Never heard of this. I have one nearby. Definitely going to check it out.

Sounds impressive, but to me the gold standard still is a properly calibrated IMAX theater running native IMAX 70mm footage at 48 fps.

Yea true but there are soooo many LieMax theaters now people barely even remember what IMAX is supposed to be.

And jesus did my local theater suck complete ass when I went to see Rogue One , it was shameful. The screen was so dim it wasn't even funny.

So I saw Rogue One in the Dolby Cinema theater (new enough that some people said they still smelled paint). The screen was huge, the picture and screen were impressive, the rows were all separated so sightlines were unrestricted (until people stood up during the credits), and the seats were large and comfy. The weird thing was that they reclined but had no footrest, so my feet were dangling the whole time.

The true IMAX theater in town remains the best place to see a movie even if the seats aren't as comfortable.

If I recall, the Dolby Cinema I went to had separate buttons for the back and footrest so you could control them independently.

Which titles would this apply to?

Mostly science documentaries.

Mine had two buttons: Recline and Reset. There was also a light-up diagram that showed the chair reclining and the footrest rising, but pushing it didn't do anything.

You should have been able to push the arrows to work the back and footrest. At least this is what my theater looked like.

Luckily it was just the row I was in. I went a row back for Rogue One and had plenty of leg room. Weird design of the seating but now I know where to sit from now on.

Yeah, that's the display I had, but I couldn't get any response from pushing the arrows.

I've found that those lights are incredibly distracting during the movie, especially if nobody's sitting next to you. I had to put something over it just to watch the movie. I won't be returning to this particular theater again for other reasons, but if I did I'd bring some black tape and eventually put it over all of them!

For someone that claims to love theaters, that's fucked up you would put adhesive on buttons. Just bring a cloth to cover them.

So my closest AMC (5 minute drive) now has a Dolby Cinema screen! The place is otherwise kind of a dump (I've literally only gone to two movies there in the last 14 months because the Cinemark, Drafthouse, and Santikos are all infinitely better), but I'll be checking out Kong: Skull Island tomorrow morning.

I think this makes it the closest Dolby Cinema to E Unit, too (sorry man... still nothing in Austin?)

Fuck it, sounds like I'll be going to Houston soon to see what it's like - unless you say it sucked. And of course this week(end) is SXSW with a good chunk of Hollywood here (including Ridley Scott), yet still no fucking Dolby screens anywhere to show off any premieres.

So yeah... Dolby Cinema is pretty sweet. Previously, the two closest Dolby Cinema screens were over 30 minutes away, so I never bothered checking them out. Considering it's 5 minutes from my house now (in Katy Mills Mall), I'll probably go there for any of the big blockbusters that end up on that screen. The recliners aren't as comfortable as Cinemark, but they're cool. The leg rest doesn't come up as much as I prefer... a minor thing.

Anyway, more importantly, the sound/picture quality is among the best I've seen. There's definitely an improvement in black levels, for example. They showed a cheesy promo before the film, displaying the benefits of Dolby Cinema. A guy in the theatre laughed at the "Yes, the projector is still on" bit. It ain't perfect, but it's damn fine.
I've experienced Atmos sound before, but found it to be so much better this time around. Could be the movie itself, of course.

My only real issue is the price. For a regular non-3D screening the all-in price is something like $17. It's not terrible for a single ticket, but on the high end in this area for sure. I went to a matinee, so it was just over $9 (minutes $5 movie cash I had). So I'll probably be going to this cinema for matinees only. I tend to go to a lot of movies throughout the year, so any way I can cut costs is worth considering. For special occasions, though, or infrequent moviegoers, the full price isn't bad at all I guess.

I had never heard of a Dolby Theater (or seen this thread) before, but noticed that one was added to a local theater that I rarely visit on the other side of town -- I was there to see Dunkirk in its only 70mm showing (the last time I was there was to see Hateful Eight in 70 mm and this theater wasn't there then). When I got out of the Wednesday matinee of Dunkirk, I figured I'd slip in to the theater and catch a few minutes of Valarian.
MY GOD, what a cool theater experience. Amazing seats, great projection, mind-blowing sound. The movie, not so hot. But still the experience is super-impressive. I saw that Atomic Blond opens there tomorrow and I'm thinking of going to see a showing there.

Yeah, Dolby Cinema is pretty great. I still don't love the seats (Cinemar's recliners are the best)... but everything else about it is top-notch. Worth every penny.
Actually... the only real downside is that it's in an AMC. I'm not a fan of that location... but I'll put that aside for the benefits of the Dolby Cinema room.

I just got back from seeing Star Wars at the Vernon Hills, IL Dolby Cinema. Literally the LAST time it is being shown there.

Back in the Spider-Man thread I believe I complained that the South Barrington, IL Dolby Cinema had some sort of "scan lines" from the projector. I also noticed these same lines at S. Barrington during The Last Jedi. Vernon Hills did not have these lines tonight. I wonder if S. Barrington just has a bad projector, or what?

One thing I didn't like about Vernon Hills is that the EXIT sign lights up the bottom corner of the screen. Can't remember if SB had that issue.

Overall I still love this movie-going experience!

I knew next to nothing about Dolby Cinema but opted to see "Avengers: Infinity War" (2D) in that auditorium at a local theatre. Wow! Did I make the right choice!!! It was easily one of the best ways to see this movie, if not THE best way.

After seeing it, I started finding out more about Dolby Cinema. I like the videos on it by this guy named Brian Tong



And he even watched "Avengers: Infinity War" in both IMAX With Laser and Dolby Cinema and still picked Dolby over IMAX despite IMAX getting exclusive showings of the movie's full uncropped aspect ratio.




I'm glad I checked Dolby Cinema out for this movie and now know it's the best way to see the other summer movies as they are released.

Yeah, the AMC by me has a Dolby Cinema theater and I've seen a few things in there including Tomb Raider, Ready Player One and Infinity War. I love the picture and sound, although I just find the recliners ok. A chain called Cinepolis by me has my favorite recliners, but I do like the seats in the Dolby Cinema better then Regal.

I've gone to theatres with reclining seats that I liked better, but having comfortable reclining seats + a crisp bright big screen + the best sound anywhere -> adds up to Dolby Cinema being the best overall theatre experience.

The reclining seat made the long running time of "Avengers: Infinity War" (close to 3 hours when factoring in all the previews) not a problem at all for seating comfort during the entire time I sat there.

Oh definitely, Dolby Cinema is basically my preferred theater of choice now.

I hate to give AMC my money (Of all the cinemas near me, they're the worst... except for the one and only Dolby Cinema screen they have), but I agree. I'll see any "big" movie I can there, even though I can't use MoviePass for it.

The recliners really are just ok. The ones at Cinemark are far superior.

edit: just realized that's almost exactly what I said back in July. I'm still right!

I can't seem to find any of these theaters near me. Bummer.