isn't quite the end of all things in terms theatrical moviegoing.

That's right, those heartless fiends refused to let parents and adults play alongside the kids. gets an automatic fail-the play structures are strictly off-limits to adults. The other lie in that statement is a bit more problematic. That's partially why I was so delinquent in checking these out, as they opened during the debut weekend of Beauty and the Beast, a movie I had already seen and didn't much care for. First, the auditoriums will only show kid-friendly movies. Actually, that statement is wrong for two reasons. So you folks with dreams of hopping around a jungle gym while catching Manchester By the Sea or Moonlight will have to merely imagine (although doing so during The Lost City of Z wouldn't be entirely inappropriate). When the credits come up, the lights come on, and you get thrown out accordingly. After the intermission, everyone gets back into their seats, and the rest of the movie unfolds. Then, at around the halfway point, the film stops for a 15-minute intermission, during which the kids can play again or do whatever they would do during an intermission. The lights are off, no one is playing, and theater staff pops in here and there to make sure kids aren't sneaking around in the dark.

The way it works is pretty simple: You get 20 minutes of play time before the previews begin, and then everyone gets into their seat and watches the trailers and the feature presentation. There is a movie theater chain putting playgrounds in their auditoriums but you can't actually play on those playgrounds during the film. And, without entirely coming to their defense and countering every criticism raised thus far, there is an important distinction that got missed in the initial hubbub. I drove my two older kids (almost six and nearly 10) to a Saturday afternoon showing of DreamWorks Animation's The Boss Baby to see what all the fuss was all about. Yes, I did check out one of these theaters last weekend, specifically the Cinépolis Pico Rivera.

Boss baby movie times