Couple lighter stories, for a change. From Fusion, a movie theater manager describes the human tsunami:
… It felt like the population of a small town migrated into the lobby of the theater I manage for the movie on Thursday night. This was great timing, since most of my young staff were stuck in exams, concerts and prior commitments. (Apparently, the only people in town who couldn’t be at the movies that night were theater staff.)
In a single moment at 7 p.m., we had to process more people than we normally do on an entire Friday night of business. These are the moments you learn that hell is real, and we are living in it. The huge crowd stressed the power supply to the point that the frozen drinks machine kept breaking and the oil line for one of our two popcorn kettles burst open, knocking it out of commission. In a situation like this, I could have 50 staff and it would not make a difference.
The worst part about these big opening events is that the 7 p.m. show has to start in all formats: 2D, 3D and IMAX. A company also bought out an entire theater and gave every attendee concession coupons…
There were few actual costumes among the Star Wars crowd. More vintage shirts and themed hoodies. A lot of lightsabers, only one of which I had to ask someone to turn off during the movie. The buy-out crowd had no trailers, so went straight in with an eruptive cheer. The 2D crowd ended their trailers with an explosive cheer that could be heard from outside the building. The 3D crowd was inexplicably silent throughout the movie, even during the obvious cheer lines, like when Harrison Ford saunters in. I will never understand why…
It’s not all broken equipment, under-staffing and garbage up to the ears, though. There were good moments. A person two towns away drove 26 miles to see our midnight show because his local theater closed after the 7 p.m. show and he needed to see it again. An elderly couple sat through the credits and told me how they dated while the first movie was out and saw each one together and were so happy to have this new memory and experience…
(I have the suspicion that “elderly couple” was probably in their 50s/early 60s, but it’s still kinda charming.)
From the Washington Post‘s religion section, history prof Matthew Bowman explains “Everybody loves Star Wars.But here’s why Mormons especially love Star Wars“:
When The Empire Strikes Back, the second film of the “Star Wars” saga, opened in Salt Lake City in May 1980, many Mormons left the theater convinced that they had seen a familiar face. By the time Return of the Jedi hit Utah’s rental shelves in the mid-1980s, the rumor was hard to escape in Mormon country: The Jedi Master Yoda was based on Spencer W. Kimball, who served as president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church, from 1974 to 1985…
Unfortunately for the Mormons, Stuart Freeborn, who designed Yoda, did not mention Kimball when he cited his inspirations. But looking more closely, it appears that the Mormon identification with “Star Wars” is only one manifestation of a deeper Mormon fascination with the genres of science fiction and fantasy…
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Apart from whimsy, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Open Thread: Tales From Within the SW MadnessPost + Comments (235)