Today I met SS-The Entire Theater Belongs to ME. DH and I took the kids to see an animated movie today. The theater was half-full and while the top "half" of the theater was crowded, there were plenty of available seats in the bottom half. (Not just the front row "neck killer" seats, but plenty of mid-level "comfortable" seats.) My family was seated in one of the top rows.
DH was in the end-of-row seat. The row looked like this:
DH - Weebleson- Weeblegirl- Weeblewobble- Empty seat- Empty seat- Empty seat- Stranger - Stranger-Stranger- Stranger-Stranger
Right after the previews ended, a woman with six kids - three in the 5 or 6 range and three in the 11 or 12 range - comes in. Instead of heading for the multiple rows of available seats, they make a beeline for the three empty seats to my right. So... seven people, thinking they can sit in three seats. The three younger kids sit down, but the mom isn't happy with the idea of the little girls sitting alone, so she and the teens stood there discussing this with the seated little kids. Several different plans were proposed, including one in which the mom could sit with two of the little girls, while the remaining younger girl could go sit with the tween kids somewhere else in the theater. The remaining younger girl didn't like this plan and neither did the tweens. Please keep in mind that during this prolonged, not exactly quiet, discussion, the movie had started and these people were standing directly in front of my family's seats. So not only can we not see or hear the start of the movie, we're having to hold these awkward "letting someone by" leg maneuvers to make room for them.
I put up with it up until one of the tween boys stepped on my daughter (eight years old)'s foot for the fourth or fifth time - without apologizing - and I spoke up. I said, "Ma'am, there are plenty of available seats. Will you and your children please find somewhere to sit?"
The woman shushed me and glared at me, then plucked one of the younger girls from the seat right next to me and plopped down in it. (Awesome.) She told the other kids to go find SOMEWHERE to sit and she would find them later to bring them popcorn. So for the rest of the movie, I was treated to her huffing and glaring at me from the next seat, while alternately getting up every twenty minutes or so to take the tweens more popcorn.
By the time the lights came up, I was pretty steamed. Other Mom snarked to her kids to hold on and stay in their seats because she didn't think that "some people" were going to let them pass so they could catch up with the other kids. I kept my back turned to her and helped my daughter with her coat. DH said she was shooting death glares at me the whole time. I walked out of the theater without even looking back at her.
I swear, I'm going to just wait for the DVD release of movies from now on.
