Three Old Ladies at the Movies

In Brazil, it seems, rules are meant to be either bent or broken. Case in point: the other day I went to the movies at the gorgeous Casa de Cultura Laura Alvim (a combination of cinemas, cafe, and exhibition space in what seems to be the last mansion standing on Ipanema Beach). At the box office I found out that the seats were numbered. I didn't like the idea very much, this was just a film after all, but since I was already there and I was able to find a decent seat at the back, I went in. In the row in front of me there were three old ladies who had moved from their assigned seats much closer to the screen. In a few minutes, three more people arrived and sat down in that row, one of them also taking a seat that was NOT her own. Then, a young man came in and claimed that particular seat. They begged him to take another seat just behind (my row), because they were friends and wanted to sit together, and he finally agreed to do that. Of course, a little later a couple arrived who had the seat he had just sat in. They got upset and called the manager, who became a bit angry with the young man who, for some reason, wasn't saying much in his own defense. At this point, the woman next to me and I decided to get involved and started to yell: "It's not really his fault, someone in front took his seat and asked him to move."

To make a long story a little shorter: The three friends got separated and the fellow went quietly back to his own seat. But wait, there's more: When the movie was about to begin, another couple came in and obviously they had purchased two of the seats that the three old ladies had appropriated. So, two of them had to go back to the front of the theater, leaving the third one, looking (and sounding) very smug and proud of herself, in the seat in front of me. Every woman for herself and loyalty be damned!

I ask you: Why number the seats after all? Beats me!