I went to the Stranger Things finale in theaters and the strangest thing happened
TL;DR
The author attended the Stranger Things finale at a nearly abandoned mall's AMC theater, noting the unexpected crowd as the first strange occurrence. The event highlighted the theater's popularity despite the mall's decline.
The parking lot was packed. That's the first Strange Thing.
A little background. Just about every mall is struggling now, but the Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem, Pennsylvania is more or less comatose. As Defector's Dan McQuade, a lifelong Pennsylvanian and mall fan, wrote in his fond remembrance of the shopping center, the once bustling complex is mostly a shuttered ghost town, with half of it set to be demolished. There are only two real reasons to go there: a well-stocked Barnes & Noble and the AMC movie theater.
And people do go there for the movie theater. It's one of only three theaters in the Philly area with an IMAX screen, making it a …