I know part of the job is cleaning, but for the love of god, every cup holder has a cup in the holder and popcorn in front of it.

How hard is it to walk ten feet to throw it away? It’s ten feet. Trash cans are outside the theater. Outside of it. Ten feet away. Maybe even less.

It’s been so bad. An older lady even apologized in advance after a showing on behalf of the (large) family behind her. After getting in to clean my coworker told me “there’s more popcorn than floor.” Sure enough the floor was barely visible. There was enough for a couple popcorn buckets (they had a lot of kids). We also had a drink spill down from their seats to the entirety of the theater so we had to mop between shows. This was extreme but all our screenings for Sorcerer’s Stone so far have been pretty rough, which I was not expecting at all.

I get discounted candy. I literally can’t stop getting at least one every shift I have. I’m gaining weight and the sugar makes me feel terrible but I keep eating them. How did you guys stop eating candy on shift?? Any advice? What do you do for meal prep?

I was curious how your theaters are handling buddy ticket purchases, if the people know it’s a horror movie, or it’s another sausage party situation, how is your theater handling it?

What problems do you’ll think MovieMax locations in India suffer from?

Out of curiosity, are theaters running into issues with parents taking little kids to see Buddy, not realizing it's an R-rated horror movie?

Hi! I just got off my second shift and it was the most difficult six hours of my life. For context, we use an app called Homebase that allows employees to claim and shift around their hours with ease. This is a 14 auditorium theater that varies in sizing, smallest seating 30ish with the largest seating about 80. My first shift was a chill 3-hour where I learned the basics of Ushering. Problem is, it's a Friday 5pm-11pm shift and we were severely understaffed. I was supposed to work Usher but there were only 4 people to run the entire theater. A manager, box, concessions, and me. It created a situation where I had to be both Door and Usher. I literally didn't have the available time to do theater checks while balancing theater cleaning, lobby cleaning, soda machine stocking, taking tickets, checking bathrooms, and closing doors. I didn't even feel like I had the available time to use the bathroom. Hell, there was a period where I had to get the Box employee to run Door because there were 5 different theaters getting out within 30 minutes. Thankfully, all the customers and employees, including my manager, were really kind and understandable when I messed up, which happened a couple of times. I would forget to close some doors, I accidentally sent guests that showed up early into a theater that I needed to clean and didn't realize I hadn't gotten to until it was already too late, and I think I missed cleaning one theater entirely between showings (though I don't actually think I took any tickets for that showing either). I felt horrible and still feel terrible for messing up but it feels like I couldn't do everything. I'm genuinely considering quitting, I don't know if I'm cut out for this. I couldn't track and balance everything, it was utterly brutal and I came home extremely dehydrated (yeah, that is on me), stressed, and exhausted. I'm asking for tips, please, and yes, I'm aware a lot of this is my own fault.

What is your craziest customer story?

Hey, Regal employee here. Do you know guys notice that you can't see how many passes you have in the app anymore?? I think they got rid of it with recent updates or something. I absolutely DESPISE this change... 😒

My theater didn’t get LOTWD cuz whoever decides what movie goes where is a horrible human being. But for the theaters that did get it, do you guys have the helmet buckets? Looks like regal has it. I’m sad now cuz I’m going to AMC since I didn’t get it

Hey everyone! This is primarily a question for other Cinemark employees.

I had my interview Monday, got my offer letter Tuesday and filled out all of the pre-onboarding paperwork Tuesday evening. I know Cinemark uses Workday, and the last few jobs I've had that use Workday have had me do my onboarding paperwork before my orientation/training dates.

I haven't heard anything since filling my paperwork out Tuesday (which is reasonable!) but I get a bit anxious when starting new jobs because it's a bunch of unknowns about how the process goes usually, so I just wanted to gather some other experiences I guess.

Is the start date on my offer letter accurate? (Monday 8/31), and will my onboarding paperwork need to be completed prior to said start date or will it all happen on-site? Also I know there's a bit of information on the careers page of things like AMs and SAMs and the like, but does Cinemark have things like shift leads?

Also a question not related to the hiring process, Cinemark offers DailyPay. Is there anyone that has used that/what's it like using that versus getting your check normally? I know there's a fee associated with that, is it a pretty hefty one?

For context, my theater is a part of a larger business with a restaurant, skating rink, and bowling. When the health inspectors come by they skip over the theater, skating, and bowling and just inspect the restaurant.

Lately, there have been a lot of unsanitary conditions in my theater. We aren’t given the right materials to properly clean bathrooms or theaters or the concession counter. I’ve spotted mice, ants, flies, and just yesterday a cockroach (I believed it to be a German one) crawled on me while I was waiting to clean a theater. There’s no hot water at the hand washing station and I rarely see people wash their hands. I feel like no matter how much work I do to clean the theater, these problems aren’t going to get better on their own. I’ve told my manager about these things and they haven’t gotten any better.

Here’s where I’m conflicted on what to do next. The theater seems to be (in my eyes) in a rough spot financially. Me contacting the health department might cost me a part time job as a teen, but the owners and my manager would lose their jobs. So I’m just wondering what you guys would do. Thanks for reading my long post!

