Now you can see a movie in Ontario for less than a ten-spot. The fact that I did not realize the cost of a movie had climbed to almost 15 bucks just goes to show how often I get out.
My history with commercial cinema runs deep. For decades, two of my great aunts each managed one of the local drive ins. When it's an aunt, or a cousin, or even a grandparent working the box office, admission needs no calculating - they would smile, hand you your speaker, and wave you in. At the concession stand, popcorn was the same price - FREE.
The drive-in itself is another post - suffice to say that there were many happy childhood summer nights spent watching movies.
My first job - like my mother and countless cousins before me - was working at the drive-in for a summer. The last summer before the screen went forever dark, actually, making the drive-in the first in a long line of businesses that closed down while I was employed at them. (god, that just occurred to me - there have been at least three instances of that in my life. Does that mean I'm jinxed? And here I thought it was Brian Mulroney's fault. Freakin' GST)
It was only one summer, but it gave me enough experience that I was able to get myself a job at the local movie theatre in Elliot Lake some years later. EL had one movie theatre, and although the Big Chains ruled by then, it was still an independent, with no competition. (the nearest other theatre was two hours away)
Which meant independent pricing. In 1988, you could go to "the show" cheap. Adults were four bucks, "youth" were three, and children were $2. Popcorn was cheap - small was a buck. On Saturday afternoons, the under 12 set would arrive, clutching their five -dollar bills. Admission, small popcorn, small pop, a chocolate bar, and they still had a quarter left over to call home for a ride when the movie ended.
Movies ran Thursday to Wednesday, and Tuesday was "Poverty Night", the true two-fifty Tuesday. I can name almost every movie that ran during the summer of 1988, as I saw them all in bits and pieces, night after night as I wandered the aisles with a flashlight, telling teens older than me to take their feet off the seats. Wednesdays were slow, and on that final night of a movie's run, I'd wander in an watch the whole thing start to finish.
And you could smoke in the balcony. Imagine!
It was an old-fashioned box office too, with a slot in the glass and everything, set off in the lobby, between the two sets of doors. The concession had no cash registers, only cash drawers. The boss figured that if you couldn't add in increments of fifty cents, and one and two dollars, then you weren't worth hiring. We balanced out at the end of the night by counting how many popcorn tubs were left and subtracting that number from how many we'd started with.
On Monday nights, we had to change the little sign that hung in the window with our admission prices on it. I'd argue with the boss - Tuesdays have been two-fifty every week for three years - why do we need to change the sign? And then change it after the Tuesday night show? It's a small town, and everyone knows what the prices are.
Coming back to the city was a shock - by that time, movies cost eight bucks, and between free admission and small town theatres, I was spoiled. Movies just weren't the same on a mega-screen (although the chairs are nicer) and I stopped going as much. Plus, I had babies, and, well, they tend to keep you home.
I see two or three movies "at the movies" a year now, and have never felt like I'm missing much. Maybe this price rollback will get me back into the theatre more often. Although I doubt it. Now, if they decreased the price of popcorn, and went back to using real butter...
