Over the weekend, my family and I went to visit my sister’s new house. After eating lunch, my family decided to go see the new movie “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” When we arrived at the mall we planned to see the theater in, we had a horrendous time attempting to look for a parking spot — only upon our entrance to be greeted with another long wait at the ticket booth.
The movie theater installed a new system in which a computer prints your ticket — which would have been a smart move for them, if the machines took more than just cash. Instead, the line of approximately 50 people, whom all appeared to not be paying with cash, were forced to wait on a singular and very unfortunate little girl in a sling. After waiting about 45 minutes in line, the girl at the desk asked us what movie we would like to see. That was when we found out the movie was sold out. My family couldn’t feel worse for the little boys we saw dressed in Spider-Man costumes at the back of the line and only hoped they had pre-ordered their tickets.
My mother then asked if we’d rather walk through the mall or go home. After considering, we all agreed to leave, as the mall didn’t have any of the stores we were interested in walking through and it was a bit crowded.
As we walked out, my family seemed a little irritated and I could feel that my sister was pretty disappointed. So I said something along the lines of, “God didn’t want us to go to that movie theater. Maybe the one we are going to is better or something good will come from it.” To this, my brother replied, “Yeah, maybe they have better popcorn.” That’s when my mom asked if there was a showing in Mathews or Monroe.
The movie theater in Monroe did have better popcorn. In fact, not only was it better, there were free refills on all the drinks and popcorn. The movie theater was a year-and-a-half old and an actual person gave us our tickets. All the staff was extremely friendly and everything was way cheaper than any theater I’ve been to. All drinks were equally priced and there were plenty of parking spaces, as the shops surrounding the theater were out of business. There was not a wait and the surprises did not stop there.
Upon entering the theater, we had no clue what it would be like aside from the fact that they would play Spider-Man and the theater was called NCG Cinema. When we went to go sit in the theater, we discovered that all the chairs were leather recliners that were spaced out far enough to feel like you were watching the movie from your home and we all agreed they were much comfier than the upright, close-together cloth chairs that we would have sit in that were a little less than half the size.
Annie Blakeley is a rising sophomore at Richmond Senior High School, is a band and chorus student and a member of First United Methodist Church in Hamlet.