I lived with a waitress that worked at IHOP. Before that I was pretty solid in tipping around 15%. After living with her and hearing all the shit she went through I now tip 50% if I am at a place like Dennys or IHOP. The job is cruel.
I thought cleaning theaters was bad. I would say only about 20% of people in theaters actually clean up after themselves. I don’t think most people realize in a theater there is a team of people that are tasked with cleaning it between each showing.
Our biggest theater was 580 seats. If it was full we would roll in with 6 55 Gallon garbage cans and two leaf blowers. About four cans were filled with popcorn tubs and soda cups and candy boxes. Then we would use leaf blowers and run down each row blowing the random stuff to the front. That was usually two buckets.
And then we have idiots that left their “chew cup” on the floor and you would accidentally kick it over and you could feel the warm spit saturate your sock. If you wear a cowboy hat consider leaving it in your truck before entering a theater. It is very likely something bad will happen to your drink/popcorn.
But we made more from the stuff that falls out of your pocket while watching a movie then we got in hourly wages. My roommate worked there too. I would hear a coin getting blown around from the leaf blower and I would go to chase it and he would scream “that is just pennies” and he would also scream out “silver”. It was pretty common to find bills and wallets/purses.