But at Portland International Airport (PDX), there’s now a new way to kill the time: movie theater right inside the terminal.

They kinda asked and answered their own question there. As anyone who's played Rollercoaster Tycoon will know, once you've got captive consumers, there's nothing else to do but shake them down. Welcome to the land of $5 bottled water with scarce and inconveniently-located water dispensers. It's 2026 and it's easier to buy a bottle of water for orders of magnitude greater than its base cost than it is to refill a water bottle.

I’ve never considered going to a movie theatre to be a spontaneous boredom cure but maybe I’m doing it wrong.

You have to check showtimes and decide what you want to see.

I’ve never been like “I have two hours to kill and luckily there is a movie staring right now and ending when I need to leave”

Hell yes, $70 per seat lets goooooo

You think snack prices are high at a regular theatre, wait until you see what they charge at an airport movie theatre.

How badly do you want to watch the end of one movie and the start of another? That's what you'd get most of the time.

Reminds me of some dumb airline I used once. They started all the movies at once. And played them continuously. So you gotta start watching one right away. And once it's over too bad all the rest are at some point in the middle.

Cause you have one in your pocket.

Surprised no one is getting the obvious piece here... Airports are severely space limited. Movie theaters are massive.

This is a real thing at Changi airport in Singapore.

I wonder how many people would get sucked into a movie and miss their flight

Well most of us find the nearest bar and buy over priced drinks and food while staring at our phones

Media server. Tablet. Headphones.

Tada. You have a movie theater wherever you happen to be.

Idk i'd rather play with my imaginary Steam Deck than watch a movie.

Or, you know, put the hotel IN the airport. Like duh, it's really not that hard.

I never spend my layover in the airport unless it’s only like an hour or two. Usually I’ll just leave the airport and walk around. Last time I had an 8hr layover and I just walked to the nearest bar.