I thought I'd explain:
World wide opening of Matrix: Reloaded.
There was a session in the middle of the afternoon, which was to be the first, and for which a friend of mine would join me. All my other friends wanted to go to the next one.
Given that I already have the habit of seeing movies I like more than once, and that I was almost sure I would like that one, I decided I would see it twice that day (look, don't even ask).
So I went to buy the tickets along with a friend of mine.
In Portugal, in most cinemas, entrances are cheaper if you're a student, so I said: "I want two entrances for this session, one student, one regular, and X entrances for this other session, one student, the rest of it regulars."
I put down my student's card (kind of standard procedure) and the guy picked it up to look at it (that alone used to piss me off, because they usually don't look at the card to check if it's still valid or anything, but that guy always did; besided, he was always grumpy).
All of a sudden, he says: "Where's the other card?" To which I reply: "Both tickets are for me."
The guy puts his arms down and our discussion starts with him saying:
"Who are you trying to fool?"
"Serious, I'm watching the movie twice."
"Look, I know you're not seeing the movie twice. Nobody sees movies twice."
"I'm telling the truth, both entrances are for me."
"I know they're not."
"Look, what difference does it make? If I really was lying to you, I would buy two entrances now for the first session, get back in line and buy the rest of them."
I said that with the purpose of showing that, were I really trying to do what he thought I was, I'd be doing it in a different way, but I guess the words came out wrong. Also, this discussion took about a minute or two, with everybody standing in line paying close attention to what was happening.
The guy finally decided to give me the tickets.
As he was handing them to me, he smiled and said: "I know perfectly well you're not going to see the movie twice."
I picked them up, turned around, and finally noticed that everybody in the line (a bunch of people) was laughing at the situation.
I saw the movie as I intended (twice, of course (that day alone)), but I just couldn't put it aside.
I'm a nice guy, I don't have the habit of lying or making schems to save money, and the fact that someone thought I was doing that and that he had made a bunch of people think I was lying to save one euro and a half and laugh at me just couldn't reside in my mind without me doing anything about it.
So I did.
I went back there the day after and asked to speak to the manager. I was deadly serious. All I had in mind was to report the situation and leave.
The lady whom I talked to asked me what it was about. I put down a bunch of tickets from previous movies I had seen; tickets for the same movie, but for different sessions. I kept saying the movies names as I'd put them down.
When I put all of them down, I said: "All these tickets are mine. There's nothing wrong with me seeing a movie more than once, right? I am entitled to that right, isn't that so?
She said "Yes, of course." and than I explained what had happened.
She sighed, asked me to wait, went and came back with a guy (supposedly the manager), to whom I repeated my speech.
The guy made an expression that I interpreted as "Not that guy again..." and said "Please wait, I'll ask him to come here."
I said there was no need for that (though now I regret it), that all I wanted was for them to know what had happened and that I'd be on my way.
A couple of days later, the guy had been replaced. Never saw him again.
I would be simply laughing at the idea that he refused to believe that someone would see a movie more than once. (If you hadn't shown that it was the opening day of a popular movie, I'd be laughing that someone was actually paying for a second ticket to watch consecuetive showings of a movie. Noone objects if you stay and watch a second time, as long as it isn't sold out, and I've someimes come late into a movie, watched the from where I came in, and then stayed to watch the beginning chunk that I'd missed, and remain a bit longer to tie together the next scenes now that I had the context.)
