Movie Theater Jobs

I worked at an Edwards Theater after I graduated high school, but that was just for the summer. It was minimum wage, which I'm guessing is why not a lot of us still hold those jobs.

I went the chain video store route through college which seemed better than a movie theater because of the access to all the variety of films. Watched a ton of stuff for free that I more than likely would not have at that time in my life otherwise. Plus there was less staff to fight with when it came to claiming free posters and other swag which is useless now but seemed like a real valuable commodity at the time.

I worked at the local Multiplex a few years back, selling tickets and working the snack stand. I hated that fucking job, despite the free movies and posters (which I still have, mostly rolled into a cylinder and placed in my close). Shit uniforms, shit customers, and I still remember cleaning the fucking popcorn machine at the end of every night, what a pain in the ass.

Worst days were Wednesdays (aka Senior Days), when old people would get a movie, popcorn, and small soda for $2 bucks, and would then pretty much complain about everything anyway (too much butter, too little butter, too much ice, too little salt, too much salt, etc.)

Worked at an AMC near my hometown for two years as a projectionist. Free movies all day, every day (must've patchworked at least five additional showings of RotK from just walking by and watching it), a physical job and the best part, didn't have to deal with co-workers, customers and the managers were rarely around. Slept on the job late at night, read books, bullshitted with my fellow projectionist and felt very superior to my 'behind the register' counterparts, who I realize were largely superfluous. People don't go to the movies for popcorn, they go to see a movie. Advantage: mine. We had Thursday night screenings of prints (to ensure that everything was built properly) and when we watched them, we could engage in all the horrible behavior we railed against. Talking, yelling, walking around, because no one else was there. It was paradise.

Still the best job I ever had.

Worked at an AMC four summers ago and hated it, largely in part to the worst boss I'll probably ever have. He was certainly the biggest dickhead I've ever met.

AMC in Hamilton? I think I know that guy. Unless there are multiple dickheads working there, which is a possibility.

I worked as a projectionist at a local theater when I was 16, and then after that at a couple of different video stores (local ones, not Blockbuster or any other major chain).

One of my exes used to manage a Korean video store in the LA area, so for a good 2 years I had a steady stream of Korean/HK/Japanese films and TV dramas in my diet. Still have about a couple of hundred tapes gathering dust somewhere in storage.

No, it wasn't Hamilton. I worked at Mountainside. It was awkward after I left because that was still my main theater. Thankfully, he was fired a year later.

One of my best friends is currently a projectionist and he loves it. Compared to working on the floor, obviously.

Working as a projectionist was pretty cool. After hours screenings were the best as they were also accompanied by a case of beer.

I also loved turning down the house lights and playing my CD's over the auditorium's sound system. Good times.

It's a small chewer world: I worked as a projectionist at the AMC in Hamilton for close to 5 years. Fun job when you are in college, but there's very little room for advancement and the job is being phased out a great deal by digital projectors.

And you get a birds-eye view at people doin-it in the theater!

I also briefly worked as a projectionist at the Block in Orange, CA. Very busy theater, and they did a ton of preview/advance screenings. Too bad the GM there was a cunt.

I was the only "adult" non-manager when I was working, so I was trained to do pretty much everyone's job since I was the only one who could work late. Projectionist was the best job, but I hated the fact that since I was tall I got stuck changing all the marquees every Thursday, which was a miserable job.

My very first job interview was at a theater, and I ended up turning it down because they paid less than other entry level places because they could subsidize with free movies, and I couldn't justify that in my head. But to this day I wonder what that experience would've been like.

Worked all through High School at a big tenplex in Northern NJ. It was awesome. They paid us decently at the time (I started in November '89 and was pulling down $7.50 an hour), free movies, and we used to hang out there practically all night when our shifts were over getting fucked up and watching movies. I tore tickets and worked the concession stand, mostly. The first time a young lady used her mouth on me was at that job. Good times. The bowtie sucked, though.

I obviously worked at the wrong theater in NJ.

One of my first jobs was at a local Cinemark.

Stupid plastic bowties and more Bulworth hats than you can count.

I fondly look back at all the shitty movies I was forced to screen that I otherwise would never have bothered with. Battlefield Earth. Eye of the Beholder. Bats. Wild Wild West to name a scant few.

Not great pay, but yeah I'll agree that it's a really fun job.

