Bathroom Web site tells you when you can go without missing key parts of a film

Runpee.com was launched in August by Los Angeles-based freelance Flash developer Dan Florio. It touts itself as "helping your bladder enjoy going to the movies as much as you do" by telling moviegoers the best spots during films to go relieve themselves without missing any of the action.

Florio cites Peter Jackson's "King Kong" remake as his inspiration.

"It's a three-hour movie. By the end of it, I had to go to the bathroom really badly," Florio said. "When I got out of the theater, there was a huge queue of people in line for the next showing.

"I wanted to go up to them and say, 'Hey, there's this scene with a lot of bugs, and it's totally irrelevant, so when that happens, just go to the bathroom."

And his site was born.

"There are more than 2,000 sites now linking to my site," said Florio, 32, who lives with his wife, Jill, in an RV as he travels the country for different projects.

The site is a wiki, so registered users can submit their recommended break times for movies, which can be listed by most recent release date, alphabetically or by running time.

"Not all movies have pee times, because not all have had pee times submitted," said Florio.

"Right now, I am trying to go out and see all the summer blockbuster movies, because people will be seeing those and I want to keep the site useful."

As for that unusual name? It was the first thing that came to mind, says Florio, "the site is meant to tell you when to run and pee."

___

(c) 2009, Chicago Tribune.
Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.