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macrob25 t1_ja3x8rh wrote

Genuinely curious as to why they made this rule. Like it had to be something horrendous to throw away such a huge source of revenue...

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User-NetOfInter t1_ja47558 wrote

Shithead kids getting dumped there by parents causing the actual spenders to not go.

They make maybe $1 per ticket for a kid in profit if all the do is buy a ticket. They make multiples more per adult that has a drink before the movie, ticket, popcorn/snacks etc, and they’re less likely to go if it’s a garbage experience because some shithead kids are being assholes screeching and on their phone.

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HatefulDan t1_ja4di4k wrote

Well, teenagers are also more likely to engage in theater hopping, which means the potential to end up in someone’s reserve seats, which can lead to conflict. Because they are also unsupervised, and understandably bored—they are more likely to engage in mischievousness and to disrupt the movie going experience of other paying customers. Which can also lead to conflict.

I’m pretty sure the straw broke the camel’s back. And the left shoe dropped. Anyway, any movie worth seeing is best seen on an off night

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fusion260 t1_ja4oyom wrote

Worked at a theater for my first major job from 15.5-21. Teenagers were the worst.

They’d get into fights, harass other customers and run, talk loudly during the movies, walk in and out of theaters calling out for their friends, light up the theater with their phones and pagers (late 90s), turn on the cleaning lights in other theaters that were still playing movies as they left, pull fire alarms, steal shit, wreck the bathrooms by TPing stalls and flooding toilets, and theater hop all the time, air-kick cardboard displays/standees.

Regal wasn’t going to do anything about it in the late 90s/early 00s. I absolutely loathed seeing parents drop them off at the front of the theater and leave.

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Opacy t1_ja48z26 wrote

Could be any number of things but I assume it’s something serious like either a large number of fights between kids either in the building or the parking lot or just too many rowdy kids coming in and loudly talking and yelling during movies and the like that staff can’t handle.

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dougc84 t1_ja5ix26 wrote

Huge source of revenue? You mean asshole kids dropped off by their loser parents ruining the movie-going experience for the rest of us that will no longer visit Bowtie?

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10000Didgeridoos t1_ja6ni45 wrote

I also doubt that teens are a big source of revenue at Bowtie compared to like Regal Short Pump given the age demographics of who lives nearby each. Regal could never do this - their Friday and Saturday and summer night shows are always packed with middle and high school kids - but Bowtie is more college students and older.

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yentle-the-nimble t1_ja5lh4t wrote

I went there last summer and there was a surprising number of police — there seemed to be over a dozen: Out front. In the lobby. Before going down either wing to get to your theater. In the halls outside the theaters.

I asked one why they were all there. Kids causing trouble was the gist of it. This was around the time of the “Minions: Rise of Gru” memes, so I thought it was related. Maybe not so much.

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