Thu. Apr 25th, 2024


It’s a pretty universal rule of movie theaters: No outside food or drink. But c’mon. Let’s be honest with each other. We’ve all done it. Sometimes you don’t have time to eat dinner before a movie, or you’re not in the mood for a plastic tray of flimsy nachos and liquid cheese, or you don’t feel like paying $14 for a bag of Starburst. It happens to the best of us.

But there is sneaking food into a movie theater and then there is sneaking food into a movie theater. Nobody cares if you quietly chow a granola bar. But an entire meal of hot, smelly food? That can be quite pungent. And distracting.

Out of curiosity, I asked my followers on Twitter this question:

The responses I got amused me in some cases, and shocked me in others, to the point that I decided they must be recorded and preserved for posterity. Some of the respondents were innocent bystanders. A few were theater staffers who have endured unspeakable horrors. In others, the writers themselves were the guilty parties. Below I have collected the most horrifying, the most bizarre, and the most hilarious examples. But a word of warning: You may not want to read them on a full stomach…

Movie Theater Horror Stories Involving Smelly Food

You’re not supposed to sneak food into the movie theater, but sometimes satisfying your hunger is more important than following the rules. Here are some real-life theater food horror stories from social media. (The names have been removed to protect the guilty.)



By Dave Jenks

Dave Jenks is an American novelist and Veteran of the United States Marine Corps. Between those careers, he’s worked as a deckhand, commercial fisherman, divemaster, taxi driver, construction manager, and over the road truck driver, among many other things. He now lives on a sea island, in the South Carolina Lowcountry, with his wife and youngest daughter. They also have three grown children, five grand children, three dogs and a whole flock of parakeets. Stinnett grew up in Melbourne, Florida and has also lived in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and Cozumel, Mexico. His next dream is to one day visit and dive Cuba.