I worked at three different movie houses in my late teens and early 20s -- an ACT III and two Regal Cinemas. Fun fact: two of my former managers had nervous breakdowns.

The average-movie goer is absolutely retarded and surprisingly indecisive, given the somewhat limited menu of popcorn, candy and soda. They also can't seem to remember movie titles for damn. The collision of the words "Saving Private Ryan" and "There's Something About Mary" confused they holy shit out of most of them.

I always enjoyed how rich college kids would give me hell over ticket prices (back when matinees were an outrageous $3.75!), bust out a $100 bill, and then make their sleazy girlfriends pay for themselves. They'd also think my job was commission-based, that I was taking some big chunk out of the price for popcorn and drinks. Yeah, that's how it works, fucko.

I preferred cleaning theaters over customer service. I'd pick up spilled popcorn, half-finished beer bottles and even poopy diapers (yes, someone changed their infant's diapy during a flick) any day of the week rather than having to ask penny-pinching theater-goers if they'd like a large drink for just a quarter more.

I used to work at an Edwards Theater in Huntington Beach. Scott Ian used to come in all the time.

Back in my Orlando days, I worked at the one local arthouse theater as a projectionist, and like someone else's similar experience, had the worst boss ever, so I ended up quitting within 6 months.

The occassional free movie wasn't worth it, either, as it was a single screen and often played the same movie for 3-4 weeks at a time.

could any of you projectionists have gotten away with pulling a Tyler Durden style cock shot frame edit?

Do they make 35mm porn? I always assumed porn was 8 or 16mm. But to answer your question, no, probably not.

The studios get pretty peeved if the proper trailers aren't shown on the movies, so I can imagine a cock making it into Wall-E would be caught pretty fast.

The AMC Central Park 7 in Plano, TX gave me my first job (near the end of high school). I drove by it when I was in Dallas a couple of weeks ago, and they're using it for church services now.

I liked it pretty well, but ushering was WAAAY better than working the concession stand. I never worked the ticket booth, and I didn't stick around long enough to get to projection. There were two or three managers who were alright, and one lady who was downright unpleasant. I'm friendly, so I got by fine. Some of the high school kids I worked with were pretty entertaining.

You're right about cleaning the popper every night, Shadows-- THE WORST.

Not too many shenanigans going on at our theater (that I knew about). Sometimes the ushers would tell a manager that a lightbulb was out on the roof and that they were going up there to change it, just so they could go kill time up there. One guy was panicked once because the manager actually wanted to go up there with him to supervise. Heh.

Ushering was great, because there was so much wandering around involved. I made a point to see the cool Harrier attack in TRUE LIES and the big stampede in LION KING as many times as possible that summer.

Hearing the closing credits to THE SHADOW several hundred times was not great. A man can only take so much Taylor Dayne.

Ditto that. Blockbuster (5 rentals a week!) and Suncoast a couple years a piece. Turned me into the film-geek and VHS-to-DVD collector I am today.

Best part of the job: one of the projectionists smoked a lot of pot.

Worst: one of the coke syrup containers exploded for some reason late one night and I got to stay until 3am cleaning coke syrup off the ceiling of the storage room.

Judas, no cock shots in the 35 prints we had, but we did have quite a collection of frames of naked women by the end of my tenure.

My least favorite memory is when K-Pax flew off the platter and I stayed at the theater all fucking night putting the spaghetti mess back together. That thing was so chopped up and unwatchable I'm surprised anyone sat through it afterward (to say nothing of the films...uh, quality).

I'm imagining that you had an 'Ark of the Covenant' style storage box at the back of the projection booth to hold all of these.

Not for those, but we had shelves and shelves devoted to 35 prints of old trailers.

That's where I am now, it also has the benefit of pretty flexible hours which helps with the movie making side of things. Also today I got the joy of comming into work and finding a solitary copy of Zyzzyx Road" with a note left on it reading "Not on our release schedule, don't know what I'm supposed to do with it"

For a theater of it's size, there was a really cool, almost family vibe. Yes, it was part of a chain (Cineplex Odeon at the time), but the general manager was married to the operations manager (basically the number 1 and 2 top on site bosses), and her brother was the concessions manager (who was your typical late 80's 23 year old long haired rocker). Since the job paid relatively well, was real lenient as far as time off, and the bosses were cool, there was very little turnover. Most people lasted years, which I found out later was very rare for most places that employ teenagers.

