Regal Cinemas, which operates several multiplexes in the Nashville area, reports growing sales of the “Movie Pal,” a device that allows moviegoers to urinate without leaving their seats. “We’ve sold them at our concession stands for about six months,” says Dick Westerling, senior vice president for marketing at Regal, “but they’ve really caught on lately with so many long movies.” Those marathon movies include Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and especially King Kong, which clocks in at more than three hours. “If you drink a Coke at the beginning of the movie, there’s no way you can hold out until the end,” says Jennifer Casey, who purchased a Movie Pal along with a medium popcorn and a large Diet Coke at a recent Kong matinee at Hollywood 27. “If I pay to see the movie, I don’t want to miss part of it in the bathroom.” Movie Pals are manufactured by Nashville’s Urine Corp. of America, and come in male and female designs for both adults and children. The device consists of a tube with a collection bag at the bottom and a small funnel-like opening at the top. Each one also comes with a moist towelette for hygiene. “They can be used very discreetly in the dark of the theater, and then simply disposed of at the end of the movie along with popcorn boxes and drink cups,” explains Ned Breaux, president of UCA. “Even our ushers like the Movie Pal,” Regal’s Westerling says. “Believe me, it’s a lot better for our customers to use these than to try to make it to the final credits and fail. That’s the kind of cleanup that ushers really hate.” Not everyone is convinced about the necessity of the Movie Pal, which costs $7.50 for a one-time-use device. “They want to charge me money so I can pee in the theater?” fumed one moviegoer at Green Hills Cinema last week. “That way they don’t have to clean the bathrooms as much, don’t have to stock as much soap and paper towels, and don’t have to program an intermission into the movie. This seems like convenience for them that pretends to be convenience for me.” (The Fabricator is satire. Don’t believe everything you read.)
