Like all the preteen girls, Daughter wanted to see High School Musical on opening night. I agreed to take her, provided she finish her chores. She did, so we went. The theater in Town is seldom very busy. We get there a few minutes before the show, find a parking place up close, grab tickets, snacks and go in and find great seats.
Not last night. They had it scheduled to show in the biggest of their 5 theaters. Generally, all their movies start at the same time, which makes it nice for parents who want the kids to go to one movie while they go to something else. Daughter and Boyfriend went to see Batman while I went to see Mama Mia several months ago. Last night, I had decided I go to see HSM, though I had agreed I'd letter Daughter sit with the friends she was meeting while I sat elsewhere.
We got there and the parking lot was full. There was a line into the parking lot. People were parking on the grass over by the old drive-in theater next door (the screen was destroyed by a tornado several years back, and hasn't been rebuilt. They'd cancelled the 7:00 showing of Sex Drive so they could show HSM in two theaters. Saw V was also opening, so there were lots of teenage boys in addition to the preteen girls. The boy in front of me was too young to see an R rated movie, so the theater owner was calling the boy's father about whether he could go in and see it.
We got tickets, but I refused to wait in lines for snacks. I sent Daughter to the drinking fountain to get water to take her pills. We were in the add on theater, so while there were lots of people, it wasn't sold-out. Daughter found her friends and I found my seat.
The movie? It was okay. The musical productions rivaled things we hadn't seen since the old Fred Astaire movies. The movie was late starting, so it was late getting out. When we exited a little after 9:00, the lobby was packed with people waiting to get into the 9:00 showing of their movies. I suspect it's been a long time since Town saw an opening night quite like that.
One advantage of it opening in the theater was that Daughter could only see it once this weekend. When HSM2 came out, I think she watched it 4-5 times that first weekend. I'm sure that once it appears on the Disney channel she'll watch this one all the time, too.
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