My fellow projectionists were a source of humor. I had job security by consistently showing up on time. Pot was dealt at least once out of the booth.

I liked that the xenon projector bulbs, I think they were, could explode and send pieces of themselves into the face at high speeds. So we had a procedure for removing them and throwing them into the dumpster to pre-explode them.

And also human behavior. I've talked elsewhere on here about seeing jump scares or people crying en masse at the same moments every showing on opening weekends, and also... there was the fire marshall trailer that was eventually phased out for Coke ads. About once a week, someone would stand up in front of a group of friends and imitate a stewardess pointing to the exits during it. I liked that.

Two scary, Southern anecdotes: a church which had left the city for the suburbs had no building in which to house their Sunday school, and used our multiplex. We would set up for Sunday with parishioners in each of the 16 rooms. And during the showing of the Passion of the Christ, the Hellboy standee was removed from the floor for fear of offense. On opening day, pastors asked and were able to keep ushers out of the theaters for ten minutes so they could pray and talk with their church groups afterward. We were not allowed to have trailers on the prints of the Passion, which wreaked havoc with start times.

Any fellow projectionists remember interlocks? Fun times, huh? So nerve-wracking...

I've had interlocks go wrong, with hundreds of kids in two rooms. It was not fun.

First job: Edwards 10 Azusa, CA - 1987
Second job: Wherehouse Music/Video - Video store manager

Greatest times of my life

Salary at Edwards 10: $3.35 / hr.

What I did not make in salary I MORE than made up for in free popcorn, movies, and <ahem> five-finger-discount candy.

Movies watched most during my time:

• Predator
• Robocop
• Untouchables
• Full Metal Jacket

If you never worked at a movie theater, you missed out. Easy job, and your friends love you.

Unfortunately. We had Attack of the Clones (even though Lucas was anti-interlocks) on i think 6 screens. I would fuck with the fanboys by turning the lights down teasing them into thinking it was about to start, only to turn them back on again a few times. These were some unhappy nerds.

If you happened to be the projectionist when Matrix Reloaded came out, I hope you enjoyed the show.

i was an assistant manager at a second-run theater not too long ago. The projectors always brainwrapped and thanks to having nothing to do, I've seen the last 25 minutes of Codename: The Cleaner too many fucking times.

that is to say, i saw it once.

Worked at one of the last drive-in's in Wisconsin for a little while. In concessions. The last vestige of that job is a Erin Brokovich T-Shirt covered in oil and grease moldering somewhere on Earth.

I got ya' beat on that one. I was tearing down the print to the masterpiece Lost in Space when the last 5 reels on the platter came sliding off and crashed into my chest. I was floored when I saw that I didn't have Gary Oldman's face imprinted above my nipple.

This is turning into Jaws "I got that beat"...

One of my stupid employees was moving that shitty DeNiro/Philip Seymour Hoffman "Flawless" print by himself. It was loose as shit, he dropped it, scooped up the remains in a fucking box and left a note saying he was sorry for dropping it. It still had the fucking clamps on! He left early too. We had no choice but to cancel the remaining shows and tear the film down from a box. Trannies everywhere wept. It was great when I got to write that kid up for being an asshole.

Granted, I used to move prints solo all the time even though you never should. Never dropped anything.

I worked at a barely functional two screen theater in Southern Ohio throughout High School and College. This was the same theater I saw my first movie in, and the theater I saw countless movies from the late '80s to the mid '90s. The theater had no working air conditioning, an old boiler that I always thought would kill me Jack Torrance style, and the concession stand was basically a hole built into the lobby wall.

Even with it's "charms" I fucking loved that place. It still tears me up when I'm visiting my parents and drive by it's empty corpse.

That exact scene popped into my head as I was typing.

The same people I worked for at the two screen theater also ran a drive-in during the summer. I was the lucky manager that got shipped off to it every summer. Well, one weekend in 2003 I was off celebrating my engagement with my fiance and a different manager had to take my place. Turns out he wasn't filled in on the "little" problems that could, and would, occur with the projector and platter system installed there (exploding bulbs were usually the least of our worries). Well, a buddy of mine was working that weekend shoveling popcorn when the second feature Terminator 3 had a brain wrap. For some reason the manager and my friend decided to move the print to another platter. While doing so they dropped it. My buddy switched the drive-in sound to microphone and proceeded to tell everyone that passes would be given because Terminator 3 had just been terminated.