17-year-old Pete Riley works as the assistant manager at the local 26-screen grand megaplex, a job that he loves and spends the majority of his time at. Rumor has it that the megaplex is haunted by a "phantom", someone who was trapped inside the old movie theater that was demolished to build the current megaplex. Pete, senior manager Shawn MacGibbon, the other employees, and an elderly member of the family who once owned the original theater known as "Movie Mason" (played by Mickey Rooney) who loves movies and thinks he works at the megaplex, are working to prepare the theater for the star-studded premiere of the new Hollywood blockbuster ''Midnight Mayhem''. Wolfgang Nedermayer, the owner of the megaplex, is to be among the guests. To Pete's disappointment, he is forced to bring along his younger siblings, 13-year-old Karen and 12-year-old Bryan, to the theater while their widowed mother goes out on a date with her boyfriend George.