# Did your theater ask for ID to see Thor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 8, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165 "2011-05-08T17:05:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/1 "2011-05-08T17:05:49Z")
I didn’t want to high jack the Thor threads, although I’m not convinced this warranted its own thread either. I went out to see Thor today. They were checking peoples IDs. I ended up not seeing it because it was due to start, people were struggling with the idea of showing an ID and I was out of patience. I’m not sure why they needed an ID. Did anyone else run into this? Anyone know why? ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/2 "2011-05-08T17:11:27Z")
What were they checking on the IDs? Age? Thor is PG-13 so it seems an odd movie to be checking IDs for. The only ones I might question are small children who are there without an adult. And I don’t know many pre-teens that carry IDs. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/3 "2011-05-08T17:16:33Z")
I’ve only been carded at the movies once, and it was for a movie with sexually explicit content. (Shortbus.) I ended up not having to show my ID because when the ticket taker realized I was with a guy friend who looked his age, she was all, “Oh, it’s fine, you’re with him.” So in effect he was my parent or guardian. (I was about 22 and he was 23, but I’ve always looked young.) That story has always amused the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/4 "2011-05-08T17:35:03Z")
I’d pay an extra $1 for my ticket to a movie if they’d check that everyone’s cell phones are turned off as they enter. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/5 "2011-05-08T18:31:19Z")
> [@fubbleskag](#): > > I’d pay an extra $1 for my ticket to a movie if they’d check that everyone’s cell phones are turned off as they enter. Yeah, I could get behind that. I guess didn’t mind them checking, I would have shown mine. I just didn’t have the patience to wait for 20 more people to not have their ID out and to question why it was needed. When I finally left, the guy in the front of the line was trying to get 3 tickets. Not all the people he was going in with were there. She explained she needed to see _all_ IDs. It was nearly an Abbot and Costello routine. After a lot of back and forth he finally said: Fine, I’ll have one ticket. She was confused, because there was a woman standing with him. The woman already had a ticket. It went back and forth some more and he said, just \*one \*ticket please. And she said, I need to see ID. And I said: Of for fuck’s sake. And I left. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/6 "2011-05-08T19:47:18Z")
Once upon a time I was the only eighteen year old in my group of friends, and we all wanted to see Starship Troopers. I tried to buy three tickets on my own an hour in advance, but they hit me with the three tickets = three IDs. I knew a guy who worked in a neighboring department store, so I found him and borrowed his. I got number three from a friend’s mom that lived nearby. It worked. There was nothing they could say. Years before that, a friend’s dad drooped us off to see Speed, but we were both carded and too young. His dad had already driven off. I quickly scanned the lobby and saw a lone middle-aged guy just outside the glass smoking out front on the sidewalk. I said, “c’mon, our dad just dropped us off, and he knows we want to see Speed.” My friend was half Korean with some African American in there too, and meanwhile I’m as Irish as Danny Boy, but magic happened and I caught the smoker’s eye, and I waved and gestured towards the box office worker as if to say, “See, Dad. I knew it’d be a problem.” The smoker did what you do when caught off guard by a strange wave, he waived back. We got in. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/7 "2011-05-08T20:01:26Z")
I was about 14 when I saw _Under Siege_, accompianied only by a cousin a year older than I (and neither of us really looked like we could be 18). The theater didn’t give a damn. Carding for a PG13, I really can’t understand at all. The rating doesn’t even mean “under 13 not allowed” to begin with: It’s really just a recommendation. And very few under 13s are going to be going to a movie without an adult, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/8 "2011-05-08T20:55:13Z")
That is bizarre. I think the only time I was ever carded at the movies was when I saw _Johnny Mnemonic_ when I was around 15. My friend’s dad ended up having to come to the ticket window with us to get the tickets. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/9 "2011-05-08T21:05:27Z")
I can’t imagine why, or indeed how, you’d card for a PG-13 movie. It was occasionally brought up by one of my more anal-retentive, idiotic co-workers, but denied on the grounds that A) PG-13 is a guideline, not a rule like R is, and B) What does a 14 year old use for ID? They don’t have driver’s licenses, and young teens having passports isn’t really common (in this neck of the woods, at least). ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/10 "2011-05-08T21:59:55Z")
I have never heard of being carded for a PG-13 movie. And, as far as I know, all you need to get into a rated R movie is to have an adult with you. In some places you don’t even need that–you can get a card saying your parents okayed it. Either this is some sort of mistake or a rather stupid owner. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/11 "2011-05-08T22:02:23Z")
> [@](#): > > And, as far as I know, all you need to get into a rated R movie is to have an adult with you. Yeah, it’s NC-17 that kids aren’t allowed at all. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/12 "2011-05-08T22:34:44Z")
How could they possibly check IDs for a PG-13 movie? Why would a 13 year old even have an ID, and anyway the PG-13 rating doesn’t mean ‘anyone under 13 not admitted without a parent’ like the R rating. I’ve never heard of such a thing before. Most big blockbuster movies are rated PG-13 specifically \*because \*all ages, and especially young teenagers, can get in to see them and hence spend more money. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/13 "2011-05-08T23:23:51Z")
The only thing I could thing of would be the theater doing a “no kids” show. But those usually happen at night. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/14 "2011-05-08T23:32:40Z")
Is the film playing to sold-out houses where you live? Could they be trying to thwart ticket scalpers from buying blocks and selling them outside? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/15 "2011-05-09T00:01:39Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Is the film playing to sold-out houses where you live? Could they be trying to thwart ticket scalpers from buying blocks and selling them outside? I wouldn’t have guessed so. The other odd thing was that they were asking where people wanted to sit: front, center or back. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/16 "2011-05-09T04:15:27Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I wouldn’t have guessed so. > > The other odd thing was that they were asking where people wanted to sit: front, center or back. Well, call the theatre and ask, or provide us with the name & location and one of us will find out why. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/17 "2011-05-09T05:17:58Z")
Thor was rated G at my local theatre, but pretty much everything is rated G in Quebec. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/18 "2011-05-09T17:23:59Z")
A thought: Was this theater maybe run by a Christian fundamentalist, who objected to a movie about a pagan god and wanted to suppress it? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/19 "2011-05-09T20:49:12Z")
The only time I can recall being “carded” at a movie was at a showing of the South Park movie. I was like 30 at the time, so it seemed kinda dumb. But in general, I could see why they would be concerned kids would go see it. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165/20 "2011-05-09T21:18:24Z")
The only other thing I can think of is that it could be a badly thought-out attempt to discourage would-be bootleggers, but I can’t figure out how that would work. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-theater-ask-for-id-to-see-thor/581165.md?page=2)