Some of the "tips" in there are just foolish. For example the author recommends against purchasing anything at the concession stand "so you will not stand out". Yeah, right! Back when I managed the floor operation of a theater, I kept an extra close eye on people who did not purchase concessions. If anything, someone who came through with a bunch of concessions got the benefit of the doubt.

What are some of the best tricks everyone has seen in their days? Sharing these tidbits may help others police their theaters better. Two of my favorites are:

#1 Customer comes up to the door stand with arms full of food and ticket in mouth, conveniently extra-slobbered on and mumbles "here's my ticket" and sticks his face toward the usher. "Yeah buddy, ah, what's the name of that movie you wanted to see? Ok, it's that way." (What usher is going to take a slobbered on ticket out of a customer's mouth to verify it isn't 3 months old?)

#2 Customer approaches the door stand with arms full of food and says "my ticket is in my left front pocket. Just reach down in there and get it please." (Of course he/she is wearing very tight fitting jeans.) Now I'm not sure about all companies, but most seem to have a policy against making physical contact with the customers, and who is going to stick their hand down someone's pants to fetch a ticket? Since the customer has lots of concessions in his hands, he is almost always let through.

At least in this area, once someone manages to get into an exit door, they almost always head for the restrooms... and are usually shocked when they find ushers outside of the restrooms when they come out.

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Easiest way would, it seems, be to walk in wiht a clipboard full of papers, complete with a fake letter, and say you are a checker... Most theatre staff would let you by without a second thought..

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Gee, if a theatre got a new manager who did not know me, maybe I should go in with my notebook that contains a printed version of my entire site, including all the presentations I've seen and reviewed, and see if they'd let me in. For a reason I'm still not quite sure of, staff let me in free 9 times at one theatre without me asking. I'd say "One ticket for whatever" and shove a twenty dollar bill under the window, and back would come a ticket for the movie with "pass" and "0.00" on it, with the twenty dollar bill intact. I didn't ask and they didn't tell. I think one manager knew what I was doing and wanted to let me in free, and the manager that took over after him didn't like what I was doing and put a stop to it. After all, letting me in for free would not cause me to give them a higher rating than they deserved.

About sneaking in -- first, let me say that I have never sneaked into a movie without paying, and would not try it, but I'm convinced that it would be quite easy to do in some theatres. Here are some ways to test the system (as a reviewer, without counting it in the ratings in any way):

1. After buying my ticket, can I get into the auditorium without having my ticket torn? There is only one theatre (Regal River Oaks Cinema 8) where I have never been able to do it. I could have done it once, but I would have had to lie about having it not torn already, and that's against the rules. I have at least one untorn ticket from every other theatre currently operating here.

2. How easy is it for me to wander around the theatre after buying my ticket? Can I freely walk around the halls and peek into auditoriums without being questioned? If so, then such a theatre probably has a lot of auditorium hoppers and people that sneak in.

3. Can I walk right past the usher taking tickets without showing my ticket and go into the auditorium where my movie is showing? I've actually done this on more than one occasion without having the stub torn.

4. Are there times when nobody is watching the opening from the lobby to the halls leading to the auditoriums? If so, anyone could walk through. Many of my untorn tickets have been from this scenario.

5. Are the auditorium exit doors locked so that people cannot come in from the outside? I don't believe I've ever seen anyone come in an exit door while sitting in an auditorium.

6. If a theatre has multiple halls leading to auditoriums, is there a way to get from one hall into another without going through the lobby? Some theatres with parallel halls have a connection between them in the back. One theatre in my area has a restroom with two doors, one from each hall, so that people can enter one door from one hall and come out the other side into the other hall.

7. Is there an auditorium entrance close to a restroom door? If so, there will likely be problems with underage people buying a ticket to a PG movie, goign to the restroom, coming out, then going into an R-rated movie in that auditorium. It would seem that such an arrangement would make sneaking in easier.

Of course he justifies this by saying since he had no intention of paying for the second show, the studio is not out anything. Capable of rationalizations like that, the guy should probably be a lawyer... Funny, he is otherwise a die-hard Rush Limbaugh-worshiping conservative, someone who rails when people copy software (stealing from his profession). Yet he sees absolutely nothing wrong with what he does at the 'plex.

Cheers,

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