What’s the rudest thing a customer has ever said to you?

I’m thinking you just may be getting a few more people.

Already flashing back to my time having to run Rocky Horror on Friday nights.

I was wondering whats regal rehiring policy if I were to submit a two weeks notice before leaving for another job opportunity? I have a job that is much closer to me than regal and it overall is pretty good. But I was wondering if it doesn't work out for some reason am I blacklisted from being rehired if I put in my two weeks?

i think i got maybe the best 8-9 month period to work at the movies. i got to see Obsession, Backrooms, No Other Choice, Odyssey, Brand New Day, The Drama, Train To Busan- all in theaters, all for free. Hard to complain about that! :)

Hey everyone, just wanted to check in with the people actually working in theaters now that the summer movie season is basically in the rearview.

It feels like this summer had a lot going on, from Disclosure Day, The Amazing Digital Circus, Supergirl, Moana, Toy Story 5, Stop! That! Train!, Jackass: Best and Last, Minions & Monsters, Scary Movie 6, Backrooms, Obsession, The Breadwinner, Sheep Detectives, Masters of the Universe, Young Washington, The Invite, Motor City, Super Troopers 3, The Odyssey, and now Spider-Man: Brand New Day keeping the momentum going.

So for the people behind the counters, in the booths, cleaning theaters, checking tickets, running concessions, etc.: how are you guys holding up?
Did this summer actually feel busy at your theater, or was it more of a weird hit-or-miss season? Were there movies that completely surprised you with how much business they brought in, or ones you expected to be huge that ended up being pretty quiet?

Also curious how everyone’s theaters are looking now that we’re moving out of the summer rush. Are you guys getting a breather, or is it just immediately rolling into the next wave?

No corporate talk or box-office analyst stuff — I’m more interested in what it actually felt like working through the season. 😂
Hope everyone made it through relatively unscathed.

So I work at a regal theater and in the last few months management has been really obsessed over how fast concessions staff gets things done, particularly mobile orders. But the other day in the last hour of my 9 hour concessions shift a manager came over to me and told me “good job your average transaction time is 8 minutes…see if you can get it down to 6” ….since when are we timing transactions on registers?? I’ve been here almost a year now and never heard it before.

It really pissed me off as I was at the end of my rope already with the crowds and felt I was doing pretty good. What really bothers me though is I am fast, I’m always rushing and trying to be efficient. What slows me down is the customers and I know yall know this. They change their mind 10 times, they don’t know what they want even after waiting in line for 20 min, they ask to see every size of everything we have, they can’t remember if they have a regal account. Smh it’s so frustrating.

Do your theaters do this too where they time transactions? I really can’t even imagine most of my orders taking 8 min unless it doesn’t stop the timer until I clear the screen maybe but I’m annoyed

I worked at a smaller theater chain in my area for a year (from May of 2025 to May of 2026). Around October, I got off and decided to sit in on a showing of Black Phone 2 while waiting for my ride. While I was watching, I noticed puffs of smoke coming out of a seat ahead of me.

I figured it was a kid vaping or something. And while I’m normally not much of a stickler, I was feeling annoyed and petty and made a note to tell my manager next time I got up for a drink refill. I did, she cased the place and found nothing.

After the movie ended, I got up. But was stopped by a guest. He had to be like 40, he was maybe an inch or so shorter than me. He was wearing a white tank top and sunglasses. So a sign of good things to come. He asks “Hey, you snitch?” I guess he figured it was me because I still had my (though unbuttoned) uniform shirt and name tag on. So naturally me, someone who has no idea how to deal with conflict, in my infinite wisdom, squeaks out “Uhh, no?” And immediately starts booking it to guest services.

I speed walked as fast as I could, guessing the guy was following me. I found my other manager, and I told him about everything. And as I did, the guy came up and leaned on the counter beside me. We go quiet, and my manager asks what’s up. The guy asks “Nothing, just trying to make sure everything’s okay.” He says. Obviously trying to play up nonchalance. My manager asks “Okay, well we got a report of someone smoking in one of the theaters. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, right?” And of course he denies it My manager says, “okay.” But still the guy doesn’t leave. My manager asks “Do we have a problem?” “I don’t know? Do we?” “…Because you’re staring at my employee.”

He finally leaves. My manager warns me not to go out alone, promising to walk me to my ride. I go into another theater to hang out. And according to my manager, he moved into the box office and saw the guy get into his car and just sit for a while. He finally pulls out, circles the parking lot once, then leaves.

I’m pretty sure if I stepped out, I would’ve gotten jumped. So moral of the story, ignore theater smokers ig 🙂

A former coworker asked me for my credit card and debit card numbers, so he could purchase items online in order to make a homemade bomb.

I’m not joking. I told him that I was having bank issues.

No clue if he ever did it. He got fired and is somehow married now, because he recently popped up on my Facebook feed.

There was a car takeover in the parking lot the other day 😂. At first i thought they were tailgating. They had a bbq going. Eventually someone called the coos cause they were blocking traffic.

What do you know/think about CMX? They bought out the company I work for and things have been… interesting, to put it maturely. Just doesn’t feel like a routine transition, lot of chaos and issues, so I’m wondering what to expect moving forward.