While oth­er mem­bers of the Wel­ling­tonista debate trivi­al issues such as road­ing, the non car-own­ing amongst us think it’s time to address the more import­ant things in life, such as the Para­mount renov­a­tions. This isn’t a post to talk about the two new theatres (one with couches), or the glor­i­ous big bal­coney, oh no. It’s not about the wider selec­tion of movies that they can now offer either. It’s about pop­corn – or rather, the lack of it.

The Para­mount always used to sell pop­corn, in very classy brown paper bags at a cost of $2 for a small and $4 for a large. They’d been doing it like that for as long as I can remem­ber (read: since 1996), and it was fant­ast­ic. In a world where mul­ti­plexes make most of their profit at the Candy Bar, and price their pop­corn accord­ingly, the Para­mount was an oas­is of bohemi­an soph­ist­ic­a­tion.

But not now. On Tues­day night, the night where all the oth­er movie theatres in town offer reduced tick­et prices, hav­ing indulged in a glass or two of bub­bly along with the Mel­bourne Cup, we went to the Para­mount to see Mys­ter­i­ous Skin, and thought that some tasty salted snacks would go down a treat with the onscreen pae­do­phil­ia and ex child- stars. We were informed by the counter staff that they wer­en’t serving pop­corn any­more. Huh? How can it be going to the movies if there is no pop­corn? How will people at the 24 Hour Movie Mara­thon sur­vive?

If any­one with any explan­a­tion for this trav­esty, please let the Wel­ling­tonista know. We’re hop­ing it was just a one day thing and that we were just too drunk to under­stand that. But in the mean­time, we’re still going to be recom­mend­ing that oth­ers go to The Empire in Island Bay and get their fab­ulous gelato instead .