I am not a big fan of Nollywood movies, but with the recent buzz around the Wedding Party and Sola Sobowales stellar performance, I decided to get some friends and watch the movie at Kada Cinemas, the foremost cinema in Benin city.
The first sight that greeted my eyes was the mammoth crowd milling around the ticketing area to purchase tickets to watch a movie. It was a scene reminiscent of Dugbe market Ibadan where i spent some years, and somehow, I grappled my way through and managed to get tickets for myself and my friends to watch the movie. I came out with my phone intact too.
When it got to 1:30 when the movie was supposed to start, I casually made my way to cinema 4, where it was to be shown. My first mistake. I should have gone there at least an hour before, because it seemed the entire residents of the town came out to watch the wedding party.
My friend at this point refused to get in, leaving me and my other friend, a sharp babe to claw our way through. Eventually, we made it into the theater, which was already overflowing with people. we however managed to secure two seats at the very first row, you know, that one where you have to look up and down the screen repeatedly to follow any action.
I thought I was unfortunate, until i saw the weirdest thing ever. one of the attendants who was manning the doors went to an ante room and emerged moments later with a stack of plastic chairs, which he neatly arranged in the space between the first seats and the screen.
At this point, most of us were in shock, and I couldn't help but wonder how the guys sitting on those seats would be able to make any sense of what was going on in the movie, seeing how close they were to the screen.
Eventually, they let more and more people in, until every available space was filled with plastic chairs.
At least I got a seat I thought to myself.
The movie began, and Toyin Tomatoes somehow made everyone forget the inconvenience of the theater.
I got to find out after the movie that it was a usual practice for the management of the cinema as they always purposely sold above their capacity, subjecting their customers to endless discomfort.

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I'm waiting to get a site I can download the movie for free

*****

But on a more serious note, why didn't they show the movie in two theatres at the same time to reduce the crowd? Or several times a day so every one will not have to go in at the same time?

Benin I hail thee

thesicilian:
I'm waiting to get a site I can download the movie for free

*****

But on a more serious note, why didn't they show the movie in two theatres at the same time to reduce the crowd? Or several times a day so every one will not have to go in at the same time?

I'm sure they were just trying to maximise profit, because each of the theatres seemed equally full, judging by the throng of people I saw struggling to get into each of them.