Maggie and I had a kinda odd moviegoing experience this weekend. We left the theater in pretty bad moods. And amazingly, it wasn’t about anyone that was in the theater watching the movie with us. It was all the theater and its staff.

We saw “Happy Feet“, a cute kids comedy about a penguin that can’t sing like he should and instead only dances. When the movie ended, we started watching the credits waiting to see the full cast. We were going through the usual “Assistant Director” and “Animator” listings when suddenly, the projector shut off and the house lights came out. Apparently, we weren’t going to see all the credits.

On our way out, I asked for the manager on duty to let them know that the credits had been cut short. The lady walks over and I tell her. And it was her response that upset Maggie and I most:

“We do that a lot. Most people don’t stay for the credits. And we also don’t want people falling in the dark.”

Not a “I’m sorry you didn’t get to see them”, but something making it sound like it’s something that happens all the time. I’ve seen a lot of movies in my time. And I generally stay for all of the credits. I have never, never had the credits cut short. For a animated kids movie, most people stay to see if there are any “bloopers”, like they had at the end of “Toy Story“. And not to mention none of our audience had left and most were shocked when the credits stopped.

If they are worried about “people falling down”, then brings the house lights up to the level during which they show the previews (oh and don’t get me started on the fact we sat through 30 minutes of previews).

I think what made me mad more than anything was the attitude of the manager, like I had made some crazy unreasonable request. Makes me wonder what has happened to customer service? I also wonder under what contractual obligation the theater might be to show everything, including the credits?

I intend to write a letter to Cinemark’s corporate office, which happens to be located here in the DFW area. I doubt it will make a difference, but it will certainly make me feel better.