Sylva needs a real movie theater

So on Friday, September 8 I went to see the 4:10 showing of “Balls of Fury” at Quin Theaters in Sylva. As I left the theater, the only fury I had seen was my own, thanks to the theater’s ignorant rule that at least three people must show up for a movie to be shown. Now, I’ve had enough. I’ve been at WCU almost four years, and year-in and year-out I’ve put up with this second-rate theater and all the crap that goes along with it. This is the tipping point. Quin Theater is quite possibly the worst theater I’ve been to in my life, and I’ve been to at least ten. Many things factor into this proclamation, so I will explain each and every point so that maybe you, the reader, will also decide as I have to never go to this pathetic excuse of a theater ever again. First off, I have been numerous times to movie theaters and been the only person or one of maybe two people there, and the movie was always shown. I don’t know if Quin Theater feels like it is losing money by showing a movie with less than three people there, or if they are just too lazy to put the projector on and make sure it doesn’t mess up. I tend to believe it’s the latter, since the workers are already there and will probably be there for other movies showing around the same time. When I left Quin Theaters on Friday (with a refund), I saw a couple approaching the window and heard them ask for two for “Balls of Fury.” Now, did the girl working at the window tell them to holler at me and let me know they would be showing it after all or did she get up and walk around and yell at me…no! She just let me keep walking even though there would be the required three people now. Instead she just fed this couple a line of bull about how there would not be enough people to watch the movie even though I had been waiting and would have made enough people for the rule when combined with this couple. I guess Quin is just rolling in the money by turning down customers like that. Now to my second point, and that is about being too lazy to watch the projector and make sure it doesn’t mess up. I’ve never worked at a movie theater so I don’t know if somebody is supposed to be up there the whole time or not. It could quite possibly be that they are just supposed to set it up and leave it, but what I do know is that if I pay $5 to watch “Miami Vice” then I paid to watch the whole thing. I didn’t pay $5 to miss the whole beginning of the movie, which is exactly what happened when I watched it at Quin last year. Of course, I wouldn’t know about missing the beginning if I hadn’t happened to see the movie again on DVD. “Miami Vice” also skipped and messed up a couple of other times while I was watching it at Quin. Was there ever an explanation, excuse, or money back? No. I have seen numerous movies skip and mess up, but never have I seen a manager or anybody who works there come in and apologize or rewind the movie so we can see what we missed even though I have noticed people get up and go notify them. I don’t think many of the managers there like to confront people anyway, since I have went to many movies that had high school kids or other people talking loudly or laughing and the people never get kicked out. If these people are reported, then the managers just walk in and tell them to quiet down. I could turn around and do that about as effectively as they could. My next main point is that Quin never has any parking. There is never parking unless, of course, you go to a 4:10 showing on Friday, but apparently there is no movie at that time, either, so it doesn’t matter. I don’t know whose idea it was to build the parking like it is, but he or she is a moron. If you can find a space, by the time you get to the window, the line is wrapped around the building. Why, might you ask, is the line around the building? Well, one reason is because sometimes Quin likes to have only one person giving out tickets. Now they aren’t so stupid as to do this on Friday or Saturday nights, but I have been there at other times when it has happened and people are constantly late for the movies due to a slow ticket booth. I take that back. I believe I have been there once or twice on a weekend night when they only had one person working the ticket booth. My last point is that Quin never considers the college crowd. Let’s face it people, there would be no Sylva without Western Carolina. Without WCU there would not be a Wal-Mart or hardly anything else but cornfields or farmland in Sylva. Amazingly, though, many of the people and businesses of Sylva still do not want to cater to the Western students who have really made the town what it is by deciding to continue their educations in Cullowhee. Quin is one of these businesses that just does not get it. I don’t understand how a movie theater in a college town cannot carry the movie “Wedding Crashers” until three weeks after it comes out. Also, can you explain to me how a movie theater in a town filled with mostly college students can carry three cartoon movies on four screens? It is painfully obvious that Quin has no clue who they should be serving and what type of movies that college kids would like to see. The people and businesses of Sylva need to turn their eyes to the east and look at Boone. As much as it pains me to say this, Boone is a great town. Why is that? Because they accept that the college is a major part of the town. Boone gets numerous tourists and most people really enjoy visiting the area. The love between the college and the town is a big part of that. Maybe Sylva should consider this if they want more tourists and a better reputation. In the end, I would like to encourage all Western students to stop using Quin Theaters. Instead, make the extra 30-minute drive to Franklin and go to a real theater in Ruby Cinemas. While you’re there stop at Café Rel; it’s an amazing restaurant that connects to a gas station. Quin will never get another dollar of mine and I encourage others to join me in this action.