CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM The Monday Morning Mommy Movie at Consolidated Mililani Theaters welcomes moms and babies each week. Laura Mountcastle enjoyed "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" with daughter, Anne, at her side.

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M is for ...
mommy & movie

A Mililani theater offers mothers
and babes their own special hour

THE lady outside the box-office window wanted to see "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" at 11 a.m. on a Monday morning, but her man looked dubious. She gave him that don't-you-mess-with-MY-needs look that women have perfected over the millennia, and he sheepishly asked for the tickets.

Monday morning mommy movies Babies and strollers welcome On screen: 11 a.m. Mondays Place: Consolidated Mililani 14, Town Center of Mililani Tomorrow's show: "The Brothers Grimm" Tickets: $6 Online info: consolidatedcinemas.com lists upcoming Mommy Movies weekly

"I have to tell you, sir," said the teller, "that this morning 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin' is our Monday Morning Mommy Movie."

"Mommy movie?" barked the lady.

It's a special showing once a week, explained the teller. Mothers with infants are welcome. The babies can cry all they want, room is made for strollers, a changing table is set up right in the theater and the lights never go down completely, just in case a bottle of formula goes roll-about.

"Babies! Babies welcome in a movie?"

Otherwise these mommies wouldn't get to go the movies ...

"I ain't seeing no movie with no babies! Movies and mommies don't mix! What else is on?"

They settled on "Red Eye" -- to the evident relief of her man -- and huffed off.

And a good thing, too. If you thought Ben-Hur's chariot race was a case of irresistible momentum, sweeping everything out of the way, well, try a herd of mommies with strollers and snoozing infants on their way into a theater to see an R-rated movie.

As Thomas Paine said, lead, follow or get out of the way. We rounded the turn and side-wheeled it into the Consolidated Mililani theater, where manager Roy Bumgarner was explaining what the deal was to those in the audience who were infantless.

The theater has been experimenting for several months with the Monday Morning Mommy Movie (hereafter called MMMM). Welcome are mothers with squalling or restive infants, the one-time pariahs of the movie-watching experience -- right up there with cell-phone chatters, spastic foot tappers, crazy people who talk back to the screen and anyone who thinks they're still in their own living rooms.

In an age when movie theaters are competing with DVDs and renting themselves out as places of worship, the experiment seems to be a success. It was invented in four theaters in California and given a test drive here by Consolidated.

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Bree Fukuda treats herself to a movie at Consolidated Mililani theaters. With her is son Noah.

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On the morning we're there, Bumgarner checks receipts and says 27 tickets were sold for this showing, approximately half to mommies. "Pretty typical," he says, "and pretty good for a Monday morning. Sometimes we've sold as many as 60 seats to mommies."

The feature starts right away, with no ads or trailers. "Mommies are time-conscious," said Bumgarner. "They want to get right to it. And they want to know if the changing table has been cleaned and sanitized." (It has.)

The movie? It actually proceeds without much squalling from the littlest audience members, perhaps because it's all dialogue and cheerful music, with no flashing lights or thundering sound effects. When a baby cries, there's the usual over-shoulder walk-around, but not a stink-eye in the house directed at the hapless mommy.

Which might be why they're all smiling as they wheel strollers out, jockeying like NASCAR drivers in the stretch. And let's not even mention the irony of showing "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" to a group of ladies who, a few months ago, were giving birth.

"No virgins in THIS audience!" chuckled Melissa Brown, there with infant Emma. They've got the strollers in a semicircle, as if preparing for an Indian attack.

According to Brown, the mommies aren't just seeing a movie; they're getting to know other mommies. "I'm here pretty much every week. It depends on the movie ..."

"... but it's also good just to get out of the house," said Peg Logel, there with baby Charlotte.

"It's so great not to worry or be embarrassed when the baby cries," said Shelly Doherty, with baby Samantha, who was totally sacked out and not making a peep. "It's a fun thing for the girls to do together."

"Otherwise we'd never see a movie except by accident," said Jenny Hendrick, with baby Keaton.

"The movie guys are prepared, and they make it easy for us," said Logel.

"We can roll our strollers right into the handicapped area," said another. "Oops, I didn't mean handicapped. But we have these things with wheels ... like handicapped."

"It's a good thing, and if it's promoted, it should do well. There are a lot of mommies out there," said Doherty.

"I've been coming every Monday for eight weeks now," exclaimed Laura Gaskins, with baby Kyla. "I just love it. We have to return to the mainland soon, and I'm going to suggest it to the theater owners there."

She turned to Bumgarner, who was beaming. "Thank you so much for remembering us mommies!"