My friend and I wen to the movies to see the movie Cloud Atlas. We were both 13. I was turning 14 in 5 months. I lied and said 14 and he said have any I.D. I was like is he joking. Who brings I.D. to the movie theater especially kids. So he just said no and we had non refundable tickets.
I went to my mom who was working and talked to her and when she got off she went over and asked for a ticket for her so we could go in. It had to be the next show 3 hours later so we had 3 hours to do nothing really.
On the website it says if you do not look that age we will ask for I.D. I thought to myself wow. How can you tell if someone is 12, 13, 14, 15 I mean they have a list at the front. I complained and am asking for some sort of reimbursement.
I assume the OP is from Canada or the UK maybe? Because what the heck is a ***14A movie?! ***Would the MPAA equivalent be PG-13? Cause here in the US that’s only a suggested guideline, you don’t legally have to be 13 & up to see it. Only R and NC-17 are truly restricted (to 18 & up)…
And R isn’t really truly restricted, either: It’s recommended that theaters set a policy of no minors for those, but if a theater chooses otherwise, there are no penalties (though of course an employee might face penalties from the theater).
But if the theater wants to continue to show MPAA rated movies, then they agree to enforce the ratings. Not the power of law, just the power of money. Which is sometimes a stronger force…
Cinemamad, I’m not sure what you’re looking for. Are you upset the ticket wasn’t refundable? I’d be pretty upset about that too, but most movie tickets aren’t refundable. Sometimes, if you’re polite and nice and smile a lot, the manager will exchange them for you. But if you’ve gotten angry or whiny already, that’s probably not going to happen. The manager doesn’t HAVE to switch them, but he CAN switch them. Whether or not he does usually depends on how nicely you ask.
If you’re mad because they wouldn’t break the rules because A) you lied and B) you copped an attitude, well, then…sucks to be you, dude. Really, I have no sympathy. “Who has an ID?” is not an answer you give someone when you want them to do you a favor. Besides, lots of kids have school ID’s, at least. If your school ID said “Central High School” instead of “McKinley Elementary”, they might have inferred that you’re probably at least 14.
And any person of any age can get a state ID (in my state, anyhow - not sure about Canada). My 7 year old has one, simply because her dad and I are divorced, and it makes traveling with her easier for him. Plus, of course, she just thinks it’s cool.
Anyone of any age can get a passport, at least. Maybe it’s time to look into how to do that. You’re getting older. IDs are important.
But I think what you’re missing here is that an ID wouldn’t have helped you because…YOU LIED. That’s not okay, and I’m glad they didn’t enable your lie.
Only tangentially related: A few years back I went to a movie (I’m now nearly 51) and they were asking everyone for ID. It wasn’t even an R movie. I couldn’t figure out why.
Took some digging, but I finally (months later) found out why. That movie house had one theater that served alcohol (a not-so-normal thing in PA). The movie I was seeing was in that theater, so everyone was asked for an ID.
I can’t believe they don’t have a refund policy. In Canada, at Cineplex cinemas, you have until 30 minutes into the show to get a refund. If you ask nicely, they will generally let you know about that sort of thing. Strange.
I have never been asked for ID to see a movie, but a few years ago I saw them checking tickets at the auditorium doors. It was the first night of the remake of Friday the 13th and they were making sure kids weren’t buying tickets to something else and slipping in to see this one. Not that I had ever done that in my younger days, but it’s way easier to get away with that tomfoolery on a Sunday matinee than on an opening Friday night. I imagine.
But what if the OP is on a fixed income, and $4 to get an ID would be an insurmountable financial hardship? What if the OP lives in east Bumblefuck and the closest MVD is in outer west Bumblefuck, requiring hundreds of miles of travel and 4 or 5 days of transfers on the Bumblefuck Transit Authority bus lines? What if the OP was born in a barn in the hills and never had a birth certificate? What if the OP lives in a shack without water, gas, or electricity and thus can’t prove residency to the MVD? I’m 100% certain the theater is racist. If they can’t prove rampant cinema ID fraud (not just auditorium stuffing and NO wikipedia cites) they are. How can you really ask someone to just have identification?
I’ve never heard of a movie theater carding 13 year olds for a 14 & older movie. Still, you never know. Maybe the ticket person already got in trouble for not carding. Or, maybe someone’s parent found out the theater let their kid in, and threatened to sue them or something stupid like that.
It’s a reference to voter ID laws. The difference, of course, being that voting is an important and Constitutionally-guaranteed privilege, and seeing movies is not.
Actually I was just talking about ID, but you raise a good point.
If you can walk into a polling place and elect the leader of the free world without any ID, who the hell do these jokers think they are demanding ID to do something so frivolous and unimportant as seeing a movie?
“Those jokers” are the people who own and operate the theater, and they can do anything they damn well please when it comes to setting age restrictions.