Where Did Everyone Come From?

Yesterday I took my kids to the free movie at Regal Theaters. We did this frequently last summer and never had a problem. The theater was always about half full. We always got a seat even the time we were late and the movie had already started. Yesterday was different.

We arrived 10 minutes early. The parking lot was packed. I don't think I ever had to park that far away from the theater. After our 10 minute hike to the ticket counter I heard someone say that the G rated movie, "Horton Hears a Who" is pretty full. So I drag rush the kids into the theater. We walked all the way the seats and couldn't find 3 seats together anywhere, even if I asked someone to move over, it would only be 2 seats together. I didn't want to disappoint my kids. I had already told them that I was going to take them to the movies (and even if I hadn't already told them, the theater kinda gave it away). So I made a quick decision to watch the PG rated movie in the next theater (they always have one G and one PG movie). I have not let my kids watch PG rated movies in the past (except for Madagascar when we were on the plane). But I had been thinking for a while that it might be ok. I mean lots of their friends were watching PG rated movies. And since all of the other kids were doing it, that makes it ok, right? Ahem... Anyway... I had never heard of Inkheart. If you ever want to give your kids nightmares, then I highly recommend it. It didn't have any bad language and no one died, but it was scary! Even I was a little scared at times. So next time I'll have to make sure we get there more than 10 minutes early so we can watch the nice cozy G rated movie.

I started to wonder. Where did all of these people come from? I'm sure they weren't there last summer? Does it have to do with the economy? Are more people looking for free ways to entertain the kids this summer? I don't know about anyone else, but even when I do have a few extra dollars to spend, if someone is offering me a free movie or saying that I could wait and spend about $40 to go see a movie later that day, I'll probably still go see the free movie. People wouldn't really wait until money gets tight to save money, would they? Or do you think that my earlier blog post about the free movies got everyone's attention? Someone my single blog post spread the news faster than Regal Cinemas has for the last 18 years. It's really a toss-up.