En la taquilla nos dijeron que aún quedaban dos butacas buenas y que el estreno iba a empezar enseguida.

En la taquilla means at the ticket office / box office.

Spanish often uses en for location where something happened. So here, En la taquilla sets the scene: that is where they were told this information.

• taquilla = ticket office, box office
• en la taquilla = at the box office

In Spain, taquilla is very common for cinemas, theatres, concerts, etc.

Nos dijeron means they told us.

• dijeron = they said / they told
• nos = to us

The verb decir often uses an indirect object when it means to tell someone:

• me dijeron = they told me
• nos dijeron = they told us
• le dijeron = they told him/her

So nos is necessary because the sentence is not just they said, but they told us.

This is a very common and important contrast in Spanish.

• dijeron is preterite because it refers to a completed action: they told us
• quedaban and iba are imperfect because they describe the situation at that moment

So the sentence works like this:

• nos dijeron = one finished event
• aún quedaban dos butacas buenas = the background situation; two good seats were still available
• el estreno iba a empezar enseguida = something was about to happen

This is very natural in Spanish: a completed event introduces information about an ongoing state or a near-future situation in the past.

Quedaban here means there were still / there remained.

The imperfect is used because the speaker is describing availability at that moment, not a sudden completed event.

Compare:

• Aún quedaban dos butacas buenas = there were still two good seats left
• Quedaron dos butacas = two seats remained / were left over as a finished result

In this sentence, the idea is descriptive: when they spoke to us, that was the situation.

Here aún means still.

So:

• aún quedaban dos butacas buenas = there were still two good seats left

In many contexts, aún and todavía mean the same thing:

• Aún quedaban dos butacas
• Todavía quedaban dos butacas

Both are correct. Aún can sound a little more literary or formal in some contexts, but it is very common.

Important: when aun has no accent, it can mean something more like even or including in certain expressions. Here it has an accent: aún = still / yet.

Butacas are seats, especially comfortable seated places in a theatre or cinema.

In Spain, butaca is very natural for a numbered spectator seat in a theatre, cinema, or auditorium.

• asiento = seat in a general sense
• butaca = an individual theatre/cinema-style seat, often more specific

So dos butacas buenas sounds very appropriate in a ticket-office context.

In Spanish, most descriptive adjectives normally come after the noun.

So:

• butacas buenas = good seats

This is the neutral, standard order.

If you move the adjective before the noun, it can sometimes sound more subjective, literary, or emphatic. But here the normal order is best, because the speaker is simply describing the seats as good ones.

The repeated que is normal and often preferred in Spanish.

The structure is:

• nos dijeron que... y que...

This clearly introduces two separate things they told us:

1. that there were still two good seats left
2. that the premiere was about to start right away

Spanish often repeats que in coordinated reported clauses. English sometimes omits the second that, but Spanish commonly keeps it for clarity and rhythm.

El estreno means the premiere or opening performance/showing.

It can refer to:

• the first performance of a play
• the first showing of a film
• the opening night/event of something new

In this sentence, it suggests that the event they wanted to see was the premiere, and it was about to begin.

Iba a empezar means was going to start / was about to start.

This is the past version of the very common future construction:

• va a empezar = is going to start
• iba a empezar = was going to start

It emphasizes that, at that moment in the past, the start was imminent.

Compare:

• iba a empezar = it was about to start
• empezaba = it was starting / used to start / started (depending on context)
• empezó = it started

Here iba a empezar fits very well with enseguida, because together they mean something like was about to start very soon / any moment now.

Enseguida usually means right away, very soon, or in a moment.

In this sentence, it means the premiere was going to begin very soon.

In Spain, enseguida is extremely common in everyday speech. Depending on context, it can mean:

• immediately
• in just a moment
• very soon

Here it gives urgency: they needed to decide quickly because the event was about to start.

Grammatically, they said to us is possible, but they told us is usually the more natural translation here.

That is because Spanish decir + indirect object often corresponds to English tell someone:

• Nos dijeron que... = They told us that...

English say to someone is possible, but less natural in many everyday cases.

Because this is one sentence with two coordinated subordinate clauses after nos dijeron:

• que aún quedaban dos butacas buenas
• y que el estreno iba a empezar enseguida

Spanish does not normally need a comma before y in a simple structure like this.

A comma might appear only for special stylistic reasons, but the standard version is without one.

Yes, a few things feel very natural in Spain:

• taquilla for box office / ticket office
• butacas for theatre/cinema seats
• enseguida as a very common everyday word for very soon / right away

None of these are exclusively Spanish-from-Spain words, but together they strongly fit a Spain context, especially for theatre or cinema language.