A Whole New World

So my husband and I have been lucky enough to get some free tickets to movie premiers over the past couple of weeks, and let me tell you, it is a completely different crowd. First of all there are 3 distinct groups: the newbies, the ones that didn't want to pay for a sitter to go to a free movie screening, and the regulars (a.k.a. the crazies).

The Newbies:
These are the people who get free tickets from their friends for a movie that night. They rush home after work discussing how early they need to be there. At first they don't think that they need to be there because there cannot be that many people that have tickets for this, or that will actually go to a 7:30 movie on a school night. They let the dogs out and hit the road. Halfway there they decide that they should just eat dinner somewhere at the mall where the movie is showing and then head over to get in line. Upon entering the mall, you can hear a rumbling of noise coming from the floor above (where the theater is located.) There are already at least 100 people in line and the movie is not scheduled to start for another hour! This is not Harry Potter people, this is The Edge of Darkness. Needless to say, Zach had to run to Sonic while I got in line and we ate dinner on the floor of the lobby. Us = Classy.

The Ones that didn't want to pay for a sitter to go to a free movie screening:
Let me preface this: I am not a parent, so I cannot judge what parents do. I however, can judge the stupidity of people. When we got upstairs we noticed there were a lot of kids up there. I leaned over to Zach and asked to see the tickets. There it was in plain sight "This movie is rated R for graphic bloody violence and language". Sound perfect for my 6 year old, right?!?!?! WTF people. Just because you got free tickets, that doesn't mean that your kid needs to see it because you don't want to get a sitter. We were directly behind said family in line. When they approached the ticket attendant to get into the movie. He looked at her and then at her kid. He asked if she knew that this was a rated R movie, she said "I don't even know what movie this is.... that's OK, he will be fine". She then proceeded to walk in. Not sure how this kid fared in this movie, but the family next to us THAT HAD 3 KIDS UNDER 10, those kids were hating life the second a characters head gets blown off and her guts were hanging out everywhere. Great parenting!

The Regulars (a.k.a. the crazies):
There a complete underground of these people that spend their nights going from free screening to free screening. Now I am not talking about those that are critics or anything, just people. Several people brought their own folding chairs to sit in while waiting in line. What? I... hmmm. We had one such crazy behind us. Our first interaction with this woman is when she asked us if our ticket had been printed on an ink jet or laser printer. Because she was sure based on the quality of the print it must have been ink jet. *cricket cricket*. Then once the flood gates of her mouth opened, it didn't stop. She was asking us about every movie we had seen and telling us every movie she had.
"And did you know that Avatar has made more money than Titanic so James Cameron is thinking of re-releasing it back into theaters as a 3d movie...
"Hi Helen... so good to see you."
"Are you going to Dear John tomorrow and then From Paris with Love on Friday?"
"OK, good. See you there."
"Did you know that you can sneak food into the theater if you have big enough pockets?"
"The only thing that is hard is a drink, but if your purse was big enough, you could put it in there. Are you excited to see this movie?"... Just like that."

Maybe it was the Michael Jackson t-shirt and bright red headband that was throwing me off, or maybe it was the fanny pack. Either way, Zach and I were fighting to see who could make it through the door faster so as not to get stuck sitting next to her. Victory for us! We lost her at the purse check station.

Now, this is not just one isolated incident. There were crazies at the next movie we went to as well... Equipped with folding chairs and everything. They all hugged each other when they got in the theater and visited with others. There were even inside jokes between people from across the room.

Wow. That is really all I can say.