People are eulogizing movie theaters by sharing all the food they've snuck into them
Now that Warner Bros. has announced plans to debut its entire slate of 2021 releases on HBO Max at the same they hit theaters, the end—or at least the dramatic transformation—of the movie theater industry seems all but inevitable. This news has prompted people to reflect back on the kind of theater experiences they’ll miss most, like the sense of community that comes from simultaneously experiencing film as a group, the simple pleasure of visiting a place that can temporarily erase the worries of daily life, or, most importantly, figuring out what kind of food you can reasonably sneak into the place without getting caught.
Yesterday, @LocalSoundwave asked Twitter to share examples of their food crimes “now that movie theaters are dead and can’t arrest us,” kicking off the thread with their own contribution: Taking in “a Popeye’s Chicken sandwich in my jacket like it was a colt 45.”
The real heroes have gone much further than a simple sandwich. The replies are full of people who tasted glory by testing the limits of a teenage theater usher’s ability to give a shit about business rules. There’s the person whose sister brought a tamale in their pocket, another who snuck in a bottle of wine, glasses, brie, and a baguette, and the moviegoer who bore witness to a woman hiding half a watermelon under her shirt.