Ever since quarantine began, I’ve been beginning to lose the memories of things I used to be able to do in the before-times. Parties, arcades, escape rooms, really just anything with friends. As the world begins to open back up again, I’ve been steering clear of any places that involve touching things, including arcades and escape rooms. But a few weeks ago, I woke up with an urge to go back to my favorite place to go during weekends: the movie theater.

Movie theaters have always been my escape from stress caused by school and other stuff, and I’ve been yearning for the opportunity to go back. Yes, they’ve been open for a couple of months and the streaming game is so good, you don’t need to go back to a movie theater for the rest of your life, but it didn’t matter to me. I called up my best friend and he reluctantly agreed to go with me.

We decided to see Wonder Woman 1984. It had been out on HBO Max for almost a month but there was literally nothing else playing that we could agree on. We also decided we weren’t going to purchase our tickets in advance, since nobody was going to see a movie that had been out for a month with awful reviews. When we got to the theater, it was like walking into a ghost town. Nobody was there except for the employees. Buying tickets was relatively the same, but buying snacks was a completely different story. For popcorn, instead of applying the butter and salt yourself, the employees do it for you, and when you go to pour your drink, there’s another employee to clean what you just touched.

Inside the theater, previews lasted much shorter than usual, probably because they don’t want people sitting in the seats for that long (or because the theaters are at half occupancy). You weren’t allowed to take your mask off unless you were eating food, which kind of defeats the purpose of safety if you ask me. Nevertheless, we were the only ones in the theater, so it didn’t bother us as much. 

Overall, I wouldn’t do it again until the world starts to resemble pre-COVID more. The best enjoyment I got out of it was making fun of a garbage movie with my best friend and taking the rare opportunity to be as loud and inappropriate in a theater, and honestly, maybe that’s what I’ve really been missing the whole time.