, give them the wrong change or lose their groupon (a discounted ticket). People can be very rude about these mishaps and you have to remain calm and positive despite how upset the guests become as well as yourself.

You have to work late nights, weekends AND holidays

During orientation, the manager emphasized that working at a movie theater involves coming in on holidays and weekends and staying late because those are the times people see movies the most. He made us realize the importance of this aspect of our jobs and that if we were not able to handle that, we should drop out now. It’s not too bad most of the time, probably because in the summer the only holidays we really have are Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. But I can imagine it’s a drag to come in on Christmas Day.

But overall it has been a great experience and the lessons I’ve learned working in the service industry so will definitely translate into my future career.