In my high school/college years, I began going to the theater a lot, especially after I started dating my now husband. We weren't drinkers, so going to the movies was what we spent money on. Sometimes, my brother would accompany us. Shortly after my husband and I got our first apartment, our friend Rick started going to the movies with us. Those are also fond memories for me. Sometimes, when we're heading out to see certain movies, I miss having Rick along. I always felt like movies were something we had in common.
Since then, Rick has gotten married. My brother has gotten married. Mark and I are living in South Carolina, but I still love movies. We go to the movies quite frequently, with our refillable popcorn bucket, refillable cups, and polar pipes in tow. We did some midnight showings back in the college days with Rick and Ryan, but now, my job doesn't usually permit it. I can't go work at the bank with only three or four hours of sleep. It's bad for me, and it's not a wise move if I want to keep my job.
What's nice about my job is that you get an annual day off; you're required to take it in the month you were hired. Wouldn't you know it that I started in July, so I get a day off every July to use as I like. This year, I set that day aside for the midnight premiere on Thursday, July 19th of the Dark Knight Rises.** Imagine how happy I was when I found out the theater was doing a marathon; they were showing Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises! I bought our marathon tickets for that Thursday, July 19th back on June 13th. For the two of us, it was $40, but I expected it to be money well spent. See, the previous year, we did the Harry Potter marathon which consisted of the final two movies, and we loved it. I expected awesome for the entire evening.
Mark had taken both Thursday and Friday off, but I had to work on Thursday. Because the people that I work with are awesome, they let me out a bit early. I was able to run home and change and get something to eat before heading to the theater. I hadn't eaten all day, and while sitting in a theater isn't particularly hard, it was going to last for around eleven hours.
Mark and I have a long history of arriving for movies early. It is very important to me to have good seats. I define good seats as being in the row with the bar. This allows me to prop my feet up. I generally sit smack dab in the middle of that row, under the lights. We will get to the theater about half an hour early for a normal movie. We've made some friends at the theater because of this trait. As much as I don't like people, I enjoy chatting with the people who work at the movie theater. There is one person who lets us in free; there is another that has discounted our tickets before. Frankly, the people who work at the theater are awesome.
For the marathon, we arrived a couple hours early and were the first in line. Our usual chat buddies weren't working, but we made new friends with the girl who was in charge of tearing tickets that day. It was about fifteen minutes before someone else showed up. We arrived a bit before four. Slowly, others trickled in and joined the line.
Around 4:45, one of the managers came out to let us know about the lanyards and chalk decals. See, the first one hundred patrons to the marathon were getting swag! The lanyards, aside from having Dark Knight Rises imagery, gave us drink refills for a dollar and popcorn refills for only two bucks, all night long. Our refillable cups and bucket are only three dollars a refill usually, but these lanyards were going to save us even more money. Additionally, there was a chalk decal given out to the first one hundred people to the marathon.
A little after five, they let us into theater four, which was in the wing that is straight back, last theater on the right. According to the nice girl, it was the largest theater they had. As with all good theaters, it was stadium seating.*** Being the first ones in, I got my coveted seat. Mark and I took turns doing the bathroom thing and watched the theater begin filling up. I always feel sad for those people that show up in a larger group after the theater is mostly full. You see them looking up, trying to find seats together. It just makes me sad.
There was a lot of seat saving going on, since there were so many large groups. One group had about three or four people present that were saving half of a row. I ended up sitting right next to a young man who seemed less than enthused and a tad bit embarrassed. I attempted to speak to him, but I probably made it worse.****
Before the first film started, I ran our decals out to the car and retrieved snacks. I had a blue icy, while Mark went for the mixed icy, consisting of cherry and coke. I loaded up the popcorn with salt and that weird liquid butter concoction and returned to the theater. As usual, they had the pre-flix "entertainment" showing.***** The only good bit was about Looper.
Finally, the film started. There were no previews, and we were seeing Batman Begins again on the big screen. There was some cheering, as the crowd was pretty into it. Generally, people at a marathon are fans. Otherwise, why give up so much of your time? There was a girl dressed as Poison Ivy. There were a lot of Batman shirts. There was an excessive amount of nerd in the theater.
After the first film concluded, the lights came back up, and the bathroom stampede began. Since I sit through the credits, it wasn't as bad when I finally went. Upon my return to the theater, Mark escaped to visit Burger King. The previous year, he did the same thing between the two Harry Potter movies. He returned just as the second movie began with a bag of eight cheeseburgers. When he did this at Harry Potter, we had made friends with some of the people sitting around us, so Mark shared the burgers with them. We shared with a couple kids sitting behind us, but we didn't really chat as much at this marathon. Frankly, the people at the Harry Potter marathon were friendlier.
When there are a lot of large groups, they generally act as if they whole place is theirs. It's only natural, as there are so many of them. They usually chat with each other, and when they're very spread out, that involves being loud. As such, that made me quieter than usual. My intermissions were spent making notes for my reviews on my phone and playing Dungeon Raid.
During the movie, the one young man Mark gave a burger to tapped me on the shoulder and thanked me. It was very sweet. After the movie finished, the other young man thanked us as well. They just happened to be the two guys right behind us in line earlier, so we had spoken with them a bit. They seemed very socially awkward penguin to me.
The intermission between the Dark Knight and the Dark Knight Rises is kind of a blur to me. I was very tired, and the loud groups had begun to annoy me. Working early and going straight to the theater may not have been the wisest decision. Mark and I believe there is a hierarchy to nerd culture. For example, the people that play card games like the Star Trek one look down on people who larp. People who larp look down on furries. Each group falls somewhere on the scale, and our theater was full of the whole spectrum.
This was apparent when the previews before the final film started. You would hear some people making excited noises for Oz the Great and Powerful, while others were scoffing. While it is possible to hear that at any movie, it was pretty vocal. I heard people discussing Tim Burton's recent efforts and debating what was good and what he still had potential for. I heard someone comment that he hoped they would make a reference to Bane's previous screen incarnation. I actually heard another viewer say that he thought Halle Berry was a good Catwoman.******
All in all, the marathon experience is a fun one. For whatever reason, it wasn't sold out. The Harry Potter one we went to was sold out. At the same time, we were still a bit crammed in. It makes me wish they had snack holders in addition to cup holders. It was weird that there were no previews before the first two movies, but I hated having to hear the same pre-flix show three times in a row. My only other thought would be that people need to learn what single file is; walk in a single row to the right. It makes it easier to move about that way.
If you've never done a movie marathon, you should. From theater arrival to exodus, we were at the movies for eleven hours. When we were done, I was exhausted, sick, and an emotional mess; I wouldn't change it for the world. There is something about an event like this. Someday, if I ever have kids, I would want them to experience it. You should do it too.
*Except my dad. He never drank after any of us. I don't even know if he will now, but I doubt it.
**I had told my boss I wanted the Friday that the Dark Knight Rises off back in December of 2011. At the time, I wasn't sure which Friday it would be, but it was long planned.
***Actually, I would imagine most, if not all, theaters have converted to stadium seating.
****I'm not sure which of us was the socially awkward penguin.
*****I use the term loosely. Sometimes, you see interesting stuff, but usually, it's for shows I'm not interested in.
******No, I didn't smack him. He was just a kid.
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